Trying to forget Nevada
Stew Morrill walked into practice Monday and threw the Nevada game tape onto the ground, shattering it into hundreds of pieces.
The head coach wanted to make it clear to his players that they needed to move on from last Saturday’s 18-point home loss.
“We’re trying to put our focus on this week, not last Saturday’s game,” Morrill said. “We need to be upbeat and positive about all the good things that can still happen.”
Morrill said that loss has been exagerrated because had USU won, it would have been tied for first in the conference.
“The reality is we split with them,” he said. “We won on their court and they won on ours. If you don’t add placement with it, the loss is easier to take. It’s not like all of a sudden the season is hopeless.”
The Utah State men’s basketball team will try to turn the page this week when it faces the Fresno State Bulldogs Thursday in the Spectrum at 7 p.m. The game will air on KJZZ-TV.
USU will try again to win its 20th game of the season for the seventh straight year. It is currently 19-6 overall with a 9-5 record in conference play.
Morrill said FSU is very similar to New Mexico State.
“Fresno is very, very difficult for us to guard,” he said. “They use their penetration to open up 3-point shots. They shoot the seventh-most threes in the country per game.”
The Bulldogs are in a self-imposed, post-season ban this year for numerous rules violations. They will not even get to compete in the Western Athletic Conference tournament.
“They’re down to their final two games,” Morrill said. “I’m sure they’re trying to finish on a good note. There’s very few teams that can finish the season with a win. They’re in a position to do that.”
The Bulldogs sport a record of 15-11, 8-6 in conference play, and have won four of their last five games, including an 81-79 win over Boise State on ESPN Monday night.
FSU is led by the duo of Quinton Hosley and Ja’Vance Coleman. Together, they average 36.6 points, 12.2 rebounds and 3.2 steals per game.
“They’re at least as good as any duo out there,” Morrill said.
He said they compare to other combinations in the league like Nevada’s Nick Fazekas/Marcelus Kemp, USU’s own Nate Harris/Jaycee Carroll and New Mexico State’s Elijah Ingram/anybody else on that team.
USU lost the first meeting this season with FSU 99-96 in double-overtime. In that game, Hosley and Coleman combined for 50 points, six 3-pointers, 21 rebounds and 10 assists. Also in that game, Nate Harris had a season-high 33 points
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu