Drive for five is officially an uphill battle. USU falls 80-60

This sums things up pretty well about now...

Even though USU knows plenty about starting 1-2 in WAC play and still dominating the conference (see 2009-10 season), this is going to be a much tougher task.

For a while it was looking like Utah State was going to take this game down to the wire and possibly even escape with a comfortable victory. Leading 46-42 with 15 minutes to play, nothing ever looked out of control... Then NMSU went on a 28-6 run. Game over.

Basically New Mexico State went to their zone defense, keyed-in hard on not letting Preston Medlin get a good look, and basically laughed at USU from that point on. Danny Berger, Mitch Bruneel and Adam Thoseby combined to shoot just 1-12 from the field, including 0-6 from the 3-point line. That is very bad. And not due to any shortage of good looks either.



Down low, Utah State was already at a big disadvantage in size, so the last thing they needed was for a foul to be called every freaking time a NMSU player dribbled the ball in the paint. Not that it was the difference in the game, but to watch USU's bigs D-up on guys with their arms straight up and get whistled over and over was a little bit infuriating, and once all of USU's bigs were in serious foul trouble, the wheels came off shortly thereafter.

What this game really came down to was making shots though. Against a man-to-man defense, USU was holding their own and finding ways to score. Against the zone, they were helpless, and that doesn't happen if the 3-point shots are falling.

The difference in athleticism really showed through tonight too. Notice how Reed and Pane (the best athletes on the team) were the two leading scorers? That's probably not a mistake. In the past, Utah State had players who were so skilled, precise and well-coached they could basically outsmart whatever athletic advantage NMSU had. I'd liken it to something like complex military strategy going against a run-of-the-mill street gang who happened to have a few big, fancy weapons. That doesn't really work though with a lesser experienced USU team, and it showed through tonight.

Now it basically becomes essential to win out at home, and suffer probably no more than one loss on the road in the rest of the WAC schedule for a fifth WAC title to still be in the cards. Like I said before, we've seen 1-2 turn into a title before, but that was a totally different team, sans Preston Medlin, who barely played in WAC play that year.

It's this team's turn to carve out their own legacy.


NOTES

• Danny Berger's shooting slump is officially becoming a major issue. He still does some good things in rebounding the ball and racking up assists, but the team could really benefit from him hitting one of these wide open 3-pointers.
• Seeing Kyisean Reed have a good game against a very good opposing big man is massively encouraging. You could tell that Wendell McKines thought he was going to eat Reed's lunch from the get-go with that first drive and shot he took, which Reed promptly swatted the s*** out of. He also got the mid-range game going tonight, which makes him ridiculously dangerous if that were to become a consistent thing.
• Brockeith Pane is back. He's put together a handful of solid games in a row, including the last two where he's been putting up points when seemingly nobody else on the floor could for USU.