A rough road, but Aggies win at Santa Clara

Whoa!!! Just whoa!!!

And that's my reaction having only been able to follow the game from ESPN's gamecast on a cell phone while at a concert. I didn't get to see this game, and probably many of you did, so rather than talk you through a game you saw and I didn't, let's share some stories about following a college basketball game on a cell phone while at a rock and roll concert. Hopefully it'll at least be a tiny bit entertaining, since I'm not exactly taking this one too seriously. Plus there's tons of YouTube links, so that will add plenty to it. 

THE RIDE
When the current best band in the entire world (The Wonder Years) wrapped up their set of music, the first score update I got had USU down 30-18. First thought there was more or less, "Ah s***, we're not even going to hang with them in our first road game."

Come to find out later, that deficit wasn't too shabby compared to the 19-4 lead Santa Clara had after six minutes of basketball.

Anyway, throw in a few buckets by Kyisean Reed, some free throws by Slim and a trio of 3-pointers courtesy of Danny Berger and Spencer Butterfield, the Aggies somehow found themselves leading at halftime of this game.

The next hour and a half was spent rocking out to Yellowcard (still going strong after all these years), watching the updates on gamecast, and swearing quite frequently at all the turnovers that were popping up in the play-by-play.

BE STRONG, BELIEVE...
The feeling was all doom and gloom when the Aggies were down 69-65 with :30 seconds to go. After a Tenale Roland layup, and a Santa Clara trip to the charity stripe that only yielded one point, the Aggies were down three and needing heroics.

Eagerly awaiting the next update, eyes were glued to the phone. On stage, Yellowcard was around halfway through their song "Believe" when the score clicked from 67-70 to 70-70 on Preston Medlin's game-tying 3-pointer. Fitting song, eh?

In my mind, Gus Johnson was on that play call, and really it wouldn't be like it was unfamiliar territory for him if this video is any indicator.

Anyway... OVERTIME!!!!

Stone makes some free throws, the Aggies play some defense, Medlin buries another 3-ball, some free throws, a near-costly missed free throw by Berger, and a shot at buzzer that missed... AGGIES WIN!!!

Definitely was an odd way to experience all that excitement, but USU is 1-0 on the road, and that's always a great thing. Let's note this bitch now!!!

NOTES

• Struggles aside, first thing's first... Hell yeah team!!! With all the negativity still around this team, for whatever reasons, to go out on the road and get that first win over a 5-0 team is awesome!
• A tough, hard-fought win on the road, early in the season like this, can really propel a team to do some great things. Just ask Matt Formisano!!
• SEVEN different players scored at least eight points Wednesday!! That is awesome!!
• Speaking of scoring, the point guards combined for 17 points, with both Tenale Roland and Marcel Davis shooting 3-of-6 from the field. Arguably the best game for Roland thus far, and unquestionably the best for Davis! Road warriors maybe??
• Rumor has it that the officiating was awfully shit-tacular, particularly on Jarred Shaw. Dude still goes off for 15 points and eight rebounds despite all that! Any time you can get a win against WCC refs, you take it, and you be happy about it. Those guys are about as good as these guys.
• Stat of the game though has to be the 25 turnovers. How in the world a team turns it over 25 times and still wins is mind-blowing to me. Really would like to see our guys NOT dig that kind of hole for themselves moving forward.
• Kyisean Reed didn't start for whatever reason, but still played 37 minutes, scored 11 points, had seven rebounds and four steals... Dude seems to be stealing that ball at a frightening rate this year. This pleases me. Hell of an all-around game for him.
• People are dogging on the guy some, but Preston Medlin is still getting it done when it matters! He has teams keying everything on him defensively, and he's still scoring in double-digits every game. And the best is still yet to come.
• I had something else totally relevant, but I forgot it, and my head hurts, so let's call this recap good, eh? 

Player of the Game: Kyisean Reed

Honorable mention: The rest of the team

As badly as I wanted to give the nod to student manage/waterboy Jesse Parker, I'd feel guilty not acknowledging the team effort that made this happen. Shaw could have been an easy pick for this honor, but not having him in overtime was a tough one to swallow. Medlin hit the big shot to sent it to OT, but it was only his second FG of the game. Reed had a pretty solid game though, as did plenty of other guys, hence the rest of the team getting mention. With so many guys contributing to come up with a road win, this was big for the team on a lot of levels.