Basketball scrimmage shows mediocre defense
Aggie fans got their first look at the Utah State men’s basketball team during the Blue and White scrimmage Wednesday night.
While it’s apparent head coach Stew Morrill may have his most inexperienced group since he took over at USU, it is more visible to both Morrill and the veteran players what the team needs to do to be ready for the season kickoff on Nov. 11 when the Aggies host Brigham Young University.
“We’ve got a long ways to go,” senior forward Brady Jardine said. “It’s apparent and I think that’s what everyone is going to expect a little bit. You lose six guys that played a lot of minutes and you have 10 guys that come in.”
“We’ve had 10 practices, but we’ve got a lot of work to do defensively, offensively. I think we’ve got to improve on every aspect of the game and we’ve got to improve quick because we’ve got some tough games coming up.”
The Wednesday night scrimmage was a little ragged at times and both squads struggled to make shots.
“I don’t know if it was a little bit of nerves or whatever,” Jardine said. “The blue team couldn’t make a lot of open shots and that’ll happen every once in a while, but we need to do better with rebounding and things. We just need to go out and play and that will come.”
Many possessions from both squads resulted in last-second shots, but Jardine said those shots were not forced because of good defense from either team.
“I wouldn’t say we were playing great defense tonight,” Jardine said. “We played OK defense. A lot of the end of shot clock shots was because our offense is still a little choppy. We don’t have our screens as good as they need to be. We aren’t in the places we need to be. We just need to have a little bit more practice to understand our plays and understand the timing of things and that we have to run our plays hard.”
There were some positives in the scrimmage however, especially from players who may be called upon to play minutes and make plays.
Freshman forward Ben Clifford, who redshirted last season, scored a team-high eight points on 4 of 6 shooting from the field.
“There were some encouraging things,” Morrill said. “Ben Clifford played as well as he’s played or practiced.”
Jardine, senior point guard Brockeith Pane and freshman guard Adam Thoseby all scored six points apiece in the scrimmage.
At the end of last season, the Aggies lost six seniors from their roster. Those seniors were 68-1 in the friendly confines of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum and notched a 30-4 record last year. Morrill knows that things may be a little more difficult at times for this year’s squad.
“We’re going to have to hang in,” Morrill said. “Last year’s team went through no tough times. Let’s be honest, where you are 30-4, you’re not having lots of tough times. We’re hopefully going to have some ups, but certainly some lows and we’re going to see how we respond. They’ve got to keep their heads up because we’re just going to coach them. We’re going to try and make them do things the way they need to do them to have a chance.”
Morrill has already taken great efforts to give all the new players a chance to learn the system and improve. Morrill often talks about the importance of consistent practice and this season’s practice sessions are a bit lengthier for the team.
“I’ve never practiced this long since a long time ago,” Morrill said. “I never went this long, but we’ve got so many guys. Last year’s guys would get through the same amount of stuff in two hours and twenty minutes, but it takes us three hours and fifteen minutes. There’s time where we’ve practiced pretty good, but we’re not consistent yet. They’re good kids, so that always gives you a chance. I think they’ll figure it out.”
Despite the growing pains, the Aggies are excited to play against someone other than themselves.
“It’ll be nice to play someone else who doesn’t know all of our offense,” Jardine said. “It’ll be fun to have someone guarding you who doesn’t know exactly what you like to do every time and can let you do the things you’ve been working on. We’re looking forward to a break from playing against ourselves and seeing where we are at. That exhibition game will give us a better idea of where we are as a team and the major areas that we need to improve on.”
There are heavy expectations on the program which has a rich tradition of winning over the past decade, but with all the unknowns, Morrill hopes fans along with himself will exercise some patience.
“Anybody who picked us to win the league is nuts,” Morrill said. “All they had to do was watch that scrimmage. That was insane to me. I won’t put too much stock in that. We’re just going to be as good as we can and get better. We’ll just do the best we can and try to get better. It’s all we can do and hope the fans have patience for it and hope I do too.”
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu