Basketball team tips off season with Hoops Fest
Finally basketball season is back. The Aggies played four 10-minute scrimmages in the Spectrum on Friday and two of them were in front of about 1,000 fans during Hoops Fest 2004.
Hoops Fest gives the Aggies a chance to introduce their new players to the fans and show their appreciation by signing autographs after the scrimmages.
“To have the second-largest home average in history since the first year of the Spectrum is amazing,” head coach Stew Morrill said. “What I’ve always said is we need you whether we’re that good or not, just to compete. We’ve been pretty dang good at home. Even my first year we had a very average team, yet we only lost one home game, I believe, so home crowd is just so important.”
Morrill also went on to say the students and others need to know how important he thinks they are.
Nate Harris, a first team all-Big West last year player, scored 23 points on 10-11 shooting going along with 11 rebounds. Spencer Nelson, a second-team all Big-West selection last season, also had 23 points and seven rebounds.
“We’ve been here a couple years so we’ve had a chance to play with each other quite a bit, so we could get easy baskets that way,” Harris said. “Always getting garbage points. It’s fun, it’s easier that way.”
Cass Matheus, a junior from Brazil who red-shirted last year, was one of the new players that played on Friday scoring 10 points.
Marques Crane, another new player, scored 16 points and was 4-8 from behind the 3-point line. Tai Wesley, named Mr. Basketball for high school basketball players last year, also had eight points matched up against Nelson or Harris.
The Aggies have only one more week of practice before their first exhibition game against the University of Puget Sound on Nov. 6 in the Spectrum.
“We’re a long ways away,” Morrill said. “Obviously, Spencer and Nate looked like the all-league players they are, and we expect them to be good again this year. Defensively, we can’t stop anybody off the dribble, we don’t block anybody off, and we’re not in very good shape yet. We get tired real easy.
“The plusses are that we’re shooting the ball pretty well, we’ve got some guys that can shoot the ball, and we’ve got pretty good post play.”
-kcaustin@cc.usu.edu