Aggies begin 3-game road trip with Pack
Less than one week ago, Utah State Aggie head coach Stew Morrill was not happy with his team in their conference. Things are a little better this week.
“We’ve been okay,” Morrill said. “They’re good kids and responding a little bit to my tantrum. I always want better practices than we have. Your always seeking perfection in terms of how you do things, how you practice, how you play in games, but it hasn’t been bad.”
Tomorrow the Aggies (13-2, 2-0 WAC) will get their first Western Athletic Conference road test as they face the Nevada Wolf Pack (4-11, 1-1 WAC).
“It’s a challenge for us with three straight road games and we’ll see how it goes,” Morrill said.
The Aggies won’t be home until January 20th when they face Louisiana Tech. The Aggies face Boise State and Fresno State on January 13th and 15th respectively.
Once again the Aggies will be facing a team whose record does not indicate their skill level.
“The first thing I would say is their record is extremely deceiving,” Morrill said of the Wolf Pack. “They’ve had an extremely tough schedule. I look at their talent-level and their stats in league games. Watching them play versus Hawai’i, a team we really struggled with and they handled easily, I’m impressed with Nevada. They’ve got a little bit of everything.”
The Wolf Pack may be without former standouts Luke Babbit and Armon Johnson, but the Wolf Pack still has talent and their strongest point would be their post play. Junior forward Dario Hunt is averaging a double-double to lead the Wolf Pack with 13.7 points and 10 rebounds per game. Sophomore forward and transfer from Duke Olek Czyz, who missed the first half of the season, is averaging 13.5 points a game.
One major factor on the Aggies side is that they have played well in the Lawlor Events Center (Reno, Nev.) over the years. Up until this year, Reno hosted the WAC Tournament and the Aggies have a great record during the regular season as well against Nevada.
“That’s one thing I hope helps our veteran team; that they feel like this is a gym that they’ve played pretty well in and that we can go down there and play well again,” Morrill said. “That’s what it’s going to take to have a chance to win.”
Tip-off against the Wolf Pack is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. from the Lawlor Events Center and can be seen nationally on ESPNU.
-ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu