Aggie men to face tough Idaho Vandals team on the road
It’s happened several times for Utah State in past seasons, and it will happen again Saturday night when the USU men’s basketball team takes on former Idaho and USU associate men’s basketball coach and current Idaho head basketball coach Don Verlin.
“They already know us pretty well, and now, with a whole week to prepare, they might know what we’re going to do before we know what we’re going to do,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said.
USU fell to Idaho (9-9, 2-2 WAC) on the road last season at the Cowan Spectrum in the Kibbie Dome. Then-senior Jeff Ledbetter led the Vandals with 14 points in the 64-56 over then-No.17 Utah State.
USU will look to bounce back from another road setback, which came at the hands of the Seattle Redhawks Thursday 73-66.
“We’ve got to put this one out of our mind and try and get ready for a conference game on Saturday,” Morrill said at the Thursday night loss to Seattle. “(We have) a chance to go 3-2 in league with two road wins if we can find a way somehow in Idaho. Obviously we’ve got to play a lot better than we did tonight, but we can’t beat this one down and dwell on it to much. We’ve got to move forward.”
Senior guard and former Aggie Deremy Geiger leads the Vandals in scoring with 12.8 points per game, and sophomore Stephen Madison is also averaging a little more than 12 points per game.
“Going in there certainly is always a challenge — going to Moscow,(Idaho),” Morrill said. “They’re solid. You watch them play, and they’re just really solid. They play good offense, they run good stuff, they’re solid defensively, and they’ve got quite a few good pieces for their system. Coach Verlin is doing a good job with them.”
Idaho is shooting 48 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point line.
“We’ve got to put this one behind us and go get us one Saturday,” sophomore guard Preston Medlin said after Thursday night’s loss to the Redhawks.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu