Utah State here on Saturday

It's a different Utah State or make that a differently situated USU hitting Walt McPherson Court come Saturday. At the end of February and regardless of the year, the Aggies are usually far and away the best team in their conference or easily beating back pesky pretenders to the throne.

But 2014 finds Stew Morrill and Company with an overall 15-13 record plus a very unfamiliar 5-11 Mountain West Conference performance. The lack of consistency, an overall lack of athleticism plus a roster of talents who cannot generate their own shot has weighed the Aggies down and also caused a 3-7 road record.

But before deigning them to the scrap heap, it's worth noting the Aggies battled New Mexico tough, and in The Pit, before falling 67-58 on Tuesday. USU actually led 27-26 at the half.

Utah State is still a Spencer Butterfield and Preston Medlin team, the three and the two in the starting lineup. They and fellow senior Jarred Shaw, who is the five, generally need to provide solid game contributions in order to Morrill's guys to triumph. At the point is TeNale Roland and Marcel Davis. The former has enjoyed a few point explosions this season but is fifth on the team in shots attempted. Jalen Moore, a freshman forward, will be a star...in time and probably as a wing. Kyle Davis has been up and down at the four spot.

USU is about a -80 vis-a-vis turnovers this season. The Aggies don't employ an aggressive defensive style and therefore don't get many steals and such but also generally don't commit many but being underwater in this category is unusual territory.

Here's an excerpt from Salt Lake Tribune USU beat reporter Kyle Goon:

Senior night at the Spectrum is fast approaching, less than a week away.

But Spencer Butterfield has a more personal night coming up on Saturday at San Jose State, where he will play a mere two hours from his hometown. Many of his family and friends are gladly driving the distance to get a final live look at Butterfield in an Aggie uniform.

"They’re calling it my senior night," he said. "That’s how I’m looking at it: It’s like my senior night on the road. I’m excited to get down there."

Not only will Utah State get a chance to get a conference win on the road against the Spartans — the last-place team in the Mountain West — the Aggies may get a hometown bump from Butterfield. Last time he played at the Event Center, he notched a team-high 22 points and 10 rebounds.

He’s not the only NorCal native looking forward to a homecoming of sorts. Freshman guard JoJo McGlaston said he’s expecting as many as 150 friends and family from his hometown of Dublin, Calif., only a 30-minute drive.

McGlaston’s first Division I offer came from San Jose State, and the game has been circled on his calendar, so to speak, since the schedule came out.

"High school, college friends, family — everybody’s going to be out there," he said...

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These two teams met on January 4 -- here's that game report:

The return of Jarred Shaw helped Utah State take the 86-67 victory over SJSU but a 20 rebound differential -- 44 to 22 -- is still startling.

The factors: both Chris Cunningham and Jaleel Williams fouled out with neither reaching the 30 minute mark (Cunningham was limited to just 17 60-second turns on the clock). Therefore, freshman Matt Pollard saw 20 minutes of action, shot 2-2 and blocked a pair of shots but registered no rebounds.

Rashad Muhammad paced the Spartans with 20 points (6-9 from three-point range) as the Washington Square guys lofted 35 trey attempts in 57 overall shots, many of them before Utah State engaged defensively.

But worth noting is earning 16 assists on 24 baskets, indicating solid Spartan ball movement.

Coming off the bench, point TeNale Roland had a career night with 20 points (7-7 overall shooting, 5-5 from beyond the stripe and all in the second half). He got a late run by the Aggies started which put the game out of reach.

 Plus, here's our game preview from earlier:

...Yes, sharpshooting guard Preston Medlin (47% from long distance, 50/15 assist-to-turnover ratio) is back and tied for the lead with Spencer Butterfield (6.5 rebounds an outing) in scoring at 14.2 points per game. But the former stands 6-foot-4 and the latter 6-foot-3. Both are solid contributors but no Jaycee Carroll, meaning neither can take over a contest. They are best as cogs in a well-oiled and multi-threat offensive machine.

6-foot-7 forward Kyle Davis is contributing 10.1 points plus 8.6 rebounds (and 20 blocked shots) but it's a scramble after that as nobody else is steadily adding to the Aggie attack.

6-foot-7 freshman forward Jalen Moore will be a very good player in time but he's hit-and-miss at the moment.

Neither Ben Clifford at 6-foot-7 nor 6-foot-10 Jordan Stone are going to often outplay their respective opponents in the paint. Clifford can be a sneaky scorer but more if he's getting overlooked because of the focus being elsewhere. Stone is best at defending.

6-foot-6 Danny Berger, who went through that horrendous situation in a practice last year where his heart stopped, has receded a bit in his effect.

At the point Marcel Davis starts and TeNale Roland is his backup but neither is capable of a breakout offensive performance.

Best of all we get to present this: here's Sean Harris, a USU reserve out of the Sacramento area, who received some national attention for his coiffure.