Coach Morrill: ‘Don’t worry, Aggies are fine’
Don’t make the call to the mortician just yet. Stop the order of flowers. The funeral is over.
After suffering two straight road losses to Long Beach State University and Boise State University and losing the regular season league title, the Utah State basketball team is alive and well, according to head coach Stew Morrill.
“I think our guys are fine,” Morrill said. “What we talked about was ‘let’s go ahead and have a little funeral on Sunday.’ I felt like hell, but by Monday I was fine.”
Morrill told his team yesterday that the University of North Carolina just suffered the same thing as USU – two straight road losses. One of UNC’s debacles was to Clemson University, a team that had won only two games.
“They still have a good program, I think,” Morrill said of the Tarheels. “I think they are going to show up and play this week. So are we.”
“I think we are fine mentally,” Morrill said. “I’ve been around teams and seen teams through the years that are done when this happens, and I don’t sense that at all.”
Morrill said in order to recover from its recent skid, the Aggies must demonstrate what they have done well in the past – coachability, unselfishness and especially defense.
“That’s the kind of thing we need to do to get back on track is get back to defending the way were capable of defending,” he said.
Morrill would like his team to hold its opponents to a low shooting percentage.
He pointed out that in the last two road games, the squad gave up 47 and 49 percent from the field. According to the three-year coach, the team must defend like it did against opponents in the Big West conference tournament last year, when the team allowed only 33, 30 and 37 percent shooting in three games.
The University of California at Santa Barbara, USU’s opponent tomorrow in the Spectrum, is on a roll of its own, winning eight of its last nine games.
Morrill said he would like to be UCSB’s spoiler.
“But guess what,” Morrill said. “If they lose two on the road, then all of a sudden they’re not on a roll. They’re not hot anymore.”
Morrill had nothing but praise for the Gaucho team.
UCSB center Mike Vukovich was a non-starter last year and this season he has the second leading field-goal percentage in the league, while averaging 11 points a game, Morrill said.
“They’re very aggressive,” Morrill said. “They put their head down and drive; they run good stuff.”
The Guachos are led in scoring by sophomore forward Matt Hull, who averages 14 a game. They feature three other players scoring in double figures – forward Branduinn Fullove (12.0 ppg), Vukovich (11.3 ppg) and guard Nick Jones (10.2 ppg).
USU is led by forward Shawn Daniels, who averages 12 per game. Tony Brown, who tied a career high of seven 3-pointers in the BSU game Saturday, averages 12.1 a game.
“Tony is as good of a defender as we have on the perimeter,” Morrill said. “He just doesn’t make mistakes. He’s so solid.”
Forward Curtis Bobb has been in a bit of a slump lately. He only scored four points against the Broncos and was 0-6 from 3-point land in the game, a departure from his league-leading percentage from beyond the arc.
“What Curtis needs to do is concentrate on defending and rebounding,” Morrill said. “That’s always been my solution, and always will be my solution to shots not going down because I’ve seen it a million times over.”
USU will finish the season against Cal Poly in the Spectrum on Saturday in a game televised on ESPN. The Big West Tournament starts March 8 in Anaheim, Calif.