Stew's top 20: No. 4 - Spencer Nelson

Thanks to TrueAggies.com for the epic
action shots from back in the day!

While Tony Brown putting an emphatic stamp on a stellar freshman season in 1999, another freshman was making smaller contributions at the time. As time went on though, that other freshman would go on to carve out an epic legacy of his own, well after the one season that he and Brown played together.

Spencer Nelson didn't start any games as a freshman in that 1998-99 season, but still a solid year for a freshman by most standards. He averaged 4.5 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, while making 63.6 percent of his shots from the field.

Then he didn't play for the next three seasons.

Following two years on a mission and a medical redshirt due to a torn ACL, Nelson finally returned to the court for the 2002-03 season, but as a much stronger player than the one who played for the Aggies back in 1999. Despite playing on after a major knee injury, Nelson was a force for the team on both ends of the floor. He averaged 10.2 points and 7.4 rebounds, while improving his field goal shooting to 65.3 percent, fourth best single-season total in USU history. He was also an honorable mention all-Big West selection, while being named the Co-Hustle Player of the Year for the conference.

The next season, Nelson's spot under the spotlight got a little crowded with both Cardell Butler and Nate Harris making huge leaps forward in their own production. Still, Nelson's numbers improved pretty much across the board, most notably with his assists per game nearly doubling, while his steals per game more than doubled. And that was all while playing a good portion of the year with a face mask after getting his nose busted up.

While Butler and Harris were the top two scorers on that 2004 team, Nelson wasn't far behind them, while his rebounding led the Aggies by a solid margin that year. At year's end, he was named to the all-Big West second team, while repeating as Hustle Player of the Year. All of it as part of an Aggie team that was the first in generations to crack the top 25.

As a senior, Nelson finally was able to play and start in every single game. The result was arguably the best all-around season that any of Stew Morrill's big men have ever had. Nelson averaged 16 points, 7.9 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game. What's really astounding about the 4.8 assists per game is that it was the third highest assist average of any Morrill player. Only point guards Mark Brown and Kris Clark have had a season that bested that.

But even despite having two other seemingly automatic baskets to dish off to in Harris and some new kid named Carroll, Nelson still scored his own points in bunches, while dominating the defensive glass when the opposition failed to get theirs. That combination of being a dominant scorer, rebounder and distributor had never, and has never been done to level that Nelson did in 2005. Had he not been battling illness during that year's NCAA Tournament game against Arizona, Utah State likely would have had at least one more big dance victory in the Morrill era.

Still, Nelson might have been the most complete player to play for Utah State in the last 14 years. Between his leadership, outrageous statistics and a relentless motor, Nelson was just about as good as they come. He ranks as the 19th best scorer in school history, 8th in rebounds and 11th in assists. Nelson also has more double-doubles than any of Morrill's players, with 22.

It's hard not to wonder what could have been had he not played the bulk of his career on a surgically repaired knee, or if he had been healthy for his final NCAA Tournament, but his career is still close to as good as it gets!