Identity Crisis: Can Koby McEwen lift Utah State to be a contender in the Mountain West?
Utah State Aggies, 7-11, 8th place finish.
The line feels so familiar it can hardly be called a bold prediction. On the brink of what will surely be another wild season in the Mountain West, Utah State is tabbed as the No. 8 team in the conference by preseason voters — and really, who can blame them?
Nevermind the emergence of a dangerous young backcourt, budding star Koby McEwen’s preseason All-MW selection or Sam Merrill’s first full offseason since returning from an LDS mission. The preseason rankings are based on facts, and the fact is Utah State has now spent four years in the conference proving an inability to climb into the driver’s seat.
With the era of four straight WAC titles squarely in the rearview, USU joined the MWC in 2013 with a squad of discontented kids who could hardly stand each other long enough to complete a game. Still, longtime coach Stew Morrill managed to extract a decent season from the unruly group, even squeaking out a conference tournament win over CSU in Las Vegas before being splattered by eventual conference champion San Diego State 73-39.
“No matter,” fans thought. The leap into a new and exciting conference capable of sending multiple teams into the frenetic March Madness tournament meant some growing pains were in order. The Aggies finished an understandable 7-11, for an 8th place finish.
An 11-7 season in 2014 certainly showed progress. The dual-threat frontcourt of David Collette and Jalen Moore playing out of position fell just two points short of toppling eventual conference champ Wyoming in the MW’s opening round, and the foundation of an Aggie hoops renaissance appeared unshakeable.
Chaos descended in the months that followed. Stew Morrill retired, Tim Duryea was hired, and Collette unceremoniously left the team days before the 2015 season. The unexpected shift unravelled Utah State’s intentions to finally step into a conference contender role, putting the Aggies’ best-laid plans on indefinite hold. The result was disappointingly familiar territory — 7-11, 8th place finish.
And then, last year. Moore’s senior season. McEwen’s first look at Division I ball. Aggie nation’s introduction and subsequent love affair with Merrill’s defensive genius. There were highs, such as the 74-57 home win over an otherwise-dominant UNR. There were lows, like the 72-70 heartbreaker in Boise just three days later. But in the end, there they were, the Utah State Aggies, 7-11 for an 8th place finish.
For a team so consistently good-not-great, perhaps no team in the Mountain West has a foggier future. Three out of the Aggies’ first four years in the conference illustrate an unmistakable floor, but what is the ceiling for a program still struggling to find an identity?
The answer almost certainly relies on the play of Utah State’s greatest outlier, Koby McEwen.
McEwen’s patented swish-and-snarl flair took the exaggerated expectations from last year’s Aggie faithful in stride, stuffing nearly 15 points per game through the rim in charmingly dramatic fashion. The freshman finished his introductory MW tour ranked No. 6 in 3-pt percentage, No. 6 in assists per game, No. 8 in points per game and ranked among the conference top 20 in both rebounding and field goal percentage — all while playing second-fiddle to Moore’s senior season.
The team’s success or failure now rests squarely on McEwen’s shoulders, and the former Freshman of the Year hasn’t been shy about his intentions.
“I want to be the greatest basketball player to ever play here,” McEwen told the Utah Statesman in an interview last year. “I think it’s very achievable. I want to be the Wayne Estes or the Jaycee Carroll of this generation at Utah State.”
McEwen’s expectations for himself might sound like hyperbole if he wasn’t already re-writing the Aggie record books. McEwen’s 14.9 points per game set a Utah State freshman record last season, topping USU All-American Jaycee Carroll’s 14.7 freshman average from 2004. McEwen also dropped in 28 points in a single game last year against UNLV, tying USU’s freshman single-game scoring record—Carroll’s record.
The Toronto native skimmed right over the typical adjustments even the most polished high school players endure in their first year of college ball, winning a starting spot and promptly justifying his 31 minutes of playing time. McEwen’s talent is enough to make the Aggies interesting, but for USU to break out of its 7-11 cycle the team needs more than a star in the making—it needs an identity.
San Diego State sucks the life out of opponents with a tenacious full-court press and disciplined defense, it’s just who they are. Wyoming opens fire from beyond the arc for 40 straight minutes. Fresno plays fast and physical in transition. Boise State can hit from anywhere on the floor, at times unguardable but prone to cold streaks.
Utah State displays no such trend besides a lackluster conference record and unfulfilled expectations. Of course, this concerns USU’s third-year head coach as much as its stud point guard.
“One of the qualities about this conference every year is how deep it is,” Duryea said. “Every year one through nine usually has a very fine line, a narrow margin of finishing second or third or finishing seventh or eighth. A lot of it depends on experience and most of the teams picked in the top four or five have people coming back.”
The Aggies’ only experience comes from unconventional places. Utah State’s only seniors, Alexis Dargenton and Julion Pearre, are solid in their probable starting roles but not necessarily the team’s central source of scoring or leadership. Duryea has extensive experience with USU athletics but only two full years as acting head coach. McEwen has experience winning, but not yet at the conference tournament level or beyond. None of them have experience making a name for themselves or transforming a sub-.500 team into a contender — yet.
Coach Duryea might be the man behind the wheel, but McEwen is the engine, gas pedal and Fast and the Furious-style NOS button. “Maybe next year” isn’t just a tired narrative for fans, it’s a label McEwen and company are actively trying to extinguish.
“I like to think the guys respect me now as a player and as a leader,” McEwen said, “but I’m still working. I’ve gotta get better in certain areas in order to turn the culture around and become a winning team again. I’m working on that every day.”
The sophomore will get his chance early and often this fall. The Aggies face 2016 NCAA runner-up Gonzaga in Spokane to kick off an early five game road trip in November, before returning home to face in-state rivals BYU and Utah in December. The 2017 Aggies’ proving grounds are set.
All that remains is a determined effort to find an identity and stick to it.
A version of this story originally ran in the Utah State 2017 Basketball Preview published by the Utah Statesman.