An ugly win is still a win... 56-48, Aggies

Nobody said winning had to be pretty, and Saturday night in The Spectrum sure as well was an ugly one! I want to tell myself that this game was just the slumpbreaker that USU needed to get its game back on track after a rough go last season. Just like I want to believe that winning a few postseason games last year, even if it was in the lowly CIT, was beneficial just to shake that monkey off our backs.

And since the team stands at 1-0, ugly as that one might have been, I'll stick with the slumpbreaker theory and hold on to the hope that things only get prettier from here.

For the bulk of Saturday's game, the Utah State offense was out of sync. And while that's nothing out of the ordinary for a team early in the season, it kind of seemed to be even more out of sync than we'd normally see to start things off.

Defensively though, USU managed to make up for just enough of the offensive woes to keep Idaho State out of it for the bulk of the game. The Bengals only hit on 39.6 percent of their shot attempts from the field, and just 27.3 percent from the 3-point line. The Aggies also outrebounded ISU 36-23, had seven steals and three blocks.

So when the Bengals had only scored 37 points with just under 10 minutes remaining in the second half, that'll usually be a solid enough defensive game for the Aggies to hold on and win... Except that the offense was only at 37 at that same point. USU scored just seven points through the first 10 minutes of the second half, which is as bad of an offensive cold streak as I can remember seeing here.

Basketball schedule predictions - Preview part 2

Part 2a of 2c

As promised, here is part two of this little bold basketball preview, or at least part of part two. Today's task is predicting the schedule.

But for all of you out there hoping I'll do something stupid and set myself up to be brutally chastised for bad picks down the road, sorry to tell you that I'm only doing the first eight games, which is close enough to one third of the season. Why you ask? Well, teams grow up along the way, and getting too far ahead of things just would be irresponsible for making accurate predictions. Gotta get a feel for both USU's squad, as well as the competition.

Now on the downside, this means you'll have to deal with another set of predictions like this in a few weeks. For now though, let's try and accurately predict the start of this season.
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Idaho State - 11/10
In ISU's last three visits to The Spectrum, Utah State has won by an average of 31 points. This Bengal team lost to USU by 13 in their own house last year, and in a game where even Igor Premasunac even played double-digit minutes. Adam Thoseby also started that game and scored 16 points.
Prediction: Blowout win

Saint Mary's - 11/15
Things get real interesting in just the second game of the year. Saint Mary's returns a ton of talent from a very good team, including Matt Dellavedova. Joining them will also be former Aggie James Walker, as well as former SUU Thunderbird and first opposing player to cry in The Spectrum in the 2010 season, center Matt Hodgson. Not returning however will be Clint Steindl, who hit numerous big shots against USU in past games. This will be an epic battle of which only something as powerful The Spectrum prevails... That, and Brady Jardine heckling on the front row to remind Mitchell Young of the manhood he lost forever back in 2011.
Prediction: Aggies win a thriller

Texas A&M Corpus Christi - 11/17
Sad that this has to be a revenge game, but it is, and revenge will be had. Preston Medlin goes off for 40 points to bring his scoring average against these guys to 20 points per game.
Prediction: USU wins by 22

Weber State - 11/24
Speaking of revenge games... Weber State was a great team last year with the early frontrunner for NBA Rookie of the Year running that show. This year will be a step back, but probably not nearly as much as people expect. They're still a talented team with a fantastic coach, which will make this game a far cry from a cakewalk victory.
Prediction: Aggies win by 9

@Santa Clara - 11/28
Finally hitting the road after four games at home, USU faces off against a Santa Clara team who returns its top NINE scorers from last season. Problem is they were a team that went 8-22, including 0-16 in West Coast Conference play. Because of the experience and home court, they'll be tough, but a nice early road test for this USU team.
Prediction: USU by 6

@BYU - 12/5
The second straight road test against a WCC team gets a lot tougher down in that hellhole of Provo. Both teams look solidly loaded with talent, but BYU's squad has more experience playing together, which should give them a decent advantage. Not to mention, Brandon Davies will probably want to try and put on a show in front of his kids. My shameless homerism/ambition wants to pick a win, but since such picks in the past have backfired when going on the road to Provo/Hell, I'll defer to the team to prove me wrong on this one. It's a prediction I'd gladly be horribly incorrect about.
Prediction: Aggies fall short by 8 points... (insert swear words)

Western Oregon - 12/8
A nice little, "thanks for coming guys" kind of game to lump into the middle of the early part of the season. Against this team three years ago, Modou Niang outscored Brian Green and Preston Medlin combined!!! And no, that wasn't made up.
Prediction: Aggies win by however much they feel like


@Utah Valley - 12/15
These guys are a bit of a wild card this year. They hung with USU in The Spectrum last year, but are now without their light-it-up scorer Isiah Williams. While Ben Aird and Holton Hunsaker are decent players, it's tough to imagine them overpowering Jarred Shaw and Tenale Roland by any wide margin, if at all. They'll probably make it interesting for a bit, but Shaw, Roland and that Medlin kid will be too much for them to handle. Plus, UVU has one of these guys on its roster.
Prediction: Aggies win by 11
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That right there carries us all the way into the Gossner's tournament, where I'll get back here and make some picks on how the next part of the season will go from there. As is, I'm picking the Aggies to start off 7-1. A few of those games could swing a different direction, most notably Saint Mary's and Santa Clara, but hell... that's part of what makes it fun!!

Basketball previews and predictions, part 1

Part 1 of 2

The start of the regular season is upon us, which means it's time to start busting out some previews on this year's team. Rather than just rehash who is who and what position they'll play, we're going to do things a little differently here at The Sagebrush Spot. Today we're going to get a little more bold with predictions of what each player is going to do this season, all the way down to predicting the numbers they'll put out.This one is especially tough with having what looks to be a deep team and only so many minutes and points to be spread around.

Then tomorrow things will get even more bold in trying to predict the first part of this season's schedule. Will these predictions be accurate? Impossible to know, but let's just have some fun with it, eh? Worst case scenario we all get to look back at these in a few months and laugh at how stupid of predictions these were.
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POINT GUARDS

Tenale Roland - Rollin Roland, as the kids are calling him, is going to be the starter at point guard. He's looked solid through the exhibition games in running the offense and as an outside shooter. Could very much be in the mix for the WAC's all-newcomer team.
Stats prediction: 5.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists

Remember, remember the fifth of November...

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, when the Aggies seemed dead but were not...
I plead you with urgence that this Aggie resurgence, shall never be forgot..."

It was one year ago today...

One year ago that the despair and doubt we all knew, and knew all too well, reached its peak of the 2011 season. We had seen flashes of improvement in 2009, followed up by injuries and missed opportunities haunting much of the 2010 season. Then to start 2011, USU established an unwelcome identity as the heartbreak kids, destined to let games slip away in the closing seconds.

With a 2-5 record overall, and an 0-2 start to WAC play, things looked to be headed down an even darker road with a 28-7 halftime deficit and the Aggies star freshman quarterback in an ambulance. Feelings of emptiness, helplessness and hopelessness were in the minds of every Aggie fan at that moment. There was also that terrifying feeling of worry that things actually might never get better. And while those feelings aren't anything foreign to those of us who have been around USU for a while, we still hope that each time around, things will be finally be different. In this instance though, doubt and heartbreak trumped every glimmer of hope...

Basketball rolls again in second exhibition game

The funny thing about Saturday's exhibition win over Simon Fraser is that there were a few stretches where it seemed like the Aggies weren't even playing that well. Yet during those stretches, the USU lead continued to widen, eventually leading in a dominating final score of 92-56.

Regardless of how it appeared, the Aggies dominated on Saturday against an actual NCAA team, even if they're Division-2. That's a classification that not a lot of past exhibition opponents can claim, and that Simon Fraser team was certainly bigger, more athletic and much more skilled than the likes of Laval University that past USU teams have played in exhibition.

Now consider that Laval is the only exhibition team that the Aggies have beaten worse in the last six years than the 36-point win against Simon Fraser on Saturday. Suddenly this team is looking pretty solid with that in mind. And things are only going to continue to tighten up and get more crisp for USU as this season goes on.

To me, that says that this Utah State team will be able to win ugly this year. Even when things aren't exactly in rhythm offensively, USU's size, athleticism and just natural skill will help them still put points on the board and frustrate teams defensively. That's the one thing I take most from this game, and that's one hell of a positive attribute to have!

Weird, a blowout win for football? 38-7, Aggies.

Let's start off with the stat of the game: 27 yards allowed by USU's defense in the 2nd half!

That is insane!!!

Utah State came out swinging once again with a six-play, 51-yard touchdown drive. Then after allowing a l4-play, 63-yard drive by Texas State, Will Davis put an end to that with an interception in the end zone. USU only needed five plays to go 80 yards for another score.

The Aggies had six possessions in the first half, five of them for touchdowns. 35-0 at half, game already in hand.

SECOND HALF
I'm not going to worry about this at all. The offense had already built an insurmountable lead and all that was left to do was to keep the fancy stuff off the film reel and get the second unit some reps. And they accomplished both of those in the second half.

It wasn't pretty, and maybe it would have been nice to see Chuckie Keeton get a sixth or seventh touchdown, but it got the job done. And when your defense is allowing absolutely NOTHING, at least outside of a couple yards when the Bobcats picked off a pass deep in USU territory resulting in their only score of the game.

Things I want to see this weekend

This weekend is going to be a fun one with a home football game to occupy Saturday afternoon, followed by basketball's second exhibition that night. And with how things are going for football and how early along basketball is right now, I'd feel overly nitpicky to point out any lows as part of a highs, lows and IDKs.

So for the sake of doing something mid-week this week, let's just talk about a few things I want to see this weekend.

MORE THAN ANYTHING...
Both Romney Stadium and The Spectrum should be packed with students for both of these games. Especially Romney. The attendance against New Mexico State was kinda about what you'd expect during Fall Break, but the crowd needs a strong showing to rebound from that. This team is on the verge of a historic season, and we already know they aren't going to get much love from the stands for the last home game over Thanksgiving break.

So basically, this is the last time Romney will really be rocking this season, so it needs to rock hard!!! This team has earned a packed house, and dammit they had better get it!

And after the football game is finished, take a quick break, maybe grab some food, and head right up to The Spectrum!

It's gonna be one hell of a day!!!

Also, wear blue. 


FOOTBALL

More reps for the second unit - This one will require another blowout, but that is becoming more the expectation with this program rather than a rarity. With each week the second units are able to get into games and get reps, the more experience they gain, the more film they have to break down of what they're doing right or wrong, and better prepare this team for the future.

Three turnovers -The defense set a goal to have at least three turnovers per game this year, but they have yet to actually make it happen in any games this year. Last game was encouraging with a pair of interceptions by Will Davis and Kyler Fackrell, but they still need to do a bit more with stripping the ball and rocking the worlds of opposing quarterbacks.

A 120-yard game from Joe Hill - Gary Andersen said he's finally back to 100 percent, so it's time to get him involved once again. Like Kerwynn Williams, Hill can be a major threat both running and catching the ball, and we got to see a little bit of that last game. Time to light up the box score once again for him.


BASKETBALL

5+ assists for Tenale Roland - In the first game, Roland had zero turnovers, but only one assist. This time around, I want to see Roland take a few more risks just to test himself in the assist department. even if it means he ends up with a couple turnovers, I want to see him take some risks in passing at game speed and rack up some assists this time around.