Men’s basketball team preps for final road trip of the season
After a comeback win over Idaho on Senior Night, the USU men’s basketball team prepares for another lengthy road trip. The Aggies begin against last-place San Jose State, before traveling to face Hawaii.
“It’s nice to be coming off a home win where our guys rallied and did what they needed to do in the second half,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said.
The Spartans have struggled against Western Athletic Conference competition this year and have a win over Fresno State at home in overtime as their only conference victory.
Despite San Jose’s struggles, the Aggies have struggled on the road in the conference at 1-4 this season, and San Jose State has experienced several close losses.
“Anybody who thinks that San Jose State has only won one league game so you should just waltz in there and beat them, they don’t understand going to San Jose,” Morrill said. “It’s always a struggle there. Last year they had some kind of fraternity thing going on, and it was pretty wild and pretty active.
“They’ve had good performances at home. We’re going to definitely have to play better defense than we did when they came to Logan. Watching that game tape, we were not very good defensively. We had a really hard time guarding them. They are quick and active on the perimeter.”
During the last meeting between the two teams, USU junior forward Kyisean Reed was able to exploit the shorter San Jose State lineup and finished the night with 21 points and eight rebounds to lead the Aggies 82-65 over the Spartans.
Senior guard Brockeith Pane and sophomore guard Preston Medlin each chipped in 15 points in the winning effort.
Morrill was not pleased with USU’s defensive effort against the Spartans.
“I saw them drive by us, time and time again, with their quickness,” Morrill said. “We have a hard time guarding their guys, and they are really loose. It’s not like you can prepare your guys like we are able to do some games, because you don’t know exactly when they’re going to do what.”
San Jose senior forward Wil Carter is still averaging nearly a double-double with 12 points and eight rebounds, and is averaging 15 points per game to go with 10 boards.
“When you are averaging a double-double in league play, he is 15 points and 10 rebounds, that is pretty dang good,” Morrill said. “He can make a face-up jumper but (it’s) not really his strength.”
Two other Spartans are averaging double figures — junior forward James Kinney averages 15.8 points per game and Keith Shamburger averages 13.3 points per game.
The Aggies will be looking to give themselves a chance on the road.
“You look at the games on the road, we were highly competitive with a chance to win in just about every one, other than New Mexico State for the last 10 minutes where it got away from us,” Morril said. “We need to feel like we can go on the road and give ourselves a chance to win, then you have to get over the hump, obviously, but a lot of averages might catch up if we can put ourselves in that position again.”
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu