By the Stats: Utah State vs UTSA

on November 19, 2019 at 10:50 pm

For each game this season, I’ve been doing a stats thread on Twitter where I’ve compiled a long-ish list of random stats and facts related to Utah State’s most recent basketball contest. For reasons I probably couldn’t explain to myself, I’ve decided to present them in article form. Perhaps it will be more organized and visually friendly to you, the reader.

Today’s compilation will review Utah State’s 82-50 win over the UTSA roadrunners and relating statistics. I’ll start with team notes and stats and then move on to Craig Smith and the players.

Information on statistics, trends, past scores and records are drawn from College Basketball Reference, the NCAA statistics website and the Utah State basketball media guide.

Utah State

The Aggies had 55 rebounds against UTSA, most in a single game by the Aggies since Dec. 28, 2013 against San Diego Christian (56) according to basketball reference. It was the most rebounds against a Division I opponent since USU had 55 against Troy in 2010.
Three different Utah State players had at least 10 rebounds. Justin Bean (11), Alphonso Anderson (11) and Kuba Karwowski (10). For the latter two, their totals were career-highs along with the first time either had double-digit rebounds in a DI game.
Utah State now has five players averaging double-digit points this season. Sam Merrill (17.4), Justin Bean (13.2), Brock Miller (13.0), Alphonso Anderson (12.0) and Diogo Brito (10.8). Only one team since 1980 has had five players average double-digit scoring: the 1982-83 Aggies with Greg Grant (15.9), Ron Ence (12.9), Michael McCullough (11.3), Chris McMullin (10.9) and Lance Washington (10.7). [In 1993-94, USU also had five players average double-digit scoring, however, two of those players only appeared in four games.]
In each of its first five games, Utah State has scored at least 80 points. Since 1970, the only other Aggie team to match that are the 1986-87 Aggies (who managed to start 2-3 despite the high scoring). Four USU teams accomplished this feat in the 1960s: 1964-65, 1965-66, 1968-69 and 1969-70. The longest 80-point scoring streak to open a season is owned by the 1965-66 squad who did it for seven straight games.
Utah State’s 86.0 scoring average is the second-best through five games by any USU team since 2010. Only last year’s team, which scored 88.0, has done better.
Only one Utah State opponent this season has scored more than 56 points. That’s four Aggie foes that have failed to eclipse the 56-point mark. Only three other teams — UNC Greensboro, Ohio State and Pacific — have held as many opponents to 56 points or fewer this season.
As of Tuesday morning, Utah State ranks 26th in scoring offense (86.0), 14th in scoring defense (53.4) and sixth in scoring margin (+32.6)
Also as of Tuesday morning, USU ranked top 20 in the NCAA in 13 statistical categories. They were top 10 in seven categories.

Craig Smith

Photo by Amber French

Utah State has now won its first five games in both seasons under Smith. He joins D.D. Young as the only coaches in USU history to win their opening five games in both of their first seasons. Young’s first two seasons were 1943 and 1945, there being no 1944 season at Utah State for fairly obvious reasons.

Smith owns a 33-7 record through his first 40 games. That’s the best first-40 game record among all Utah State head coaches. The 0.825 win percentage currently ranks first among USU coaches in all games. The next closest in win percentage are Stew Morrill (402-156, .720), Larry Eustachy (98-53, .649), Dutch Belnap (106-58, .646) and Ladell Andersen (173-96, .643).

Sam Merrill

Photo by Amber French

Merrill’s 21 points put him at 1,655 career points, moving him past Jalen Moore (1,634) for ninth-most all-time at Utah State in scoring.
Merrill scored 10-plus points for the 28th consecutive game. If he extends the streak three more games (to 31), he’ll tie Jaycee Carroll and Rich Haws for the 10th-longest double-digit scoring streak in school history.
On the night, Merrill made 5-of-9 threes, all five of the makes coming in the first half. It marked the fifth time since the start of last season he has made five or more 3-pointers in a game and the 10th time overall in his career.
Through five games Merrill is shooting a career-best 54.5 percent on 3-pointers while also putting up a career-worst 36.4 percent on 2-point shots.
Merrill is making 90 percent of his free throws this season on 30 overall attempts this year. He’s the only player in the NCAA shooting 90 percent on at least 30 season attempts. The next closest player in free-throw percentage with at least 30 attempts is Dejuan Clayton of Coppin State (82.4 percent on 34 attempts).

Justin Bean

Eight of Bean’s 11 rebounds were offensive boards. Since 2010, only Tai Wesley has grabbed eight offensive rebounds in a single game.
All eight of those offensive rebounds directly resulted in points for the Aggies. Said points amounted to 20 of Utah State’s 38 second-chance points on the night. Bean personally accounted for 14 of them, seven via his own baskets (a pair of layups and an and-one putback) and the other seven through assists.
The 11 rebounds for Bean was his fourth game of the season with 10-plus rebounds. His season average is 11.0. Only 12 players in Utah State history have averaged 10 or more rebounds per game, the last being Mike Santos in 1976-77 (11.3).
Currently, Bean is averaging a double-double on the season one of 51 players in the NCAA doing so thus far this season.
Among all NCAA players, Bean ranks 21st in rebounds per game this year.

Diogo Brito

The 17 points from Brito on Monday are a season-high for him. It was his highest point total since scoring 20 against Fresno State in last year’s Mountain West conference tournament. Overall it’s the third-highest single-game point total of his career (highest is 23 on Jan. 16, 2019 vs San Jose State).
Brito had three steals to go with his 17 points and seven rebounds. It was his 13th career game with at least three steals — the most of any Aggie since at least 2010. Next closest is Merrill who has 10 such games.

Kuba Karwowski

Kuba was just one made basket short of getting his first Division I double-double with a career-high eight points on 4-of-4 shooting to go with his career-high 10 rebounds.
Prior to Monday’s game against UTSA, Karwowski had only made four field goals the entire season, going 4-for-8 in his first four games of the year. In two games this year, Karwowski didn’t make a single shot (0-for-2 vs Montana State and 0-for-0 vs North Carolina A&T).
Despite playing just 23 minutes, Karwowski blocked four shots. It’s the second time he’s rejected at least four shots while playing less than 25 minutes. Since 2010, the only other Aggie with multiple games of 4+ blocks in 25 or fewer minutes is Neemias Queta.

Abel Porter

After beginning the season with a potential historic assist pace for a Utah State guard (6.3 per game through three games, around the pace needed to set the USU single-season assist record) and a likewise historic assist/turnover ration (4.85-1), Porter has seen his playmaking dip and his turnovers rise. In the last two games, the junior guard has just four assists to eight turnovers, tanking his assist/turnover ratio from nearly 5-1 all the way to 1.9-1.
Porter is also having a poor shooting season from 3-point range. He’s made just 22.2 percent of his 3-point attempts this season in contrast to his 40.5 percent rate last year on just over two attempts per game.
Although Porter has struggled behind the arc, his shooting inside 3-point line has seen a significant increase. His 2-point percentage has skyrocketed from 43.9 percent last year to 68.8 percent this year. Porter’s overall field goal has gone up from 42.0 in 2018-19 to 52.0 through five games this year.