ESPN2 invades Logan
The last time the University of California, Irvine men’s basketball team visited the Spectrum to play Utah State University, more than 10,000 fans were in attendance. The fans watched USU avenge its previous week’s loss to the Anteaters – a loss that snapped the Aggies 27-game Big West Conference winning streak.
Almost one year later, USU Head Coach Stew Morrill is hoping for the same type of fan support when the Anteaters travel to Logan to face the Aggies Thursday night at 9 p.m. in a game broadcast nationally by ESPN2.
He just hopes the fan support doesn’t involve throwing toilet paper on the court.
“We don’t need to start the game with a technical [foul],” Morrill said. “We appreciate the enthusiasm, but let’s show the country who’s watching that we know the ’70s are gone.”
Not only will fans have the chance to support the Aggies on national television, Thursday’s game will also give the Aggies (11-2, 3-1 in the BWC) a chance to seize a share of the conference lead with the Anteaters (10-4, 3-0).
The two most successful teams in the conference last season, Utah State and Irvine were picked by several preseason publications to finish first and second in the Big West this season.
Despite losing three starters from last year’s squad, the Anteaters were picked to win the league in both the BWC coaches and media polls, and are as dangerous as they were a year ago, Morrill said.
One Anteater who is especially dangerous is point guard Jerry Green, the reigning Big West Player of the Year.
Undrafted by the NBA in last year’s draft, Green was eligible to return to UCI for his senior year because he never signed on with an agent.
Green has lit up opponents to the tune of a league-high 22.6 points per game. Green is also among the league leaders in field goal percentage (.517), free throw percentage (.809) and three-point field goal percentage (.407).
“He goes around you off the dribble, he shoots 40 percent from three,” Morrill said. “If you are fortunate enough to stop him [from penetrating] then he jumps up and makes threes.”
While Green is the unquestionable leader of the team, UCI is not a one man show.
Similar to the past couple of Aggie teams, the Anteaters enjoy good scoring balance as three players average more than 10 points a game, and another, 9.5.
Among the players who has helped Green in the scoring department is Colgate University transfer Jordan Harris.
Despite being only 6-foot-5, Harris leads the team in rebounding (6.8 boards per game), and is second on the team in scoring, averaging 12.3 points a game.
Harris has been red hot during league action, averaging 19.7 points in three league games and is hard to handle on the offensive glass, Morrill said.
“He’s very athletic,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons he boards the ball so well for them.”
Post players Adam Parada (11.6 ppg) and Stanislav Zuzak (9.5 ppg), both sophomores, are much improved from last season, Morrill said. Parada, a 7-footer, played for the Mexican National team last summer.
In order to beat the Anteaters, Morrill said the Aggies will need to continue to play good defense and win the battle of the boards.
USU leads the Big West in rebounding margin, averaging 9.3 more rebounds per game than its opponent and is coming off what Morrill said was its best defensive effort of the season against UC Santa Barbara.
In the UCSB game, the Aggies stymied the Gaucho attack, holding UCSB to a horrendous 27.3 percent shooting in the second half in a game Morrill said was a “special win for us.”
“Our defense in the second half of the Santa Barbara game was as good as its been the whole year,” he said.
Morrill said it is also imperative the Aggies sustain a total team effort.
“It’s important we get contributions from a lot of people,” Morrill said. “That was real obvious last weekend [against Cal Poly].”
Not only would a victory over UCI propel USU in first place in the Big West, it would extend the Aggies’ homecourt winning streak to 32 games.
USU has also been extremely successful in games broadcast by ESPN, winning 12 of its last 13 games on the network.
“Television exposure for recruiting purposes and those kind of things is so important. If a recruit can see the atmosphere and the excitement that never hurts,” Morrill said. “I think we need more games [on T.V.].”
Thursday’s game is the conference’s only ESPN or ESPN2 game this year as the Big West’s contract with ESPN expired last season.
“ESPN loved coming to Logan,” Morrill said. “They probably still do because of the students, the atmosphere and those kind of things.