Aggies have no magic against the Mavericks

Welp... If there was going to be a reason to hold strong to any optimism of the Aggies making something special of this injury tidal wave, it was going to have to show itself Thursday against UT-Arlington.

That optimism is mostly dead now. A win on Saturday could possibly be the Mike Williams to this season's Danny Berger, but after the consistent struggles against Denver and now UTA, not looking all that promising.

The problem at this point is that a few teams have exposed even the healthy version of this team to be very turnover prone if you play high-pressure man-to-man defense. The ball handling gets hectic, timing of the offense is all thrown off, passes get picked off, and nobody for the life of them can finish around the basket!

Credit to UTA for playing some balls-out defense all night. Any decent window to shoot was closed out on almost immediately by the quickness of the Mavericks. Either that, or whoever might have been looking for a pass had a defender draped all over him, rarely drawing a foul call.

Make no mistake, the Aggies got beat in this game. There was some absolute shitballs officiating, but a few rather poor calls went USU's way. And at the very least, they were at least somewhat consistently shitty, in which case it's got to fall somewhat on the players to adjust to that. When your former top 150 recruit of a center and junior college all-American point guard shoot a combined 3-19 from the field, that's what will cost you games. Getting crushed in the second half in rebounds like the Aggies did will also do it. And being -7 in turnovers won't help your case either.

I'd harp on the USU bench (i.e. Jordan Stone) getting outscored by UTA's B-team 25-6, but that's not really fair considering the Aggies don't really have a bench anymore.

INTENSITY
Sloppy and frustrating as much of Thursday's play was, the intensity and hustle shown by the team cannot go unmentioned. They at least wanted it, and wanted it badly. They just didn't come through when it came time to execute. At this point in the season, we're used to teams executing things very well, and for whatever reason that's not the case.

Still, that kind of hustle will win a few games. Hell, it'll even make a few games we shouldn't win a lot more interesting. A big shot or two mixed in with a defensive stop or two down the stretch in this game, and we'd all be talking about how great a win this was and the fight this team has in them.

Like I said before, bounce back from this with a win over La Tech, and maybe we'll still have a shred of hope for this season ending on some kind of memorable note.

NOTES

• Spencer Butterfield is all that is man! Despite the loss, he clearly stepped up as the guy willing to put the team on his back, or at least what's left of the team. 23 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, and two steals, all while shooting well from the field gives at least a little comfort that someone is ready to try and fill some big shoes.
• Not really having anything positive to write about Ben Clifford for the first half of the season was tough on me. Thursday, he was who I'd hoped he'd be this season. He shot the ball well to the tune of 12 points, while also pulling down nine rebounds and blocking four shots. If his high-energy play can produce points on a consistent basis, we'll be able to hang in a handful of games.
• If Jarred Shaw had the motor that Clifford had, we'd probably hang around in every game still. Ever since a dominant start to the season though, Shaw seems to have leveled off quite a bit. He could not finish around the basket for the life of him again UTA, and I can't think of any reason why he should have the second fewest rebounds on the team in a game. He's still showing brief flashes of trying to be more physical offensively, but nothing consistent yet.
• Has any true freshman ever had more asked of them than Marcel Davis? (Jaycee Carroll doesn't count. He was an RM as a freshman, not an 18-year-old). Davis has been great in a handful of games this year, but recently has very much hit the freshman wall. Part of the credit goes to the lockdown defense played on him by UTA, but he's also missed some shots he was hitting consistently a few weeks ago. This team badly needs him to return to his December form. I imagine it's got to be a whole lot to handle for the kid though.
• Marvin Jean loves to chuck up long 3-pointers... And you know what? Power to him! He's been hitting them with consistency. He's got a quick release, isn't rattled by collapsing defenders, nor is he shy about just pulling up on a guy. He hasn't shown really anything else offensively, but he also hasn't really needed to. Maybe he's still got some surprises up his sleeve, but regardless, his game has been solid since the injuries set it.
• As for the bench... Jordan Stone had an alright game. He made one really nice move and shot for a score early in the game, but also fumbled a couple Marcel Davis passes that could, and should have been easy scores. I thought Matt Lopez played better than only deserving eight minutes on the floor. Especially with Shaw and Clifford in foul trouble like they were. And Tenale Roland... Seems to be doing at least a little of everything but scoring. This team NEEDS him to be able to be at least a shred of a scoring threat who can hit an occasional 3-pointer.