Men’s basketball opens the season with ice cream and Sprinkle’s
Utah State men’s basketball opened their season beating South Dakota Mines 101-48 on Monday night in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Fans enjoyed “Ice cream with Sprinkles,” after the 53-point win, tied for its 11th-largest in school history.
Starting on the court for the Aggies were junior wing Great Osobor, sophomore center Isaac Johnson, graduate guard Darius Brown II, freshman guard Mason Falslev and junior guard Josh Uduje.
The team went 39-62 in field goals with 26 assists and 13 steals. Uduje led the pack with 19 total points, 8-8 field goals and 3-3 from behind the arc. His perfect game has already set USU records tying just 10 other players for the best shooting percentage in a single game in school history.
“It feels good,” Uduje said. “We work so hard all year round. We’ve been working since June to get to this point, so it feels good to get our first win. I couldn’t score without someone passing me the ball, so credit to my teammates for finding me when I was open. We had 26 assists today and that shows the type of unselfish team we are.”
Falslev followed just behind with 17 points and a career-high five assists, five rebounds and four steals. His double-digit score is a career first with the Aggies.
USU came into the season with a new coaching staff and 13 new players. The team is just one of three in the nation returning zero points to its 2023-24 roster. The lone returners from last season include two redshirts in Johnson and Falslev. Sophomore guard Landon Brenchley is the only USU player with time on the court before the season.
USU’s new coaching staff is led by Danny Sprinkle who was named head coach on April 7, 2023. Sprinkle is 81-43 in four years as head coach at Montana State and has a total of 23 years coaching college basketball.
Sprinkle’s focus in the team’s exhibition match was to play everyone and see what they could do. He was excited to get the team in front of the crowd and in front of the HURD and see what would happen.
“The student section, I can’t thank them enough just for everything they do,” Sprinkle said. “That’s what makes Spectrum Magic. Our guys played well. They played with the right intent tonight. Sometimes games like this can get a little sloppy and you can play selfish at times. With our 26 assists and only 11 turnovers, we played pretty clean. We did a pretty good job of making the effort plays, the 50-50. We had a lot of guys diving on the floor to get loose balls which, I don’t care who we play, that’s what we’ve got to do. It’s a good buildup for Bradley.”
SDM took the first points of the game leading 6-3. A three from Uduje sparked an Aggie takeoff.
The Aggies went on a 16-0 run for 5:33 including repeated rebounds by Falslev and a layup scoring a successful foul shot. That, followed by a solid dunk from junior forward Kalifa Sakho, was just the beginning of a game full of scoring runs.
The Aggies were up by 20 at 37-17 with big shots from Uduje outside the arc and Brown and Jackson with threes of their own. They ended the first half 51-25.
The second half featured a slew of non-starters. All 11 Aggies that played in the game scored at least four points.
USU entered the second half screaming from the bench along with the rest of the stadium in their 30-point lead.
Going on a 19-point streak lasting 4:14 brought them up to an 84-32 lead. In true Aggie tradition, the team yelled “We want ice cream,” just before a USU jumper good by freshman forward Templin Karson.
The Aggies switched quickly between defense and offense and took another 10-0 run for 3:27 at 7:51.
Brenchley led the team on the court for the final minutes of the game holding SFM to 0 FG in 5 minutes. When sophomore forward Nigel Burris put up two points and the team broke 100, fans’ shirts came off.
“The crowd was amazing. I was sitting on the bench talking to Mason (Falslev) and Isaac (Johnson), telling them that I had never experienced a home crowd with that type of presence before. I’m so used to the crowd being against me, so having them on our side is amazing. They really get into the game, and it helps. The crowd really can change the whole dynamic of the game. Not a lot of people like coming to the Spectrum and we want to keep that tradition going,” Uduje said.
SDM went on a short run before the Aggies ran out the clock in the final 20 seconds.
The largest lead of the night was 58 points at 97-39 and 101-43 before the Hardrockers scored the final five points of the game.
USU finished the game shooting 62.9 percent (39-of-62), with 52.9 percent (9-of-17) from 3-point range and 66.7 percent (14-of-21) from the free throw line.
Alejandro Rama was the only double-figure scorer for South Dakota Mines as he finished the game with 19 points on 9-of-18 shooting. SDM shot 28.6 percent (16-of-56) from the field, with 16.0 percent (4-of-25) from 3-point range and was 12-of-14 (.857) from the free throw line.
The team now takes on Bradley on Nov. 11 at 6 p.m.