Men’s basketball has holes to fill, players to fill them
Prior to last season, the returning players on the USU men’s basketball team had started a combined 292 games, a mark of continuity unprecedented during head coach Stew Morrill’s tenure at Utah State.
The combined number of career starts for next season’s returners? Forty-one.
The loss of six seniors, including two four-year starters and another three-year starter, all from the winningest senior class in USU’s history, has left quite a few question marks.
A handful of returning players, as well as a quality group of incoming recruits will look to provide the answers to those questions.
“I always look forward to trying to mold a team and figure out who can do what,” Morrill said. “I think it will be a whole lot of challenge and hopefully a lot of fun. I don’t think we know yet how talented we are.”
Outside of point guard, where senior Brockeith Pane stands as the team’s lone returning starter after earning first team all-Western Athletic Conference (WAC) honors last season, the only other spot on the court that appears to be solidly claimed is the power forward position. Senior Brady Jardine looks to step into a starting role at the same spot where he has been one of Morrill’s go-to players off the bench for the past three seasons.
Jardine averaged 7.5 points and seven rebounds per game last season, but showed early on that he was up to the task of playing starters’ minutes. With Nate Bendall out with an injury early last season, Jardine started seven games for USU, averaging 10.4 points and 8.9 rebounds per game while shooting 57 percent from the field.
Morgan Grim also looks to be right in the mix down low after a solid first season at USU where he averaged 2.6 points and 1.6 rebounds in limited minutes last year.
Grim and Jardine will be joined by redshirt freshman Ben Clifford, junior college transfer Kyisean Reed and freshman Jordan Stone, returning from an LDS mission, in 2011, each bringing their own different style of play from what fans have seen over the past several years with the likes of Bendall and Tai Wesley.
“Clifford is a really, really good perimeter shooter for a post player,” USU assistant coach Tim Duryea said. “I think (Clifford) can help us because he’s a really smart player, he shoots the ball well from the perimeter and he’s a really good rebounder along with being a very good passer.”
Clifford is happy with the chance to have redshirted this past season to learn under a pair of all-WAC caliber players as he faces the responsibility of playing a major role for next year’s team.
“This year was great, learning from the best really from (Wesley) and (Bendall), playing against them every day in practice,” Clifford said. “We’ve for sure got some big shoes to fill, especially in the post.”
Like Jardine and Clifford, coaches anticipate that Reed will add plenty to the athleticism down low for USU next year.
“He’s a guy that can step out and shoot it, he can put it on the floor and go by you. We think he can score some in the post because he’s so athletic an so we’re looking for him to jump right in there and get going,” Duryea said.
For the 6-foot-11 Stone, the staff isn’t predicting as much of an immediate impact rather than bigger things down the road as his game progresses.
“We knew when we signed him that he was a big developmental guy and we’re excited about his potential,” Morrill said of Stone. “I like Jordan a lot physically. I think he’s raw in terms of his skill level.”
When it comes to replacing a trio of Tyler Newbold, Pooh Williams and Brian Green, the first name to pop out of the coaches’ mouths is the only familiar face among next year’s wings, redshirt sophomore Preston Medlin.
“Preston Medlin is obviously, of those guys, probably the most proven since he played last year,” Duryea said.
Medlin emerged as a scoring threat early during his freshman season at USU in 2009-10, scoring 17 points in just his fifth college game against Southern Utah, followed by an eight-point performance at home in a 71-61 win over BYU.
Medlin said redshirting was difficult after playing the previous year, but not without its benefits, such as playing on the scout team.
“You get to work on your offense a lot,” Medlin said. “You get to do things that you might not normally do.”
Entering his third year in the program, the coaching staff is excited about how Medlin’s game has developed since he last took the court.
“We think he’s got the ability to score the ball in all different ways,” Duryea said. “He’s probably the best passing two-guard that we’ve had here in my tenure for sure.”
Medlin will be joined on the wings by a pair of junior college All-Americans in Antonio Bumpus, who redshirted for USU in 2010-11 and Norvel Arnold, who will join the team this summer.
Duryea said that both Bumpus and Arnold should be able to jump right into the rotation with their skill and athleticism, making for a competitive scenario on the wings.
The staff also hopes to redshirt Danny Berger, another wing player who will be returning from an LDS church mission.
The 2011-12 season leaves several starting positions wide open for competition for the first time in several years, but there’s nothing but optimism among the staff.
“We think we’ve got some talented guys there that are just waiting for their chance to earn a spot and earn minutes and keep the tradition rolling,” Duryea said. “It’ll be a new era in Aggie basketball.”
– matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu