Aggies open preseason play with win over Seattle
The Utah State University Men’s Basketball team began preseason play with an exhibition game against Seattle University on Oct. 18. The Aggies took care of business, defeating the Red Hawks 88-76.
Despite the commanding win, this game was largely used by the Aggies as an opportunity to experiment with the team and learn more about how the new group can play together.
“It’s really not about the score. Who really cares about what the score looks like?” said head coach Jerrod Calhoun. “What does our team look like? Do we look like a team? Are we organized? Are we disciplined? Are we playing together?”
Despite the experimental game plan, the Aggies were still able to put together a convincing win, highlighted by multiple standout performances.
USU jumped out to an early lead following back-to-back layups from junior wing Tucker Anderson as well as a strong defensive start by the Aggies, forcing two turnovers in the first three minutes.
The Red Hawks rallied after the slow start, nailing back-to-back threes after a streak of layups, helping them jump out in front 9 to 8.
Following Seattle’s run, Calhoun called a timeout to help the team regroup. After the timeout, the Aggies went on a 17-2 run to jump out to a 16-point lead. From that point on, the Aggies did not lose the lead.
The Red Hawks were able to put together some solid runs to reel the score back in. Midway through the first half, they went on a scoring run to bring the score to 25-27 but were unable to steal the lead. They made another solid push at the end of the half but were still down eight as the team returned to the locker room.
The second half was a similar story: the Aggies held a firm lead for the entirety of the half. Transfer guard Kolby King came to life in the second half. After not scoring in the first half, he scored 11 points on 60% percent shooting, as well as going 6 for 6 from the free throw line.
To finish the afternoon, an extra 10-minute period was played to allow the teams to get more experience. The Aggies fielded a court of mainly freshmen, helping them to get a feel for college ball.
Despite the impressive performance from the Aggies, the coaching staff felt they left some room for improvement, especially in the turnover differential. The Aggies gave up the ball 14 times over the course of the game, much more than what the coaching staff found to be acceptable.
“I think the two biggest things we are really trying to key in on are our transition defense and our ball security. It’s hard to play transition D when you don’t have great ball security. We threw the ball all over the gym at times,” Calhoun said. “When we don’t throw it to the other team, we’re pretty good. We’ve got to understand ball security, the game of possessions. Fourteen is totally way too many turnovers. A lot of them were very careless turnovers.”
One of the biggest standout performances from the Aggies came from junior wing Tucker Anderson, who dominated the game inside the paint, a major change from the 3-point specialist that we saw last year. Anderson shot 5-6 from the field, scoring 11 points in just 17 minutes on the court. In addition, he was 1-1 from behind the 3-point line, as well as grabbing two rebounds and three steals. The coaching staff noted the impressive improvements in Anderson’s game.
“He went up about three weight classes. He said, ‘Let me find the weight room.’ He gained 20 pounds, and you can see it in his play,” Calhoun said. “He finishes around the rim better. He’s more comfortable crashing the glass. He’s more comfortable finishing around the basket. I think he’ll get better and better.”
In addition to Anderson’s impressive performance, senior guard MJ Collins Jr. led the team in scoring as well as playing time, scoring 15 points on 80% shooting, including shooting 2-3 from three. He shared about how planning ahead for his game helped him play to such a high level.
“We watched film heavy on them, and we knew that they pretty much helped strong from the weak side, so basically getting downhill and skipping it to the corner,” Collins said. “We knew we had wide-open threes, and a lot of them closed out hard. This team has shooters, so it made the game simple tonight.”
The Aggies will have one more exhibition game against the University of San Francisco on Oct. 25, which will be played in San Francisco. After, the Aggies will begin non-conference play at home against Westminster on Nov. 3.