Just wanting to help out
Having redshirted the 2005 basketball season, men’s basketball player Matt Formisano knows the amount of work it takes to play for Head Coach Stew Morrill. After taking two years off to serve a LDS mission, Formisano knows now that he will have to work that much harder to get back into playing condition so he can help the team win.
“Coming back I have been trying to work hard and get back into shape so I can play and help the team out,” Formisano said.
Standing 6-foot-8 and weighing 220 pounds, Formisano will be one of many players competing for playing time down low. Even though the Aggies have options at the post spot, don’t look for Formisano to back down. In high school, he made the varsity team as a sophomore and had to work hard against those more experienced.
“I was playing with guys who were seniors and really good, who taught me a lot and pushed me around, and I had to try and hold my own,” Formisano said. “That’s when I started thinking, ‘I can play with these guys.'”
One skill that should help the redshirt freshman from Centennial, Colo., is his ability to move away from the basket and knock down shots from the outside.
Assistant Coach Tim Duryea agrees.
“He is big and strong and is very fundamentally sound,” Duryea said. “Matt Formisano is going to block out every time, Matt’s gonna set every screen like he is going to get it. Offensively his biggest attribute is he can step out from the basket and really shoot the ball.” In addition to his inside-out game, Formisano does have one year of experience with the Aggie system. Although he took two years off, Duryea said the skills and mental toughness required to play come back fairly quickly.
“They are way ahead mentally because they have been through all of these practices before,” Duryea said. “So, obviously their recall is going to be really quick as opposed to a guy who is just coming in off the street, a brand new player.”
Formisano said extra motivation for him to work hard and earn playing time is that he has been through a regular season with the team and has to sit through games played at the Spectrum.
“It was hard to not go out there,” Formisano said. “The games were so amazing. The crowd is awesome here. That, for me coming off the mission, was one of the things I was really looking forward to, the Spectrum atmosphere.”
The great fans at Utah State were only one of the reasons Formisano chose to accept Utah State’s offer to play. The coaching staff as well as the recruiting process as a whole with Utah Sate won him over to become a Aggie.
“I think just the whole recruiting-ship really got me,” he said. “I was getting recruited by a couple of other schools, but this is the best school that recruited me. You know the record that they have here. They have been a really good team over the years. Coach Morrill is a great coach. Great coaching staff, great fans. It was an easy choice for me.”
Formisano said Utah State has a great program and no one player can get caught up in personal achievements. In order for the team to succeed, he said, they must have good chemistry. His said his goal is to work hard and do his part to help the team win.
-sam.bryner@aggiemail.usu.edu