Aggies look to gain on Irvine at Boise
USU lost to Long Beach State University, bringing its record to 22-4 and 11-2 in the Big West.
Head coach Stew Morrill said she isn’t worried. All he’s concerned about is keeping his team’s morale up, despite being in the middle of one of USU’s best seasons in school history, he said.
“We really shouldn’t have won all those close games last year, because now everybody wants to be mad when we are 11-2 in league,” he said. “[UC] Irvine is the one that’s messed this whole thing up. They won more games this year than they were supposed to, otherwise we would be in first place.”
However, USU will likely be stuck in first place as Irvine has only LBSU (a weak road team) at home and bottom-feeders University of Idaho and California State University at Fullerton.
The Aggies will try to finish off their conference road season with a win vs. Boise State University in the BSU Pavilion 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
The odds are in USU’s favor. The Aggies haven’t lost back-to-back games since the 1998-99 season and have won their last 10 games against teams from Idaho – not to mention USU is 15-4 all-time vs. the Broncos.
BSU is only 5-7 in conference, despite being voted as high up as No. 3 in the BWC in the pre-season polls.
“[BSU] is a team that’s really interesting because to be 5-7 right now is kind of hard to believe,” Morrill said. “They have lost a bunch of close games.”
The Broncos have dropped five games this year by six points or less.
They also gave the Aggies a lot of trouble Jan. 20 in the Spectrum (USU only led by two at half-time). USU ended up winning 82-64, but Morrill said it was much closer.
“Everybody sees the score of our game here and thinks we blew them out, and it wasn’t that way at all,” he said.
To win again, the Aggies will have to contain BSU’s front court of KeJaun Woods and Abe Jackson. Combined, they average more than 30 points a game.
“[Woods] is very hard to guard because he’s increased his range from previous years,” Morrill said.
He added the Broncos can pull out their center, Richard Morgan, and create match-up problems by going small.
Before the BSU game, USU held its opponents to under 60 points for seven straight games. The Aggies will once again have to try to stop a strong offense, as the Broncos average 72.6 points a game.
Boise State allows 73 points a game – but they do pressure a lot and create steals (the Broncos are second in the conference in steals, USU is ranked seventh), Morrill said.