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.

New offer out to a power forward

Via Verbal Commits: "2014 Sylmar (CA) F Devenir Duruisseau has received an offer from San Jose State"

For those who believe in omens: his high school team mascot nickname is the Spartans.

Here's a January, 2013 article on the 6-foot-8, 230 pound young man.

Here's a 2013 video:

San Diego State's offensive woes

Matt Giles digs deep into San Diego State's 'offensive' numbers. It's an informative look in explaining how the Aztecs defense is carrying the team.

A pair of MWC basketball columns

Chris Murray serves up his weekly Mountain West Conference team rankings.

He has the Spartans last but with this comment: "SJSU had to beat somebody this MWC season. It just so happened to be Nevada in Reno last week. That was one of the Wolf Pack’s worst losses in the past decade, but it was good to see SJSU get to celebrate at least one league win."

Robert Kuwada also provides his weekly MWC take.

Two more takes on the game

Here is Brad Best's coverage of the game.

Mark Ziegler also game reports.

SJSU falls 90-64

It took a while for San Diego State to get its big hurt ready and rolling but such finally made an appearance and the game became out of reach for San Jose State University in the second half, finishing at 90-64.

The Washington Square-ites were stuck on 38 points from the 15:45 mark in the second half until nine minutes remained.

Down 44-30 after the initial 20 minutes, the Spartans were burdened with 14 turnovers, 11 steals by the Aztecs and zero appearances at the foul line. A streak of points, even just six or seven, coming out in the second half would get them back in the game.

That didn't take place.

On the game, 27 of San Jose's 53 shots were of the beyond the arc variety and connecting on 37% isn't bad -- it was going 10-26 closer in that hurt the Spartans.

Junior forward Jaleel Williams paced SJSU with both 14 points plus eight boards and freshman guard Rashad Muhammad also finished with 14. The latter typified tonight's performance: 4-8 from beyond the arc, 0-5 from two-point range. Chris Cunningham enjoyed nine points (just three shots) and six boards.

It's worth noting to see if Matt Pollard can build upon his production tonight: five points and a trio of rebounds.

Here's a bevy of game photos.

Utah State comes to town on Saturday. In The Pit tonight, the Aggies battled New Mexico tough before falling 67-58. USU led 27-26 at the half.

Interesting words from Stew Morrill

Utah State Coach Stew Morrill:

Perhaps one of the biggest adjustments for the Aggies in the conference switch has been the venues they've been playing in. Just a week since playing in front of a sellout crowd at Viejas Arena in front of The Show, Utah State now heads to one of the loudest and most packed arenas in the country: The Pit. The Lobos have only 13 losses since 2007 in their home arena.

Woof.

Utah State is used to claiming conference dominance in homecourt advantage, and for many Aggie fans, they may still. But Morrill said going to the Mountain West has definitely been a step up.

"We got kind of spoiled in the Big West and the WAC," he said. "We'd all kind of puff our chest out and say that our arena and crowd were better than anybody's. In this league, there's a lot of great crowds. With us losing some games our crowd has dropped off a little bit."

So how is Jeremiah Ingram performing?

6-foot-7 Jeremiah Ingram signed with San Jose State University back in November. The Colby (Kansas) Community College frontcourter is his team's leading scorer and rebounder (18.8 points, 9.2 rebounds) and is also tops in blocked shots with 34.

Ingram's has 66 assists to his credit versus 78 turnovers and his shooting accuracy is 44% overall, 27% from beyond the arc and 71% from the foul line.

Going 20-73 from long distance confirms that is not his forte. The Spartans are obviously known for three-point shooting this season but Ingram will not be greenlighted for such next season because it's a waste of his bountiful athleticism and his ability to draw fouls.

Speaking of the latter, Ingram has attempted 227 free throws in 28 contests, a very good 8.1 per contest. With Coach Wojcik's guys -153 in attempts at the charity stripe versus opponents thus far this season, a dramatic change is needed. Winning teams get to the foul line more often and also enjoy having key opposing players in foul trouble and thus playing less time than usual.

Colby finished 9-20 overall, 0-13 in conference play.

This week's MWC team rankings

Robert Gagliardi is out with his weekly Mountain West Conference team rankings.

Entering the gates of hell

The Spartans head down to play San Diego on Tuesday evening and these Aztecs, formerly rated #6 in the nation, are coming off a 58-44 ESPN televised beatdown at the hands and home of New Mexico. The Lobos punctured the vaunted San Diego State defense for a 50% conversion rate in shooting and held The Border Guys to 32%.

Concurrently, MWC Player of the Year candidate Xavier Thames has experienced a shooting slump of late and the guard finished 3-15 in The Pit. He must correct that for the Aztecs to roll.

So you think Steve Fisher's squad, 22-3 overall, 12-2 in Mountain West Conference play, might be looking to blow off some built up frustration?

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Here's Juan Reyes/The Spartan Daily on the 75-50 January matchup between these two teams.

Below is our game report post:

You knew it was coming but the arrival time wasn't posted. That being a San Diego State points run. Eventually it arrived -- in the second half -- and that was that as the Aztecs topped San Jose State University 75-50 tonight. Coach Dave Wojcik's squad pulled within five twice but became stuck on 30 points for an interminably long time -- 17:34 to 12:37 -- and that's when the game slipped away.
The score was a tepid 29-19 at the half but that picked up in the second 20 minutes. However, the shooting numbers for both teams were abysmal: 39%, 15% and 64% for the victors, 33%, 26% and 53% for the Spartans. 39-17 was the differential in free throw attempts.
Xavier Thames (the guard out of Sacramento) led the Aztecs with 15 points while Devante Wilson paced the Washington Square crew with 14.
Two other San Diego Staters are from the Sacramento area and that helped bolster attendance to the best anyone could recall at 4,117.
For the second straight game, freshman Rashad Muhammad was negated. It was 1-7 tonight with five points in 21 minutes preceded by 0-7, two points in 26 minutes versus Wyoming.
It was that kind of night: Aztec center Skylar Spencer entered the matchup shooting 8-18 on the season (17 games) concerning free throws. He earned six visits to the charity stripe tonight and sank four of them. Spencer also went 4-4 from the field.
SJSU attempted but 19 threes on the evening.

From our preview of that contest:

The backcourt leader is 6-foot-3 senior Xavier Thames, a senior out of Sacramento and a transfer from Washington State after his sophomore season. He is averaging 17.0 points per game while connecting on 43% of his overall shot attempts and 47% from long distance. 6-foot-8 sophomore Winston Sheppard is at 13.1 points an outing with half his rebounds coming offensively. He has the making of the next star of this group. 6-foot-7 JJ O'Brien scores 9.4 points per contest with 48% overall accuracy. 6-foot-8 Tulane transfer Josh Davis owns the boards at 11.5 each time out and in the middle is 6-foot-10 Skylar Spencer who has swatted away 44 shots.

Their respective roles have been maintained. 

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Chris Cunningham will have his hands full offensively with Spencer's defensive prowess and intimidation. Also don't look for Rashad Muhammad to experience many open looks at the basket. SJSU won't back down (Tom Petty's song inserted here) but will be facing an angry opponent looking to re-prove their deserved lofty ranking of yore. The Spartans don't have the firepower at this point to take down the Aztecs but let's see what kind of game they give them.

Win marred by ugly incident

A Geoff Grammer tweet: "Cup thrown after game was by a Lobo fan after the game. UNM got his name. AD Paul Krebs said if he's a season ticket holder, "he's done."

AFTER a win over San Diego State! Just what makes some people think they have a right to express themselves in any manner they choose? Unbelievable.

But then there's this with a caption of: "Here are the Partizan (Belgrade, Serbia) fans across from us, segregated into the corner and surrounded by dozens of policemen"

It's sinking in at Utah State

Kyle Goon covers the giant step Utah State basketball took in joining the Mountain West Conference.

Coach Stew Morrill's task can be boiled down to: get better athletes ASAP.

Ominous headline: "Has the Wolf Pack quit on the season?"

Chris Murray's article begins:

The Wolf Pack basketball team quit in the middle of last season. You don’t have to take my word for it.

Coach David Carter said as much entering this year. The team had a number of players “check out,” as Carter put it, and the year ended with eight straight losses.

After a massive switch in personnel, with four players transferring in the offseason, the Wolf Pack is headed in the same direction again this year. Nevada is riding a five-game skid and has watched a promising start to conference play (the team started 7-2) turn into a nightmare in motion.

The big question now is if this team, like last year’s team, has quit on itself, its coach and its season...

Head here for the remainder.

Ranking the 2013-14 MWC hoops recruiting classes

Hoopniks rates the recruiting classes thus far of the Mountain West Conference members.

They did it!

The proverbial monkey is off their collective backs. Pundits would have gleefully joined in derision had San Jose State University not won a league game this season but that won't happen now since the Spartans just downed Nevada 66-64 in Reno. That's five consecutive L's for the Coach David Carter's guys.

You may say it's just one win but even at 1-17 (and let's see how the remainder of the contests play out) such will prevent the launching of any number of posts of ridicule. Hell, that derision might just now be directed at the Wolf Pack after tonight.

On dribble-drive penetration with just seconds remaining, Jalen James had his shot blocked by AJ West but the ball came back to James who then shot again and scored what proved to be the winning bucket.

Fellow frosh Isaac Thornton again padded the stat sheet again with a team-leading 15 points, a tops-on-the-team six rebounds plus two assists. Yes, he was called for a foul near the end when Nevada's Cole Huff dribbled into the key although it sure looked like a clean steal of the ball.

This is a Spartan squad that won't quit or back down despite physical, talent and experience limitations. That's a major plus and a credit to the coaching staff and players. But it's worth mentioning that prior to James' re-launch in the paint, the last six shot attempts, minus a tip-in from Jaleel Williams, were all from three-point range. Granted, some were open looks but that's not an offensive diet that aids in the maintenance of a lead -- something SJSU had for the majority of the game.

SJSU led 33-26 at the half.

By the way, said monkey is now on Coach David Carter's back. His team appeared uninspired, had no inside game to speak of and his best talent is soon heading to the NBA. He's a good guy in the profession but but his recruiting classes have been lacking plus the Wolf Pack's new AD isn't the one who hired Carter so there may be trouble on campus in The Biggest Little City in the World.

Here's a game report from Dan Hinxman.

Chris Murray did write this prior to the game: "For the past four years, the Wolf Pack has peaked in the middle of conference play and struggled down the stretch. During those seasons, the Wolf Pack is 21-11 in the first half of league play and 10-17 in the second half of league play. That’s a troubling trend."

A Murray post-game tweet: "Coach Carter hints that he might not travel all of his players to Air Force. He wants guys there who are going to contribute to the team."