Glass half full: Aggie basketball

Look, I get it.

No Aggie fan is satisfied, nor should they be, with a season which yielded 17 losses. It’s plain and simple, .500 basketball just isn’t acceptable. There is a higher standard for Aggie basketball than that which has been achieved the past few years.

This season included some agonizing losses for USU faithful. Nobody is soon to forget an 0-3 record against in-state teams, excruciating back-to-back losses to Air Force and San Jose State, and a blowout loss in the Mountain West tournament to New Mexico.

Does there need to be changes in the administration of this program? Possibly. Does the recruiting philosophy of this coaching staff need to change? Possibly. Should the Aggies consider playing a different style of basketball? Possibly. But after a long week in Las Vegas I’m tired, emotionally drained, and frankly, I don’t want to write about that right now.

So let’s focus on some positives.

A few days ago, the Mountain West released its all-conference teams. The first, second, third, and all-defense teams were littered with many names familiar to Aggie fans of 21 incredibly skilled players and leaders from throughout the conference. These lists included seven seniors and 10 juniors, so in total, 17 upperclassmen.

You can probably see where I’m going with this.

The four remaining players on that list included Bryson Williams, a Fresno State sophomore who finished top-15 in the conference in points and rebounds per game and second in field goal percentage, Brandon McCoy, a five-star recruit freshman for UNLV who might hear his name called as a lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft, and, you guessed it, USU sophomores Sam Merrill and Koby McEwen.

I’m not going to rattle off a bunch of stats illustrating just how good these guys are. Chances are, you’ve seen and heard them all. Sam Merrill is really good at three-pointers, Koby is really good at scoring, blah blah blah. I wonder if those stats sometimes fall on deaf ears.

To me, it’s not the numbers the guard duo so impressive. It’s the leadership. It’s the fact that a team coming off of a four-game losing streak (including two of the worst losses in recent memory) could hop on the shoulders of a couple of sophomores to close out the season with a double-digit win over UNLV and the deepest run in the Mountain West tournament the program has seen.

As long as those two young men are in the Utah State program, the Aggies will be okay. To be more than okay though, they’re going to need some help, so let’s talk about that.

Anybody who believes injuries didn’t play a significant role in this season is simply mistaken. I’m not making apologies or excuses for the mediocre record and results Utah State produced this season, I’m just calling it how I see it. Since his heroics and leadership in the conference tournament are so fresh in recent memory, I’ll focus first on Julion Pearre.

Pearre played in 17 games for the Aggies this season, or exactly half of the team’s contests. The senior guard’s numbers don’t pop off the stat sheet to a casual onlooker, and even Aggie fans often overlook his impact. But he’s a consistent player who can often provide the spark necessary to get things going, and he was one of the real workhorses for the team in the tournament. He also added crucial depth at the guard position, one area which really hurt the Aggies early in the season while he was out.

Veteran leadership is an invaluable commodity to any team, and from the two seniors on this team USU had only a combined total of about 35 minutes per game and had 22 missed games.

Then there’s the Slovakian big man Norbert Janicek. It doesn’t take a trained eye or a professional scout to see that the Aggies lacked height this season. Playing the majority of the games this season without a single player over 6’8, Janicek would have been a valuable commodity. In his sophomore season for USU, he averaged 6.7 points and 3.6 rebounds in 20 minutes per game. Not mind blowing numbers by any means, but having the option of an actual center adds another dimension to a sometimes flat Aggie offense.

Let’s not forget about freshmen Brock Miller and Klay Stall. I know the word “potential” gets thrown around a lot, but these are two guys who have a whole lot of it and combined for only 15 total games played this season. Stall is another big-bodied option who has had an incredibly unfortunate streak of injuries, and Miller seemed to be turning into a real weapon for the Aggies, dropping 15 points against Portland State before going down for the season.

If absolutely nothing else, the Aggies were playing with a roster which was far from the way they envisioned it at the beginning of the season. Yes, of course that’s part of college basketball and sports in general, and yes, they need to deal with it like everyone else. But the Aggies faced an unprecedented series of unfortunate events when it came to health.

I’m not trying to talk you into believing Utah State is on the right track. I’m not entirely convinced of that myself. Next season could be better, could be worse, I have no idea what this team will look like in 238-ish days when they tip-off in an exhibition against some community college nobody’s ever heard of.

But like I said at the beginning of this article, I’m not ready to think about it yet.