Aggies have loads of experience waiting in the wings
While there are fresh faces across the board at the point guard position for Utah State this season, the shooting guard and small forward positions are loaded with familiarity for a 2010-2011 carrying some high expectations from an experienced unit.
“This is the last chance we’ve got to try and do big things,” senior wingman Pooh Willaims said. “It’s exciting. It seems like just yesterday we were cutting the tape off our ankles leaving Spokane, Washington. Now we’re right back at it.”
Williams and fellow senior Tyler Newbold anchor this year’s core of wing players who will be looked upon to provide exactly what they have provided as the starting duo over each of the past two seasons, where Utah State has amassed an impressive 57 victories.
“Probably the best attribute that group has is the fact that you know what you’re going to get,” assistant coach Tim Duryea said. “You’re going to get maximum effort defensively, you’re going to get guys who are unselfish and guys who have won a lot of games.”
Newbold returns for his senior season having started every single game the Aggies have played since the 11th game in his freshman year, and looks to bring the same consistency that he has provided the past three seasons. Newbold has averaged a steady 7.44 points per game throughout his years in Aggie uniform, while shooting an impressive 42.7 percent from behind the 3-point line.
Offensive threats aside, Newbold’s biggest contributions have come in his consistency on the defensive end and his top-notch ball control. During Newbold’s sophomore season, he led the entire nation in assist-to-turnover ratio, notching four assists per each turnover. The number didn’t regress much a year ago, as Newbold remained steady with a 3.4 assist-to-turnover ratio as a junior.
Speaking of defense, Williams returns for his senior season after becoming the first Utah State player to be placed on the Western Athletic Conference’s all-defensive team during the 2009-2010 season. Williams also showed continued consistency on the offensive end of the floor, averaging 8.7 points per game a year ago, while shooting 44.6 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from 3-point range.
A third Aggie player threw his name into the ring of star wing players last year in sharpshooter Brian Green. Green came to Utah State via Salt Lake Community College and wasted no time in making a name for himself making hustle plays left and right on the court.
By mid-season however, it wasn’t hustle that was Green’s calling card. Green finished his junior season hitting on 50 percent of his 3-point attempts for the year, which edged out USU’s all-time leading scorer Jaycee Carroll’s previous record of 49.8 percent from his senior season. Green only got better as the year progressed, making 63.3 percent of his 3-point attempts in WAC play en route to be named to the WAC’s all-newcomer team.
Duryea described the trio of Newbold, Williams and Green as “three guys who have been in basically every situation that (the team) can go through.”
Two more players, both of whom have a year under their belts in USU’s program are sophomore Preston Medlin and redshirt freshman Brad Brown. Duryea described each of them as being in similar places of needing to continue to progress physically while continuing to develop their defensive games.
Brown returns from a two-year church mission after redshirting for USU in 2007-2008 and brings more height to the wing rotation than any of the other players, standing at 6 feet 7 inches.
Medlin, on the other hand, was thrown right into the rotation early in his true freshman season, and did anything but disappoint. After going scoreless through the Aggies’ first four games a year ago, Medlin finally got his name on the score sheet in Utah State’s fourth game, against Southern Utah. Not only that, but Medlin’s first game in which he scored a single point also remains as his career-high as he lit up the Thunderbirds for 17 points, including hitting five of six shots from 3-point range.
Big game pressure proved to be a non-issue for Medlin, as he played a pivotal role in Utah State’s 71-61 victory over BYU, hitting two second-half 3-pointers and drawing a loose-ball foul on BYU center Chris Miles that shifted momentum to USU’s favor in the Aggies’ biggest home RPI win last year.
Rounding out the bunch is newcomer E.J. Farris, who will finally take to the court for the Aggies this season after taking a year to sort out academics.
“He’s a Brian Green-type shooter,” Duryea said. “He has to learn the system. He has to learn what’s going on. He has to learn where his shots are going to come from and when he does, he has the ability to knock them down.”
Another player, junior college all-American Antonio Bumpus, is with the team, but will spend this season redshirting.
As it stands for this season, the Newbold, Williams, Green trifecta will make their impact felt the most.
“The wing rotation from last year, back intact, give you great defense, great effort and superior shooting basically every night,” Duryea said.
– matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu