Aggies battle with adversity during season
It’s difficult to have a discussion about the 2015-16 season for Utah State men’s basketball without using the word adversity.
Just days before the season began, starting forward David Collette decided to depart for redder pastures — Collette’s destination was not known at the time, but he eventually announced his intentions to transfer to the University of Utah.
The loss of the 2014-15 third-team all-Mountain West forward left a 6-foot-8, 220-pound hole in the middle of the USU starting lineup. Junior Lew Evans, sophomore Elston Jones and freshman Quinn Taylor filled the role admirably, but the Aggies – picked in the MW preseason poll to finish third in the conference – grappled with the loss for the duration of the year.
Unexpectedly losing one of its top players so close to the beginning of the season would have a negative impact on any team, but for a team in transition with a rookie head coach in Tim Duryea and a number of new additions to the roster, the change proved too much to fully overcome.
Utah State finished the regular season 7-11 in the MW and ninth in the standings. A second-round loss in the conference tournament left the Aggies at 16-15 overall on the year.
Much of the adversity the team faced, however, was self-imposed.
Many times during the season, the Aggies allowed costly runs to the opponents in the opening minutes of the second period. In six of the 11 MW losses, USU held a lead at halftime.
The oft-repeated runs were usually triggered by some combination of stagnant offense, turnovers and poor defense – frequently all three.
The final game of the regular season, an 86-85 home loss to Fresno State, seemed to summarize the disappointment of the season. Fresno St. beat San Diego State in the conference tournament and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament.
“Extremely frustrating loss,” Duryea said after the game. “When you talk about losing a basketball game, the first thing you have to do is not beat yourself, and we beat ourselves in every possible way imaginable, both physically and mentally … This was a first-class lesson in beating yourself, in every conceivable way.”
The Aggies held an 18-point lead late in the first half of that game, but the Bulldogs cut the lead to single-digits less than five minutes into the second period.
The comeback was aided in large part by 18 USU turnovers, which led to 27 points off turnovers and 21 fast break points for Fresno State. The Bulldogs scored 55 points in the second half.
The promising first-half play USU showed so often added to the vexation surrounding the team. The Aggies competed with every team in the conference at different points, but took themselves out of games with mental mistakes.
There was some evidence early in the season that focus would be a concern for the Aggies, however.
Utah State lost its first exhibition game since 2007 in a 77-60 loss to the Otters of Division II Cal State Monterey Bay in early November.
“It’s a lack of effort, a lack of energy,” Collette said after the game, just days before he told Duryea he was leaving the team. “They came here ready to play and we weren’t. It’s that simple.”
Magnifying the surprise of the exhibition loss was that it happened in the formerly-daunting confines of the Spectrum. The Aggies finished just 10-6 at home this season, a record that was even inflated by three wins against lower-quality opponents in the Gossner Foods tournament just before Christmas.
The true roller coaster of the season began a week after that tournament when the Aggies entered MW play.
Utah State began with a road victory over San Jose State before consecutive home losses to San Diego State and Boise State and a blowout loss at New Mexico. The team climbed back to .500 with a strong home win against Air Force and a road victory over Colorado State, but a five-game losing streak dropped the Aggies to the cellar of the conference.
The team again rebounded, however, winning four of the next six games, before the final loss to Fresno State pushed the Aggies from seventh in the conference to ninth.
For a team expecting to finish near the top of the standings, a losing record in conference was a severe disappointment. Still, even after the frustrating losses, USU showed determination to compete and carried that into the MW tournament.
The Aggies dominated Wyoming 88-70 in the first round in Las Vegas on Wednesday. In the second round, USU pushed SDSU to the very edge, falling in the final seconds to the tournament’s top seed, 71-65.
“I’m smart enough to know that this is a very well-coached team that desperately wanted to play,” said SDSU coach Steve Fisher after the game on Thursday. “We played them two years ago here and they were ready to go home. Today they said, ‘We’re going to win this tournament.’ … They’ve lost some tough, close, hard-fought games and they didn’t hang their head.”
The two games in Las Vegas showed encouraging signs for the team going into next season.
Duryea made a shift to the starting lineup prior to the contest against Wyoming, giving the nod to junior guard Shane Rector. The change worked as Rector scored a career-high 24 points against the Cowboys and led the Aggies in assists over the two games.
Junior wing Jalen Moore led the team in rebounds during the tournament and matched Rector’s 35 points over the two games. He also finished second in assists and played every minute of both games.
Rector and Moore have been relatively consistent producers for USU throughout the season (Moore led the team in scoring and rebounding and finished second in steals, blocks, assists and 3-point shots made while earning third-team all-MW honors this season). It was the production of the role players, however, that shows the most promise for the future.
Evans was critical to the Aggies’ performance against SDSU, registering 15 points, seven rebounds and a mention in the post-game press conference from Fisher for the pressure he put on the Aztec defense.
Jones was also strong in the interior, picking up two blocks in each game after averaging just half a block per game this season. Sophomore wing Julion Pearre had an impressive tournament, averaging 13 points per game while shooting more than 60 percent from the field and more than 40 percent from deep.
“When Julion plays well, we play well,” Duryea said. “He’s really learned and become a better player. He penetrates. He gets it on the glass when he should and most of the time he makes a play for his teammate when he should.”
Ultimately, the 2015-16 season will be remembered as a year of unfulfilled expectations, but with tantalizing tastes of the promise of the future. The Aggies proved they can be competitive in the MW conference and, in spite of the difficult struggles they had to overcome, battled until the very last moments of the season.
For the season, Moore averaged 15.2 points with 6.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Senior guard Chris Smith, the only other double-digit scorer on the team, averaged 15 points while shooting 49 percent from the floor and 45 percent from three. He joined Moore on the all-MW third-team this season.
Rector averaged 9.3 points while leading the team in assists with 3.3 per game and steals with just more than one per game. Senior guard Darius Perkins started all but the two tournament games and averaged 6.7 points on 42 percent shooting from the floor and 40 percent from deep.
Evans led the team in offensive rebounds and finished just behind Moore for total rebounds. He averaged 8.4 points per game while shooting 41 percent from the floor and 36 percent from 3-point range.
— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tomcat340