Stepping up
On Nov. 10, the Utah State men’s basketball team was just three days away from a difficult season-opening game at Weber State. As the only team in the Mountain West to return all five starters from a season ago, the Aggies had experience and proven playmaking at all five positions.
One day later, the Aggies announced the departure of sophomore forward David Collette.
The loss of last season’s second-leading scorer (and second-leading rebounder, as well as the team’s leader in blocks and steals) just two days before the season opener put the Aggies in the unenviable position of needing to retool the offensive gameplan on the fly.
“We have an offensive identity that we’ve got to change a little bit,” said head coach Tim Duryea.
USU has handled the change admirably, though, beating Weber State on Friday and handling Division II Adams State in the home opener on Tuesday.
Still, Duryea admitted that the Aggies have not completely overcome Collette’s loss yet.
“It’s still there,” Duryea said. “We’ve got to retool some things and we haven’t had a chance to do that, so no, it’s not behind us yet.
The offensive results have been inconsistent so far.
“It’s going to be a little up and down I think… as far as our low post scoring,” Duryea said. “The other night at Weber it was really good, [Tuesday] not so much.”
“I think guys are kind of just getting around the fact that he’s not on the team anymore,” said junior forward Jalen Moore.
While the low-post scoring through two games has had some ebb and flow to it, the three players that have played the majority of the open minutes – sophomore Elston Jones, junior Lew Evans and freshman Quinn Taylor – have each shown the ability to impact games on the offensive side of the floor.
Evans provided a spark off the bench against Weber State, scoring 17 points and grabbing five rebounds while shooting 7 of 9 from the field. He was less productive against Adams State, but Taylor picked up the slack and nearly recorded a double-double in his second career game, finishing with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Six of the points – including an emphatic put-back dunk – came during a 10-0 run by the Aggies that turned a two-point deficit into an eight-point lead that they never relinquished.
Jones, for his part, has received the starting nod in each game and has been consistent, scoring six points and four rebounds in the first game and eight points and another four rebounds in the second game.
A sequence late in the first half of Tuesday’s game, though, showed that Jones’ potential impact is greater than what the numbers show. Moore rebounded a missed shot by the Grizzlies and brought the ball up the floor. Jones, who had beaten the defense back and established himself under the hoop, received the ball in the post and then passed it to senior guard Darius Perkins in the corner when Perkins’ man doubled down on Jones. Perkins swung the ball back to Moore at the top of the 3-point arc, who calmly hit the wide-open shot to give the Aggies a 14-point lead.
Jones’ impact on that play isn’t listed anywhere in the box score, but his early hustle forced the defense to scramble, eventually leading to Moore’s open shot.
“Guys have to step up and I think that’s what people are doing,” Moore said. “Other people have to do what [Collette] did for us last year and I think guys are stepping up and doing that just fine.”
The Aggies will need to iron out the kinks quickly, as they travel to Durham, North Carolina to play defending national champion Duke University on Nov. 29.
Utah State hosts Union University on Friday at 7:00 and Utah Valley University on Tuesday at 7:00 before a stretch of three consecutive road games, beginning at Duke.
– thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
– Twitter: @tomcat340