Aggies gear up for CIT title game
During the season that has been considered to be a down year for the USU men’s basketball team, the Aggies have experienced a record-setting postseason.
With four straight postseason wins, the Aggies host another CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament Championship game at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
“It’s good to still be playing, and it’s a little odd to still be playing in some respects,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “It’s hard to believe this is the week of the NCAA Final Four, as I said the other night. We’re excited that we have extended our season.”
USU hosts the Mercer Bears of the Atlantic Sun Conference on Wednesday, however it’s not likely the Aggies will score 105 points as they did against Oakland on Sunday evening.
“First of all, they’re really good defensively,” Morrrill said. “They do a very good job of getting in the gaps and playing inside the 3-point line – a lot of times they have five guys inside the 3-point line. You look at their field-goal percentage defense and watch them on film, and you know they’re very sound.”
Mercer has allowed its opponents 38.6 percent shooting from the field and 30.6 percent shooting from 3-point land.
“I’ve seen them play man. I’ve seen them play zone, as far as their defensive approach, but both are very sound,” Morrill said.
The Bears have balanced scoring, as three players are averaging 10 points per game or better. Sophomore guard Langston Hall leads the team with 11.3 points per game, and forwards Jakob Gallon and Justin Cecil are averaging just over 10 points per game.
“When you go down and guard them on the other end, they’re extremely balanced, like some of the teams that we’ve had in the past,” Morrill said. “They’ve got a variety of different guys who can score the ball, and they utilize their personnel really well. They can throw it inside, they set a variety of ball screens and they will backdoor you. They just have a good system. It’s impressive to watch their system function in the game tapes we have.”
The way Mercer runs its offense and defense is also similar to Morrill’s program.
“They do things the way they do them and they have a lot of confidence in their system, and it has obviously been good to them,” Morrill said. “They rely on a lot of skill guys, which we have through the years. They’ve got some size, which we’ve oftentimes had, although we’re not as big this year. So there are some similarities along those lines.”
USU will have its hands full with the second-place team from the Atlantic Sun Conference.
“When you are playing Belmont toe to toe in that league – and everybody is aware of Belmont and what they’ve done,” Morrill said, “this team was right there with (Belmont) and won 26 games. They are good. When you have won two road games in this tournament, you are good.”
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu