Aggies continue 20-win streak
Entering into the season, USU welcomed nine new players and Stew Morrill had the challenge to replace three outgoing seniors in the starting lineup, including Nate Harris, who was honored as a first team all-conference player three times. Returning starters for the season were junior guards Jaycee Carroll and Durrall Peterson. Carroll averaged 15.5 points per game as a sophomore and was recognized as second team All-WAC. With the loss of big man Nate Harris and center Cass Matheus, USU knew that filling the post position would be important.”We don’t have a veteran returning starting post, and it’s been a long time since we haven’t had that. So we are going to have some growing pains at all positions but certainly the post position,” Head Coach Stew Morrill said. Junior college transfer Stephen DuCharme has assumed the role of big man and is averaging 10.2 points and 4.9 rebounds. The other post spot has been played by seniors Chaz Spicer and Chris Session. Another position that also saw no returning starter was at point guard. Mikel Watson and Kris Clark, both junior college transfers, split minutes at point before Watson hurt his knee during a game at Fresno State. The injury has given most of the minutes to Clark, who is averaging 4.3 assists per game. The Aggies record in preconference games was 11-6. USU won the Top of the World Classic in Alaska by beating in-state rival Weber State in the championship game. The Aggies were also able to beat in-state rival University of Utah, 60-57, at home on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Chaz Spicer.Conference play started with two straight road losses at Boise State and Fresno State before the team won their next four at home and then another on the road against San Jose State. One of the home wins was against Boise State, where they avenged their road loss. Trailing by nine points with two minutes left in the game, USU went on a 10-0 scoring run to close out the game and win, 80-79. With their conference record now at 5-2, the Aggies hit the road again and lost to Nevada and Hawaii before again reeling off another five-game winning streak. The streak was capped off by a come-from-behind victory at Oral Roberts in an ESPN Bracketbusters game. The Aggies were down by 18 early on before coming back to win 71-65. The win also gave the Aggies there 20th win of the year, making it the eighth straight year the team has accomplished that feat.”I was hard on this team earlier in the year,” Morrill said. “Practice habits and defensively, and some of the things that we weren’t doing that we needed to do to have a chance to win some games. And at that time, I’m not sure I would have imagined this team would get to 20 wins, so I am really proud of this group and they should feel good about it. But we got a lot of basketball left to play.”Now sitting at 9-4 in conference play, the Aggies once again hit the road and once again lost two straight games at New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech. To finish out the regular season, USU had home games against the 9th-ranked Nevada Wolf Pack and Fresno State. After getting down by as many as 15 points against the visiting Wolfpack in the first half, the Aggies came back and were able to win in overtime, 79-77. “One thing I will say about our team this year is that we’ve hung in,” Morrill said after the win over the Wolf Pack. “We’ve hung in when times have got tough. We have 21 wins and we have some limitations, like rebounding. We were tough in the second half. We defended and kept answering the bell when we were down. I couldn’t be more proud of this group.” In the Western Athletic Conference tournament, fans were treated to three hard-fought close games. In the opening round, USU matched up against the University of Hawaii and prevailed, 73-70, setting up a rematch against the now 10th-ranked Wolf Pack. Chaz Spicer came up big for the Aggies as he sunk two free throws with 2.5 seconds left to give USU another 79-77 win over Nevada. The championship game matched up a pair of Aggies as USU played against host team New Mexico State and lost, 72-70. The loss meant no trip for the Aggies to the Big Dance, but it wasn’t long before the National Invitational Tournament came calling and offered USU a chance to play against the University of Michigan. USU accepted and two days later faced off against the Big-Ten school. After making a run in the second half and making the game close, Michigan pulled away for a 68-58 win.The Aggies ended the season with a record of 23-12, making it the eight straight season the team has won at least 23 games.
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Jaycee Carroll was the offensive leader of this team and improved his play on the defensive end. He finished the season with a scoring average of 21.3 points per game, which was good enough for 10th in the country. He was named honorable mention All-American, as well as first team All-WAC.
Most Improved Player
No one was more important to the success of the Aggies this year than senior forward Chaz Spicer. He averaged 11.3 points per game and shot 84 percent from the foul line, as well as 42 percent behind the 3-point line. Even more importantly than the numbers though was how Spicer emerged as a go-to player in the clutch.
Newcomer of the Year
This pick was not easy, but the award goes to Stephen DuCharme, a junior college transfer from Kansas. He proved to be the Aggies go-to guy in the paint. He finished the season averaging 10.2 points per game, five rebounds and shot 54 percent from the field. -samabry@cc.usu.edu