Changing of the guard: Ags hoping to fill hole of Carroll and Clark
Sophomores Tyler Newbold and Pooh Williams provided the 2007-2008 USU men’s basketball team with both a solid starting option and a steady contributer off the bench.
While Newbold started at the small forward position, Williams saw reserve minutes backing up both Newbold and Jaycee Carroll. Both Newbold and Williams showed flashes of their scoring ability during their freshmen campaigns, but the standout attribute for both of them was their defensive ability they displayed as freshmen.
“Defense, defense, defense. That’s what it’s about,” Williams said. “If you can play defense, you can play for coach (Stew) Morrill.”
Williams played an average of 12.1 minutes per game during his freshman season, while scoring a modest 2.4 points per game. He believes his defensive performance has been and will be the main factor that determines the amount of playing time he’ll see under head coach Morrill.
“He’s a great coach,” Williams said. “He designs great plays, so we’re going to score, but defense, defense, defense. That’s what’s going to get me on the court.”
USU assistant coach Tim Duryea praised Newbold for his defensive prowess as well, saying Newbold has always been a solid defender in all areas.
Last year’s starting back-court of Carroll and point guard Kris Clark has graduated, along with their combined 28 points and 8.6 assists per game.
Williams, Newbold and redshirt freshman Jaxon Myaer will look to add more of a defensive presence in place of Clark and Carroll, while each picking up their own share of the load of points and assists in 2008-2009.
Jaxon Myaer
Myaer’s last real-time action on a basketball court was at Judge Memorial High School in Salt Lake City. There he averaged 18.6 points and 6.5 assists per game, en route to being named the class 3A most valuable player by The Salt Lake Tribune.
Myaer spent the 2007-2008 season as a redshirt at USU, and he said the time spent learning the offense is paying off for him in competing against Deremy Geiger and Jared Quayle for minutes at the point guard position.
“The difference now in Jaxon is that he’s doing everything second nature, where Deremy is having to think about everything,” Duryea said.
Aside from just experience in running the offense, Duryea expressed plenty of optimism about Myaer’s potential to contribute to this year’s team.
“He’s a better athlete than what most people probably think,” Duryea said. “He’s deceivingly fast, he’s got deceiving quickness and he can really shoot the ball. He’s really smart and really tough. Defensively, he’s a very good defender. He’s got the ability to really help all over the floor. He’s very good at guarding the ball because of his lateral quickness.”
Duryea also said that he believes Myaer’s lateral quickness and overall defensive ability more than make up for his lack of height, and he can possibly be a defensive upgrade at his position during this season.
Duryea said Myaer’s toughness and competitive attitude are his best attributes.
Tyler Newbold
Newbold returns after a freshman season for the Aggies in which he started 25 out of USU’s 35 games. As a starter, Newbold averaged 7.1 points and three rebounds per game while shooting 54.7 percent from the field and 51.5 percent from 3-point range.
Newbold also showed an ability to step up in big games on the offensive side of the ball with a 20-point performance in the regular season contest at New Mexico State, as well as averaging 17.5 points per game in the Aggies’ two Western Athletic Conference tournament games in March.
Duryea said Newbold will be expected to keep his defensive game at a high level this season, while his offensive production looks primed to make a large increase.
“The biggest thing with Tyler is his increased aggressiveness on offense,” Duryea said. “Coach has really promoted that and told him that he wants that.”
Newbold will see time at both the shooting guard and small forward positions this season, and will bring his rebounding ability and basketball IQ to the floor, much like he did as a starter last season.
Duryea also believes that Newbold will display much better strength and endurance this season, being more than a year removed from his two-year church mission.
“He takes tremendous pride in being strong and in shape, and his legs are much fresher this year as you would hope they would be,” Duryea said.
Pooh Williams
Williams returns after a year of playing a vital role off the bench as a freshman last season.
“It’s never a question of ability or athleticism with Pooh,” Duryea said. “It’s a question of sustaining effort and Division-I intensity.”
Duryea said Williams brings an elite level of athleticism to the table, and toward the end of last season showed flashes of his ability to turn potential into production. Williams had arguably his best game of the year in the Aggies’ season ending loss to Illinois State in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. He scored 10 points on 2-of-2 from behind the 3-point line. Williams also showed to be a threat score around the basket with his driving and leaping abilities.
“He’s really explosive,” Duryea said. “When he’s playing with an edge there’s a lot of times where you just can’t guard him off the dribble because he’s so explosive that way.”
While Williams’ offensive game has shown flashes of what he can bring to the team, his defense is the proven commodity that he returns with this season, but not without work still to be done.
“Pooh is probably the best on-the-ball defender on the team,” Duryea said. “To contrast that, he’s not a good enough help-defender.”
On top of sustaining a high level of intensity for Williams on the court and improving help-defense, Duryea said that Williams must improve in rebounding the ball this season.
“He’s not a good enough rebounder for the size and athletic ability he has,” Duryea said.
Like Newbold, Williams will be battling for minutes at both the shooting guard and small forward positions.
–matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu