Do-it-all Durrall

Durrall Peterson is not in Kansas anymore, but unlike Dorothy, he likes where he’s at.

Born in Raleigh, N.C., the shooting guard played two years at Hutchison Community College in the land of Oz fame before transferring to Utah State.

Peterson said he fell in love with the USU program as soon as he set his eyes on it.

“I loved it out here,” he said. “I loved the atmosphere. I’m an emotional player so the fan base really gets me.”

The town of Hutchison is vastly different from Logan, but Peterson said both cities share the same love of basketball.

“Hutchison is a real small, older society,” he said. “People go there to retire, but they have a real good fan base which has helped them build a good basketball tradition.”

USU didn’t show much interest in Peterson at first, he said, because he was planning to play elsewhere.

“I already had a verbal commitment to Auburn,” he said. “But I had to come out of that commitment because of a situation there.”

Once he decided not to attend Auburn, USU had announced it would be leaving the Big West Conference and move to the Western Athletic Conference. Peterson said although it helped make his decision, he still probably would have attended USU.

“Of course it’s a big jump from the Big West to the WAC, but it’s still a great program,” he said.

Peterson said in his first year in the conference, other players and teams don’t know him as well which is to his advantage. He said other teams will always watch Jaycee Carroll because he’s such a good shooter.

“Not too many players can flat out shoot the ball,” he said. “So they go to him and leave me open.”

Peterson began the season as a starter, but came off the bench for a few games in the middle of the season.

He said it was not because he was playing poorly.

“That’s just where coach wanted to put the players at,” he said. “Here at Utah State, we all work hard. It had nothing to do with that.”

Peterson’s best scoring effort with the Aggies came against Middle Tennessee State in the Spectrum Dec. 5 when he threw up 23 points. He also scored 21 against New Mexico State on Feb. 11.

He only had nine in last Saturday’s home loss to Nevada.

Peterson said the team is not hanging its head after that loss.

“To us, we’re still No. 1,” he said. “They beat us on our court and we beat them on their court.”

Peterson stressed that even though USU will probably not finish first in the WAC, there is still plenty for the Aggies to play for.

“We had a big opportunity in that game, but instead we’ll have to beat them in the conference tournament,” he said. “We’re still making strides. Hopefully, we’ll finish the season with two wins.”

Peterson said there’s only so much he can do by himself, but he’s still going to give everything he has.

“I play as solid as I can,” he said. “I let the game come to me.”

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu