Aggies set to put winning streak on the line
The Utah State men’s basketball team is riding their first conference win streak of the season.
The Aggies defeated Nevada and Boise State at home in the Spectrum last week, and will look to continue their momentum on Tuesday against Colorado State. However, this time, they will attempt to do so on the road.
The Aggies have yet to win a road game against a Mountain West opponent this season, collecting five losses in opposing conference opponent’s stadiums. However, the recent win streak may affect the team’s chances going into Fort Collins.
“I think just a lot of confidence, which is something we needed to build, and I think we’re back,” said sophomore forward Kyle Davis on the effects of the win streak on the team. “We’ll have a great day of practice Monday. We’ll get there get a good day’s rest, have a good shoot around and try to go from there.”
The Aggies have only won one game outside the state of Utah, a Nov. 16 victory against UC Santa Barbara in California in the Aggies’ third game of the season.
“It’s always tough to win a game on the road in college basketball, especially against the league with the teams that we have,” said senior guard Preston Medlin. “Colorado State is a good team. We’ve got to focus in and know our game plan.”
The game will also be Aggie head coach Stew Morrill’s first game in Fort Collins since he was head coach of CSU. He left the Rams to coach the Aggies in 1998.
“I’ve been back plenty of times to visit children and grandchildren, but this is the first time going back with the team,” said Morrill about going back to Fort Collins. “I’ve tried to avoid that all the years since I’ve been gone from both Montana and Colorado State. It’s not something you really want to do, but it’s going to be an annual deal at this point, for sure.”
USU defeated CSU in the Spectrum on Jan. 15 by a final score of 57-50.
“It was just a good old fashion slug-fest,” Morrill said after that game. “It was a hard fought physical basketball game. Baskets were hard to come by out there.”
The Aggies had a hard time stopping CSU’s J.J. Avila and Daniel Bejerano in that game, who combined for 41 of the team’s 50 points.
However, USU’s big men have been playing extremely well of late. In both of the last two games, senior center Jarred Shaw has had a double-double with 17 points in each game. Sophomore power forward Kyle Davis has been right behind him, totaling 12 and 15 points respectively in the past two games.
“All throughout practice this week, Jarred and I just recognized that we needed to have a presence down low,” Davis said after the Boise State game. “We’ve got great shooters in Preston and Spencer (Butterfield), but we can only help them by getting our game going, and that’s what we tried to do.”
After the San Diego State loss, sophomore point guard Marcel Davis was held out of the following two games, both losses. However, he played in both games last week with new aggression and appears to be part of the Aggie game plan once again.
“He’s been working his butt off every day in practice since he’s kind of been out of the rotation a little bit,” said Butterfield about Davis after the Nevada game. “He earned his way back into the rotation, and you could see tonight that he was ready to play, so that’s good to see.”
Overall, Morrill thinks his team is in a good situation and primed for its first conference road win.
“We’re in a good frame of mind right now, coming off a couple of wins. I think we’re excited to play, but we know it will be a big challenge playing them there,” Morrill said. “They are very good defensively on the boards and plenty capable offensively. It’s pretty much what you get every night out.”
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