Utah coach is humbled
LOGAN, Utah — Even though one team had to lose, both coaches in Utah State University’s 58-57 upset win over the 22nd-ranked University of Utah Wednesday night said they felt the game had served an important learning purpose.
For Utah, assistant coach Dick Hunsaker said the non-conference game – played in front of a noisy, boisterous sellout USU crowd – showed his team they have the same stamina and character other recent Ute teams have shown.
Aggie coach Stew Morrill said the game showed his team they can “hang in there against bigger teams who can guard the heck out of you.”
Both acknowledged the active crowd may have played a part in the learning process. “The fans are right on top of you here,” Hunsaker noted. “But we can take a lot out of this game. We never wilted. In that way, we mirrored our team from last year.”
With the loss, Utah drops to 4-3, while USU stands at 5-1. Hunsaker is bench coach for the Utes while head coach Rick Majerus nurses a knee following surgery. Majerus did not make the trip and will likely not be with the team until later in December.
Utah State was led in scoring by guard Tony Brown with 18 points and a game-high six assists. Shawn Daniels dropped in 15. Utah was led by Kevin Bradley and Phil Cullen with 13 each.
The visiting Utes had four chances in the final 28 seconds of the game to steal a win, but could not get a score. With less than 10 seconds remaining in the game, Utah grabbed a rebound off a missed USU free throw and cleared the floor for guard Bradley, who had just moments earlier canned a heart-stopping three-point shot. Bradley slashed into the lane for a three-foot shot that missed but came right back to him. His follow-up tip was also off the mark and teammate Mike Puzey grabbed the missed for a second tip-in attempt. It also missed and USU grabbed the rebound as the buzzer sounded.
Hunsaker: “If that last one goes in, we are the happy team and dancing off the floor.”
With 28 seconds remaining, the Utes had cleared the lane for a Travis Spivey jumper that would have also given the visitors the lead, but it also bounced off, ending up in the hands of Aggie Curtis Bobb.
Utah held the lead most of the second half, until USU went on a 10-1 run with about five minutes remaining. Forward Shawn Daniels scored eight of his 15 points on the night during the run and brought the Aggies to a 58-53 lead.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Daniels said. “Last year we got embarrassed (a 77-42 loss in Salt Lake City) and this year we had to return the favor.”
USU’s Morrill said the final series of shots was “one of those times when your life flashes before your eyes. I really thought that last one was going in, but we got away with a win.”
Hunsaker said the preseason still finds the Utes looking for leadership and learning to play roles. He also noted that the team may be missing their head coach more early in the season than they would later.
“This has been a tough time on everybody,” he said. “We are such a new club. If this was February, maybe we could slide over more easily. But this time of the season, we realize how new we are together. I think we have some unfair expectations, based, in part on Rick’s reputation. We might be that good but we’re not that good yet.
“Roles aren’t defined, our leadership is not defined. There will be time for that to evolve.”
Morrill said the evolution will leave Utah in a good position.
“Utah will be just fine. They will be a good basketball team, don’t fool yourself,” Morrill, in his third USU season, said. “When it gets to the Mountain West play, that will be a real good team.”
Morrill said he knew if his team was “outrebounded by 20, it would be hard to keep up.” As it turned out, the Utes outrebounded the Aggies 18-9 in the first half. The Utes had also canned five three-point shots just before halftime to take a 38-33 lead at intermission.
“We were really disturbed by the rebounding edge at halftime and the percentages they were shooting,” Morrill said. “They were pounding us on the boards. In the second half we went to changing our defense and that really helped us.”
Morrill said he changed his defense several times in the second half to slow the Utes and give his team a better rebounding posture.
“When you play a more talented team, sometimes you have to do some things to keep them off balance, so I changed the defense up a little bit,” Morrill said. “We switched it up a time or two. It could have back-fired, but it seemed to work. They missed some shots, which has to happen, and we boarded the ball much better.”
The taller Utah team finished the game outrebounding USU 35-30.
“I knew rebounding would be a huge part of the game. We looked like Darby and the Little People when we matched up out there against them,” Morrill said.
The emotional game had four technicals called – two on players and one on each bench – along with the intentional foul on Bradley. USU fans poured down “boos” on Bradley each time he touched the ball after he elbowed Aggie Brown with just under four minutes gone in the game.
Utah next faces another in-state rival in their preseason learning process, Weber State in Salt Lake City Saturday. USU will face Montana Tech that same night in Logan.