Giving basketball a look ahead to 2013-14

Spring football got underway today, which is pretty freaking exciting! But there won't be shoulder pads in the mix for a couple more days, and not a whole lot to report in the department, so I'm going to hold off on talking about that until after Thursday when they practice in the afternoon and we can all go and get ourselves and nice, personal look at things.

In the meantime, let's give some quick takes on USU basketball's current forecast of how next season could play out with personnel. Obviously things could change a little bit between now and maybe the middle of summer, but my guess is it would be minimal.

On paper, USU looks to be in pretty decent shape for next year, assuming they can stay healthy this next time around. It's worth taking a quick look at, so let's hit these positions really quick.

Aggies ride a big red dog to victory on senior night

Utah State opened WAC play this season with a four-point win over UTSA, with Preston Medlin and Kyisean Reed combining for 33 points. Ben Clifford and Tenale Roland weren't really factors in that game either, combining for only three points. So with that in mind, this game looked like a potentially dangerous one.

Nobody told the Aggies though...

USU came out, slowly built a small lead, slowly built on that lead, and slowly twisted the knife on the Roadrunners throughout the entire game.

It was all Clifford and Spencer Butterfield in the first half, with the two of them combining for 23 of USU's 25 points. Clifford kept on pwning n00bs in the second half, with Roland, Jarred Shaw, and even Matt Lopez getting in on the scoring.

When it all came down to it, the Aggies just kind of dominated in every area in this game. The bulk of those details are worthy of bullet points, so let's cut the crap and get to it!

NOTES

•  22 assists to only 10 turnovers!!! Happy happy, joy joy.
• Nine blocks for the team. It seems like they've been blocking the hell out of teams lately, which I'm just fine seeing more of!
• Oh hi Matt Lopez! Very nice to see you! Eight points on 4-4 shooting with two rebounds and two blocks in only six minutes will do just fine! Again, happy happy, joy joy!
• Spencer Butterfield only had three rebounds, which drops his rebounding average over the last two games to only 11.5 per game. Throw in 14 points and five assists and you've got another solid game, but really what else would you expect from him?
• Jarred Shaw seemed content to let Clifford steal the show down low tonight, but still finished with 11 points and nine boards. Next week is time for Shaw to really kick things into FYM, and remind everyone else in the WAC that he is Jarred Shaw, and they are not.
• Not a bad showing once again from Tenale Roland. He's really been a completely new player out there ever since Bracketbuster weekend. Scored 14 points (all in the second half), pulled down six boards, dished three assists, and even had a block.
• Marvin Jean's 10 rebounds, four assists, a steal, and a block are all pretty good looking. His 1-8 shooting is not. He badly needs to find his shot again because he can be a major X-factor going into next week if he gets hot.

SENIOR NIGHT - KYISEAN REED

It was heart-wrenching to have to bid farewell to this team's lone senior without him being able to suit up. It was the second year in a row too that a senior wasn't able to play because of injury. But for what it's worth, it looked like Kyisean was smiling for a lot of the game, and just seemed to be happy to be there with his teammates.

Everything about this dude just bleeds character. Whether it's how far he developed his game from last season to this one, to the reports of how good a student he has been at USU, there's nothing you could not like about this guy.

We'll be left to only wonder forever how much different this season could have been with him for these last couple months, and how special a moment there might have been if he'd thrown down one last high-flying dunk on his senior night.

Basketball aside, dude is going places in life. And even though his time was cut way too short, I know I'm not alone when I say I'm damn proud that Kyisean Reed is an Aggie!

Player of the Game: Ben Clifford

With 11 first-half points, it looked like Ben Clifford would finally break his previous career-high of 14 points. Turns out he shattered that, going off for 21 points to go with eight boards, three assists, and three blocks. All-around great game from him, but maybe most impressive was the ways in which he scored. Posting up, finishing on a fast break, hitting mid-range jumpers; all of it was a showing of how dangerous he can be as a player. He may never be a superstar, but he's been pretty steadily dependable through two full regular seasons now, and it looks like these major minutes he's been playing will really pay off down the road.

Aggies load up the statsheet for win No. 20

After that abysmal showing against Arlington last week that not even I could bear to write about, USU bounced the hell back on Thursday against probably the WAC's worst team. And even though Texas State is a total patsy, the Aggies pretty thoroughly dominated them, which is what they needed to do in this one.

The finish by USU pretty damn awful, but that's sort of tradition when the Aggies have a late lead. It seems like if the team is down big, they're the ones making the strong push late, and if they're up big, all basketball ability seems to vacate.

A win is a win though, and some of the numbers put up are pretty encouraging. Let's bullet point the rest.

Let's never talk about this night again...

This song seems to have the kind of somber feel that is going on right now... So if you care for music while you read, click ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj75Arhq5ho

If any Aggie fans told themselves at any point recently that it couldn't possibly get worse, the universe just delivered them a hearty bitch slap.

From the start, USU wasn't in this game. The eternal optimist in me hoped that maybe they could climb out of a massive hole much like they did back in a 2007 game against Oral Roberts to pull off a hard-earned win against the odds.

Bracketbuster Saturday brings out Aggies' best

It's somewhat becoming a trend that post game write-ups from those Saturday games are going to come around much later than others. That whole "Saturday night" thing just gets in the way. You know how it goes.

But how about them Aggies, eh?

More and more these guys are looking like a strong, determined, cohesive unit. The kind the could catch some fire and shock somebody come WAC Tournament time. The weak points of this team seem to be shrinking, while the strengths are getting stronger.

And Saturday's game against Illinois State might have been the best example of it all yet this year. As has often been the case since this became an eight-man team, these guys won by playing pure Stew Morrill basketball. Good shooting, tough defense, sharing the ball, etc.

Aggies beaten at the buzzer again.

SHIT!!!

Not much else needs to be said.

Missed 3-pointers, missed free throws, and too many turnovers cost the Aggies their first win in Provo since the 2004-05 season.

NOTES

• Officiating took all the fun out of this game for quite a while. In their defense, both teams were playing aggressive as hell. A lot of those fouls were legit, and plenty other were very weak. It put guys from both teams in major foul trouble, which is a huge disadvantage for USU being pretty much a seven-man team right now. 51 total fouls called... It was annoying.
• Giving up an offensive rebound to give BYU that final possession is inexcusable. Should have been the Aggies looking to get off a shot in that spot.
• Jordan Stone was an absolute man out there. Easily the best he's looked in his career, scoring nine points, grabbing three rebounds, dishing two assists, and blocking four shots. Just as important, he never looked nervous or out of control with the ball.
• There's plenty of good and bad on the stat lines for both Spencer Butterfield and Marvin Jean. On the bright side, the combined for 32 points, 18 rebounds, and nine assists. Down side is 4-16 shooting from deep, and eight turnovers. All things considered, they played well. Certainly well enough to win, but the defense by BYU was in their faces in to make things difficult.
• Speaking of turnovers, 18 on the game is bad. In games of this caliber, you can't do that and expect to win. Way too many of them can as a result of taking unnecessary risks too. That's got to be fixed by the WAC Tournament if this upset special has a chance of happening.
• Jarred Shaw vs. Brandon Davies was one of the big storylines going into this one. Shaw won that battle without question.
• USU shooting 17-27 from the free throw line is the difference maker in this game. If they had just made 74 percent of their free throws, USU wins.
• Marcel Davis needed to be more of a factor in this one. For how well he's been playing, it's tough to hold much of anything against him. Zero assists though is at least a tiny bit troubling.
• Tyler Haws just seems to be a whiny little bitch. Dude is incredibly talented, but just seems to be all-around unlikeable. I was never able to say the same about that other high-scoring guard who's playing for the Kings now, at least not based on my limited interaction with him via front row heckling.
• In maybe the biggest bit of irony of all time, BYU students chanted "Rogain" at an opposing player... In other words, fuck them and their bubble.
  
• All things considered, it's a hell of a fight put up by the Aggies. No moral victories though. USU should have won this one in Provo. Second loss at the buzzer in a week is brutal too.

Shaw plays the role of the warden. Good Aggies win!

Rivalry games... Gotta love em!

There's just something about that feeling of pure hate when you see that opposing team even warming up. It's like a whole new reminder of what you despise when you finally see them in person. Then it seems like pretty much everything they do just pisses you off more.

But a 19-5 lead can quickly turn all anger into joy, and that's what Utah State built early against New Mexico State. Then things suddenly took a swing into NMSU's favor, and it seemed to coincide with when Sim Bhullar went to the bench. After Jarred Shaw established early on that he was going to attack Bhullar down low and make him respect the mid-range jumper as well, Bhullar was largely ineffective. Shaw's mobility was the biggest advantage (outside of actual talent) that he had over Bhullar, and that was the difference maker in the paint.

Really outside of that run NMSU made following the 19-5 lead and the last minute of the second half, the Good Aggies never really seemed to lack total control of this game. They moved the ball well, shot well, limited turnovers, were aggressive while staying out of foul trouble... Pretty much everything a team needs to do to win against a bigger, faster opponent.

I only say "pretty much" because of how bad that last minute of play was for USU. I can't imagine managing that all any worse than they did. Tenale Roland looked like he was completely unaware of the 10-second rule, dribbling backwards more often than forward. And the team as a whole was way too content to just hold on to the ball in the face of a trap. And then the one time they get it up court, it ends up in the hands of Jordan Stone, sending him to the free throw line for the front-end of a 1-and-1 (which you could guess how that one ended up).

Valentine's Day heartbreak in overtime

The Valentine's Day heartbreaker

My biggest compliment about Utah State's play in the last few games is that they've been playing tough defense, efficient offense, and really just all-around Stew Ball.

Denver does all those things too though, and their team is healthy, so we knew this was going to be a tough one.

To Utah State's credit, there were a handful of times where it looked like this game was on the verge of getting away from them, but the Aggies manned up and kept it within reach.

REGULATION ENDING
The Aggies gave themselves plenty of chances to come out winners tonight. Most of those chances came at the free throw line, and unfortunately, they struggled pretty badly from there.

A-train keeps rolling at San Jose State

Hey look! A picture of a train!

This one was never even close...

For the past few games now, USU is playing pure Stew Ball. The Aggies are shooting great from the field, keeping opponents' field goal percentages down, and even cutting down on turnovers quite a bit from where they've been for the bulk of this year.

The end result? A team who many would criticize as being undersized and athletically inferior going out and dominating teams that might look better on paper. Stew Ball at it's finest.

If you're not falling madly in love with this team right now, I'm not sure you'll ever be satisfied

63-36, final.

Up next is the biggest weekend of games of the year, with the roadie to BYU coming up after that. Let's just go ahead and call these next three games "The Reckoning".

Aggies dominate at Seattle!

For the second game in a row, Utah State was pretty much completely in control over a team that took the healthy version of this team to the wire in The Spectrum.

In a nutshell, this team looks to have found its way. They're playing together, they're more focused, they're playing tough defense... It's coming together for them!

Earning a Sweep Dance given the situation this team is in is nothing short of impressive. Doing it as convincingly as they've done it is nothing short of bad ass. Thinking of what they can do with the way they're playing is nothing short of exciting.

Above all else, I'm in love with this team right now!

Slump busted. Aggies roll at Idaho!

Memo to the Idaho Vandals: He is Jarred Shaw and you are not.

Last time against Idaho, a (mostly) healthy USU team needed an epic comeback and overtime to pull off a win at home. With that in mind, one would think that this game on the road was a blowout waiting to happen, especially when you consider that Preston Medlin and Kyisean Reed combined for 39 points in that game.

No blowout for the Vandals on Thursday. Never even a lead for the home team. Utah State never trailed in this game, riding some stellar shooting and solid defense to the team's first win since the injury assault.

And no player was more crucial to that than Shaw! Going into the game, many might have argued that Idaho's Kyle Barone was the WAC's best big man. Anyone who watched that game would probably argue differently now.

Gone is the longest losing streak of Stew Morrill's tenure, and to add to it, the rest of this team has a quality win under its belt. If they earn themselves a sweep dance this weekend, they just might earn themselves a nickname. I know the "Elite Eight" has been thrown out there, even if it's a little over-complimentary. Also heard "The UnderAgs", which I like. "Eight Men Out" is one that comes to mind too. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Seattle gave plenty of fits to USU at home too, so we need an encore performance by the man in the middle against them.

For now, proud as hell of this team for finally getting a win through this storm they've been weathering. This underdog role is something none of us are really familiar with, but these guys are playing their asses off to make each game interesting, so seeing them come out with a win and representing USU is pretty damn excellent!

Last men standing still learning to walk

No words could do justice to this dude's excellence

What’s left of this basketball team hasn’t exactly had an easy road to find their legs. Their first game involved getting thrown into the fire on the road against Denver, who is one of the WAC’s best this year. UT-Arlington is in that discussion as well, while La Tech seems firmly established as the team to beat.

The 0-3 result is obviously the last thing you want, but the progress they’ve shown is at least encouraging. They put together a decent 2^nd half at Denver, showed some encouraging intensity against UTA, and now took the best team in the WAC to the wire.

Again, 0-3 in these games is tough to swallow, but these guys sure as hell are putting up a ballsy fight to make it interesting.

Much like UTA, La Tech is a good defensive team. They’re athletic and they’ve got some length to make things especially difficult for a USU team trying to learn how to walk all over again. That defensive pressure resulted in only 15 made field goals by USU. But as bad as that was offensively for the Aggies, they still managed to hold the Bulldogs to only 19-of-57 shooting from the field. That kind of defensive pressure is going to have to be commonplace for wins to start coming for these guys.

When it came to crunch time though, the Aggies didn’t have the kind of magic they’d had against the likes of Santa Clara and Idaho.

Medlin's 25 points propel Aggies to 13th straight

Look at it... People all the way to the top!!!
It's beautiful...

It was an ugly win, yada, yada, yada... But what else is new?

Neither team really put together any big runs in the game, with the biggest being a seven-point run by USU I believe. And I think that was pretty early on too. Or in other words, that game was kinda boring as hell.

San Jose State played some tough defense, which really put the pressure on USU to score the ball. The Spartans also put back an infuriatingly ridiculous amount of put-back shots that just barely rolled into the basket... I don't think I was the only one getting pissed off about that. They beat USU 14-6 in offensive rebounds.

In the closing minutes, there seemed to be a little nervousness that SJSU might make a dramatic late push, but luckily the USU defense held strong.

Can't help but wonder how things would have gone if James Kinney wasn't suspended from SJSU. Regardless, the team is now 14-1 overall, 5-0 in the WAC, won 13 straight, and riding at least a little momentum going into the roadie at New Mexico State. 

THE CROWD
EASILY the best turnout of the season! Really it's not even close either. And what's better is that early on, at least as the team was taking the floor and to start the game, they seemed to be ready to rock.

Preston freaking Medlin!!! Aggies win in OT

I said after Thursday's game that sloppy play would eventually catch up to the Aggies. That was almost the case on Saturday against Idaho... almost.

Trailing by eight points with three and a half minutes to go, the Aggies had an obvious uphill battle in front of them. And with their struggles in shooting the ball Saturday, it wasn't exactly looking promising. But the Aggies' defense completely locked down, the offense scored enough to put the game in reach, and finally only one more bit of heroics was needed.

Down 69-66, the Idaho defense had their turn to to show what they were made of, and really, they did pretty well at it. The final play for Utah State as it was drawn up was basically thwarted, sending the Aggies scrambling. Jarred Shaw nearly threw up a desperation 3-pointer, but instead got it to the guy everyone knew the Aggies would be looking to get it to.

When it came to do-or-die for the Aggies, Preston Medlin came through once again! His 3-pointer from the corner sent the game to overtime, sparked the crowd to easily it's biggest frenzy of the season, and might have completely rejuvenated The Spectrum as we once knew it. Somewhere Chaz Spicer is tipping his cap to No. 13 for his heroics.

In overtime, the Aggies pretty much controlled the whole five minutes. Medlin hit another 3-pointer, the defense stayed stout, and they made just enough free throws to put it away and seal maybe the most thrilling win of the season.

Sloppy sloppy sloppy, but Aggies hold on

The optimist in me says, "This is what's nice about the Gossner's Tournament. Get some quality experience at home against teams you should beat even on a crappy night."

The pessimist says, "This team is still struggling way worse than they should, and doubts are starting to arise."

I can't help but think back to last year when we opened the Gossner's against UT-Arlington, only beating them by four. By the last game of the tournament, we beat the piss out of a very good Kent State team.

And that was last year's team, who I doubt many people will try to argue had more talent on its roster than this year's squad. Throw in some actual size down low, some more talent and experience on the wings, and a pair of point guards who are both not too shabby, and there's probably reason to stay optimistic.

Aggies shake off the rust after long layoff

In the case of Danny Berger, it was "Welcome back to the outside world."

In the case of Marcel Davis, it was "Welcome to the show!"

Saturday was USU's first game in 10 days, and the rust was obvious early on. The Aggies turned the ball over on three of their first four possessions, and just looked completely out of sync. Given the long layoff from the court, mixed in with a little bit of trauma and missed practice time, that is all really understandable.

While the Aggies were struggling to score, especially in the paint early on, Western Oregon was hitting shots, forcing the action to do what they wanted, and just all-around making things difficult... We knew that couldn't last long though, and it didn't once the second half got started.

Really this game is summed up in a simple way... First half, sloppy. Second half, crisp and dominant. Final outcome, inevitable.

The team clearly had some emotions running from everything this whole week, and once they shook the rust off, Western Oregon was dead in the water.

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.

Basketball wins free throw contest against Weber State

In keeping with this season's theme of winning ugly, Utah State outlasted Weber State in what seemed to be much more of a free throw contest than a basketball game at times.

USU came out looking about like we've seen them look so far this year offensively. Not the most crisp of things, but able to score on pure talent. Jarred Shaw was at the center of things once again, controlling the paint on both ends of the floor. Dude has established himself quite nicely so far this season, and that's without having the offense feeding him quality looks in the post like it will as these guys learn things better.

As things are, you can tell this team still has a long way to go in learning the offense and really just developing at this level. It's nothing out of the ordinary really, it just takes a bit sometimes, and the more rookies there are, the tougher that process becomes (maybe the same can be said for the crowd?)

Anyway, you could tell for the bulk of the first half that Weber State was the more experienced team, which became especially more obvious because they run such a similar system as we're used to seeing here. For once though, the Aggies got to be the team, who despite being much more raw, was able to capitalize on size and athleticism advantages.

Long story short with the first half: Weber had a slight lead for the bulk of it, but USU overcame sloppy play to keep pace and enter the break tied at 28.

Aggies bounce back, even if it wasn't pretty

While WAC championship mania was taking over Logan, and even The Spectrum, we still had some basketball to played and revenge to be had!

Saturday's game in The Spectrum was once again nothing pretty, but as was the case with Idaho State, the Aggies did enough of what they needed to to win. I don't know if TAMCC just has USU's number or what, but that game went from a close one, then opened up to a blowout for a bit, then slowly got interesting again.

Looking at the stats, it's hard to see how the Islanders stayed into this game. USU outrebounded TAMCC by 10, had 21 assists to only nine turnovers, shot 56.8 percent from the field, and made 23 free throws. The Islanders made a handful of 3-pointers and only committed six turnovers, and that ended up being what made this close.

Shots won't fall. Aggies do. SMC wins 67-58

Right there with you Danny...

Some days it's just not your day.

It doesn't seem like the team has too bad of an attitude about this game either, realizing that the shots just weren't falling for them. It was agonizing to watch that many shots rim out like they did, but it's not like the Aggies lost to a cupcake. USU just got beat by a very good team.

We knew this one was going to be an uphill battle. Saint Mary's has one of the best players in the country, a handful of other seniors and plenty more talent filling out its roster. The match-up problems they had, especially in the back court, were one hell of an advantage over USU. Matthew Dellavedova was absolutely lockdown defensively on Preston Medlin, and when it comes to his own offensive game, Dellavedova probably won't be slowed down by much of anyone with how many ways he can score the ball.

Really, the bulk of the credit needs to go to Saint Marys' entire defense. Utah State missed most of the open looks they got Thursday, but even still, those open looks were sparse at best. Saint Mary's wouldn't let the Aggies get anything going, and the ability to do that is something few teams will have this season. 

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
Outside of the early lead USU had, the Gaels controlled the bulk of this game. Their lead slowly grew as the game wore on, and the Aggies couldn't put together enough of a run to close the gap. The closest they got was with just under 5 minutes left when Danny Berger hit a 3-pointer to cut the SMC lead to only three.