Two in a row! Two in a row!

"Bad ass" understates this photo

For the second time this season, the Aggies are on a winning streak! And for the second game in a row, USU racked up assists like they were a Utah State basketball team!

Outdoing Thursday's 17-assist effort, the team had better than 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio Saturday, dishing out 19 dimes while giving up a season-best six turnovers. Or in other words, it was a hell of a team effort. If the team can play with that kind of chemistry the rest of the year, we just might actually turn some heads.

Really with the way the team came out tonight, and how they essentially looked in control for almost the entirety, this game wasn't ever in doubt. And certainly not after Mitch Bruneel had anything to say about things either. Basically the Aggies won this game in every statistical category except the turnover battle. Rare will it be the case that you can lose the turnover battle with only six TOs, but winning in shooting percentages, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks and points will have to do for now.

Not much else to really say about this game before getting into the individual props, so let's get on with it, eh?

Matt Lopez makes it official

Utah State has added even more size for next season. Rumors of former La Salle center Matt Lopez transferring to USU had been circulating for a couple weeks, and finally became clear this week. Lopez is now an Aggie.

After coming to La Salle with moderate expectations, Lopez rarely saw the floor and apparently that was enough to convince him to seek greener pastures. Based on his numbers, it would seem that Stew has another project on his hands to go along with Jordan Stone for the next few years, but when it comes to guys who are borderline seven-footers, that's one hell of a framework to start with for a guy as good at coaching big men as Stew has been.

There's a few videos on Youtube featuring Lopez, one of him working out, and another that is an actual highlight reel of him basically picking on dudes much shorter than him. Tough to take too much from either of them, but from what I can gather, he's clearly working on things like post move fundamentals and footwork in the workout video, and in the highlight video he seems to have some decent instincts on reading a play and getting in position to make a block. He also seems to have some tenacity, which should take him a long way with size like his.

Sharing is caring... or winning, or whatever. Ag's win.

Do you see what happens Larry when you hit a teammate with a pass!?!?

17 assists!!! That'll be good for 77 points, and 77 points would have been good enough to win each of the last three games. The team had more assists tonight than the previous two games combined, which they sure as hell needed tonight, what with them getting outrebounded by 20... TWENTY!!!! (had to spell it out since you can't put numbers into all caps).

If this game had turned out to be a loss, I would be absolutely furious. Instead I'm just kind of passively furious, and really just happy to have come out with a win.

Touche Parsing the WAC.... Touche....

Aggie fans' first world problems

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... If you're a fan of any team in the WAC, and you don't read Parsing The WAC, you're doing it wrong.

Kevin McCarthy, like he so often does, pretty much nailed it yesterday in offering some therapy to Utah State fans. I also can't help but wonder if much of that was in response to my own personal explosion of frustration regarding the State of the Aggies after 20 games. Seeing as how he used the exact same picture of stepping off a ledge I used back in December when I made the same plea, I dare say he's paying attention to this site... or he just does a Google image search for random photos just like all of us bloggers out there do.

The point is, he basically threw down the perfect counterpoint to my point, with a little outsiders perspective.

Yes, Aggie fans have been spoiled as hell the past few years. From 2009-2011, USU lost one fewer WAC game over a three year span than last year's second place team did in 2011 alone. Prior to losing at home to Nevada this season, the last time USU lost a WAC home game, the current USU freshman class were eighth graders. The last time Utah State lost three WAC games in one year, nobody gave a shit, or even really yet knew of Sarah Palin (Those were the days, eh?)

Maybe it's good we're remembering what it's like to lose. This season will make winning feel that much better if/when the team gets back on track.

History lesson
Since the WAC as we know it came to be in 2005-06, no other team has suffered a greater loss in a single offseason as what USU has had to deal with going into this year. One of the closest examples though is what Nevada lost after the 2009-10 season (you know how I love me some historical comparisons).

Luke Babbitt, Armon Johnson, Brandon Fields, Joey Shaw and Ray Kraemer all moved on, leaving Dario Hunt as essentially the only returning player with experience. The result was a 13-19 team with a .500 record in WAC play last year. There were good individual performances, but their inexperience held them back, particularly in playing as a team. They averaged just 11.8 assists per game on the year. USU this year is averaging 11.7... See why I dig these historical comparisons?

And just look at Nevada now.

Leadership
Everything changed once Brady Jardine got hurt. The dude is just a leader, plain and simple. Preston Medlin is growing into that role, but it's just not the same as it would have been. One of the biggest complaints is that this year's team doesn't look or play like a Stew Morrill team, but they still play for Stew, and eventually he'll mold them into what he wants to see.

Not how things were supposed to be
The problem this year isn't just that six seniors graduated, the team's leader getting hurt and a massive amount of inexperience. James Walker and Norvell Arnold would likely have been stars on this team. Antonio Bumpus and Steven Thornton would have provided MUCH needed depth on the wings. Deshawn Stephens probably would be the first big man off the bench right now had he held his commitment.

In other words, plan A of this rebuilding year pretty much entirely fell through. Stew had to resort to plan B, and with the injuries to Jardine and Bumpus, plan B was done no favors. The last time a team this young was forced to learn on the fly, the young guys had Jaycee Carroll, Gary Wilkinson, Kris Clark and Steve Ducharme to help them along.

The result is that we're finally seeing that down year that the has been prophesied by Stew for so long. We didn't want to believe this would be the case, and with a Jardine in the picture, it likely wouldn't have been, but it is. 

In closing...
Yes, it does look like the Aggies are sharing their gold this year... Enjoy it WAC. We don't plan on sharing it for long.

Patience has been exhausted. Time to rant.

I gave this team a nearly infinite level of forgiveness early on this year for being a young team dealing with losing a senior leader to injury. They essentially could do no wrong early on and were given the benefit of the doubt in just about every way by me. Then as they started winning some games and looking good, I sang their praises like effing crazy. All the while, I've relentlessly had their backs.

During the Gossners Tournament, it looked like this team grew up and was ready to make a run at another WAC title. They were playing team ball, executing in every way, and just looked totally in sync. 

Vandals win 57-54... Not happy about this.

So, let's talk basketball strategy for a bit...

 - When you have only a four-point lead over a team with just under four minutes left to play in a game, chances are you will need to score more than just one point in the final 3:45 to hold on for the win.

 - Turning the ball over on four out of five possessions prior to a final attempt at a game-tying 3-pointer is a no-no... You see, if you don't turn the ball over like that and maybe even make a basket or two in that span, you won't even need to be looking to tie the game with a 3-pointer.

 - One, yes ONE field goal attempt in the last four minutes of the game for Utah State. That one attempt being the attempted game-tying 3-pointer.

Doing nothing really well gets an "L"; USU loses 73-66

This whole assists thing almost feels like broken record at this point, but it keeps showing to be true. You see, Stew Morrill's offense is designed in a way that demands players set each other up and make crisp passes. As a result, they get good looks, shoot high percentages from the field and usually seem to be able to hang in games where they seem very physically overmatched.

That hasn't really been the case lately though. For the third game in a row, USU totaled just eight assists on the game. When the Aggies also get killed in rebounds and field goal shooting, you almost have to be grateful that a seven-point loss is all this turned out to be.