Aggie guards and forwards ready for basketball season
With the return of junior shooting guard Preston Medlin and junior small forward Danny Berger, both starters from a year ago, excitement and optimism are brewing for the upcoming 2012-13 Aggie basketball season.
The team finished strong last season, winning four out of its last five games and making it all the way to the championship game in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Despite all the new faces on the roster, the Aggies are hoping to carry that success into this season.
“I feel like that was really good for our team,” Medlin said. “We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the season but really came back strong. I feel like that really helped us and gave us some confidence coming into this season.”
Medlin, knowing there would be great expectations placed on him this coming season, said he worked very hard on his game over the summer.
“You’re always trying to improve no matter how good you are,” he said. “I worked on all aspects of my game this summer. Coach was always telling me to improve on my defense, and so in pickup ball that was something I really worked on this summer.”
Berger said the key for consistency and winning this year is team unity.
“A goal just as a team is staying together the whole year,” he said. “It seems like we’re pretty together right now but it’s a matter of staying like that throughout the whole season. Obviously the main goal is to win games and get to the NCAA Tournament.”
The Aggies welcomed four new faces to the wing positions – two junior college transfers in Marvin Jean and Spencer Butterfield, and two freshmen in Quincy Bair and Quinn Taylor. They boast impressive resumes and are hungry for a winning season.
“As far as the team goes, I want to win the WAC championship and get to the NCAA tournament,” Butterfield said. “For myself, I just want to stay confident and doing what I can for the team. Shooting, rebound, all the dirty work, whatever I can do to help.”
Defense and athleticism should improve over last season with the addition of Jean.
“I just want to be the player they want me to be,” Jean said. “You know, stopping on defense, getting a lot of rebounds and knocking down threes. I just got to keep working and stay active, do what I got to do and try to help out the team.”
Assistant coach Chris Jones said there are expectations this year for an improvement at the guards and forwards this year.
“We hope we have more guards and wings that are more productive this year,”
Jones said. “Preston Medlin is back, and he had a phenomenal year last year. Danny Berger is back, and he started and played quite a bit last year. It wasn’t a very fair year to Danny last year. We were going to redshirt him but we needed him in December and fed him to the wolves. He had some good moments and some tough moments. He’s a year into the system now, a lot bigger and stronger, so we expect a lot from him this year.”
Jones described Butterfield as a mix between Tyler Newbold and Brian Green, and Jean as hard-working and eager to learn.
“Spencer is aggressive and wants to make a bunch of shots like Brian did, but he also has some toughness and rebounding and defense like Tyler had,” Jones said. “Hopefully he’s able to give us a combination of the two. Marvin has really come on and plays really hard. He’s eager to learn and get better and gives us athleticism, quickness and play-making.”
Even with all the new players coming in this season, Jones said he feels like the understanding by the players of the complex system has come along very well.
“This is my fifth year here and I feel like these eight new guys have picked it up as good as anybody,” he said. “Plus, we have several guys learning two positions, but they’ve been doing a good job at learning both spots. The key is to not get down and frustrated. They’re doing good, though. It’s been good so far.”
Medlin said his teammates are looking forward to playing in the loud and awesome atmosphere of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum and the enthusiastic Aggie fans.
“I don’t think all the new guys quite understand how awesome this venue is to play in,” said Medlin.
Jean said the fan support, along with the success of the program in recent years, was something that drew him to really want to come play for the Aggies.
“I saw the crowd and thought, ‘I gotta check this out,'” he said. “All in all, it was the scenery, fan support and of course the basketball program that really brought me here.”
The Aggies play their first preseason game against Grand Canyon on Oct. 26 at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
– j.dahl@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @jdahl3