Well I guess this is growing up...

First off... DAMMIT!!!

Second, let's get to the stat of the night...

In the last four minutes of both halves of basketball today (so, eight minutes of basketball), Utah State scored a combined THREE POINTS. Those three points all came in the last four minutes of the second half.

Also in the last four minutes of each half, a combined SEVEN turnovers. They also didn't make a basket in those final chunks of the half, shooting 0-6 from the field. The last field goal attempt by USU came with 2:39 remaining when Preston Medlin was basically tackled by Hernst Laroche, only to get no call. *EDIT*: The angle of my view in the stadium made this look much worse than it actually showed to be on video. Credit to Laroche for sticking with the play.

Speaking of calls, "horse shit" is about the only way to explain the officiating in this game. It was never consistent, there were phantom calls everywhere and god-awful no-calls in crucial situations. The way USU finished each half was the real difference in the game, but the officiating was horrible.

Sadly, as soon as you see Verne Harris walk into The Spectrum, you know it's an uphill battle. The guy is awful at his job, hates Utah State and has a wicked case of small man syndrome. He's the same guy responsible for the Tai Wesley "intentional elbow" call at BYU last year, for those who don't remember. Reports from Section F tonight (because I've got plenty of sources there) are that after one no-call on a traveling by NMSU, during the next media timeout, Harris said to fans, "I don't give a shit about traveling." He also apparently came clean on blowing a few calls throughout the game to the fans behind the basket at the end of the game. That explains plenty if you ask me. Pretty sure he's stoked as hell right about now that he got to ref a USU loss in The Spectrum.

Still, USU has got to execute better to close out halves. It's really too bad because in all the numbers except rebounding, they played a pretty solid game. NMSU is huge, athletic, strong and experienced, but USU hung with them all game, and even went up big in the first half for a bit before shutting down.

NMSU's defensive pressure gave the Aggies fits, and made a huge difference in those late-half shutdowns. The red Aggies pressured USU's guards all the way to mid-court and it really threw the offense out of rhythm. It might have been nice to see a USU big man come and set a high screen for Brockeith Pane once or twice to let Pane drive to the hoop and have some chances to finish around the basket or to draw fouls.

At the end of the day, NMSU came with fire and a purpose. That carried them today. USU got plenty to learn from today, particularly in facing the kind of defensive pressure that NMSU put on them. If they don't learn from this, then this loss becomes that much more brutal to deal with.


NOTES

• How in the hell did Jordan Stone not play at all in the second half?!?! I though the first half of tonight might have been the best basketball he's played all year. He was a strong defensive presence down low and just looked in sync with everything. After Stone went out in the first half, NMSU scored nine unanswered points to finish the half.
• My love-fest for Ben Clifford continues. He shot perfect from the field, scored six points and grabbed three boards to go with a steal and block in only 12 minutes.That block came in the closing seconds, when the game was already over, but he wasn't going to let NMSU get any easy bucket to extend that lead. He played intense until the buzzer. So excited about this kid's future!
• Preston Medlin had guys four inches taller than him guarding him all night and still scored 16 points. He is the one who will bring balance to the Aggies.

Charting experience over the years

Every once in a while I get feel the need to crunch the hell out of some statistics and share them. Not to mention my obsession with historical comparisons... This is one of those times.

Admittedly, I may have been a little bit harsh on this team after the loss to Fresno State, but I was most definitely furious over that. Since then though, I've taken a little time to think a bit more about this team, where they've been, where they're going... and such as.

Kyisean finds his happy thought, does some flying, Aggies win

Before saying anything else, a big "hell yeah" goes out to Brockeith Pane for dishing six assists without a single turnover. Nine points, four rebounds, a block and a steal will widen that smile too.

This win was one of those games where I kept on wondering when we were going to pull ahead and just blow them out already. Then we did, and there was much rejoicing. The way the Aggies were shooting, it really just seemed like a matter of time, but the Bulldogs went through those couple hot streaks from deep that cockblocked USU from pulling away.

Then Kyisean Reed happened...

Man down... Jardine's road reaches its end

Never forget!!!

News broke today that Brady Jardine's career is over. The injury that has kept him out since the third game of this season is worse than initially believed, has been healing slower than it should and is going to require surgery.

As badly as this has been a blow to this year's team and now will affect next year's team as well, the real tragedy is that this kind of thing happened to as quality of a guy like Brady. For three years, Brady was the ultimate team guy. From his freshman year where his redshirt was pulled midseason to give the team some much-needed depth in the post, to the next two seasons where he was an ace off the bench for the team. As ambitious and competitive of a player as Brady is, he was still the ultimate "team first" guy, and the team's record in his three seasons of playing reflects that.

Utah State won an outright WAC championship in each of Jardine's three seasons, dominating the conference with a record of 43-5 over that span. He's also one of only seven Aggie players ever to be a member of three NCAA Tournament teams.

Frustrated, deflated... Dogs win 60-54

When you lose the turnover battle 16-3, you're going to lose. Utah State lost the turnover battle 16-3 Saturday night. They lost.

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.

Blown save with two outs in the ninth... Pack wins 53-52

For the better part of half a decade now, Utah State was the team dominating the WAC and always finding a way to pull out those close games in conference play.

This year, Nevada is that team. They went through their growing pains last year and are reaping the benefits of that experience this year. They're just a really good team.

Still, USU had them beat tonight. Up two, with the ball and 49 seconds to go, you should close out that game. Make even 50 percent of your free throws, and the game at least goes to overtime. Turn the ball over one less time, and the Aggies might have had a victory on their hands.

The 14 assists on the road against a good team is a nice start, and if that team play continues, good things will happen. Also good to see USU churn out a very good rebounding performance against a team that crushed them on the boards a few weeks ago. 

I'd be lying if I said I wanted to talk about this game any more, so I'm not going to.

Signing day thoughts

If there's one thing to keep in mind throughout all of football recruiting, it's patience. We won't know how good this class really was until a few years from now, not to mention that there will still be other guys added into this mix.

Still, it's worth having some conversation about, so let's do just that. We'll talk about what I like about the class, things that have me scratching my head and what I think should happen with some of these guys and others going into next season.


WHAT I LIKE

  - Wide receivers: There are four of them total, with three coming out of junior college. The height of Alex Wheat and Dwayne Lorick (both 6'5) should bring a great new dimension to the passing game, while Jordan Jenkins has some serious speed to bring to the table. Bruce Natson, the lone high school recruit of this bunch, is tiny at 5'7, 145 pounds. Not sure what to expect out of that other than speed and route running ability. All in all, the unit should be upgraded going into next year, especially if Stanley Morrison is granted another year. If that happens, I wouldn't be surprised to see two or three of these guys redshirt next season. The biggest thing though is the size upgrade.