This team feels like the 2011 USU football team early in their season, only it's the later part of the year, and nobody is making big plays to win games.
The fact that USU outrebounded Fresno by 16, shot three percent better from the field and won the points in the paint, you'd think it'd be a layup for them to come out victorious... But they still found a way to lose.
I know that the grass has been pretty green in Logan over the last four years, and a down year was inevitable. But this is so much worse than this season should be... This team just has a defeatist attitude. Inexperience is a big part of it all, but Fresno State isn't exactly experienced either, and USU blew them out in Logan. Every time the Aggies got close to taking the lead Saturday, a bad shot or turnover was what immediately followed, allowing the Bulldogs to extend their lead yet again.
There's seemingly just no killer instinct. This team has managed to squander should-be road wins at Texas A&M-CC, Pacific, Mississippi State, Seattle, Idaho, Nevada and Fresno State. That's the difference between a 19-5 team and a 12-12 team. The Aggies have managed to let every one of those close games on the road slip away, and are 12-12. Even 15-9 would look pretty freaking good right now, but this team seems to always find a way to blow it.
Maybe I'm being tough on them, but I just have a tough time believing that Stew Morrill has done a poor job with the talent he has to work with. He's made winners out of every other team he's had, he's done it with less talent than he has now and he's won against tougher WAC years than this year's.
THE WAC TOURNAMENT
There's only one hope left for this season to be considered a success in any way, shape or form is to win the WAC Tournament and make the NCAA Tournament. As good as Nevada is, I think the team USU should want to avoid the most in the WAC Tournement is New Mexico State. They're big, physical and deep. In a perfect world, NMSU and Nevada would face each other in the second round of the tournament and wear each other out while USU could hopefully land a two or three seed, with NMSU being a No. 4 seed.
After tonight, that scenario doesn't look like it will happen, which makes the battle that much more uphill for USU.
Who knows though... If USU lands that four-seed and manages to beat Nevada in the second round, who knows what could happen in the other second round match-up?
*Fun Fact: Utah State, New Mexico State, Boise State and Nevada are the only four teams to have even appeared in the WAC Tournament championship game since the 2005-06 season.
GAME NOTES
- 13 points and eight rebounds on 6-of-8 shooting by Morgan Grim. Solid... Just freaking solid! More of that please.
- Kyisean Reed went off for 16 and 10 against the Bulldogs in The Spectrum. Five and four kinda sucks compared to that.
- Off night for Pre-Med... It'd be nice if someone else were to step up on those nights.
- If you're wondering why Preston Medlin gets such a long leash on this site, go look at his numbers across the board. He is, by SO FAR, the best player on this team. Putting up his numbers with his shooting percentages will earn you that leeway. Factor in that he clearly is far and away the team-leader in "give a shit", and there you have it.
- Ben Clifford only has two more turnovers on the season than Brockeith Pane has in the last two games.
- The bench shot 1-of-8 Saturday night. Amazingly, it was still better than the 1-of-9 that Fresno's bench shot.
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