Morrill not disappointed after first basketball practice of season
Utah State men’s basketball Head Coach Stew Morrill’s expectations weren’t let down after the first practice of the season Saturday in the Spectrum.
Good thing – because if he was, it would be an extremely long year.
“Like I told our kids, I would be really disappointed if we came out the first day and weren’t excited or didn’t play with energy,” Morrill said after the first of two practices. “We did have energy and we were excited today.”
And the Aggies need to have those things because of the loss of two-time first-team all-Big West selection Desmond Penigar and honorable mention all-Big West Toraino Johnson.
Morrill said the team will have to rely on being good people with good work ethics and pure team chemistry.
Utah State junior forward Spencer Nelson agreed, and said he didn’t think the team would have a go-to scorer this year like it depended on Penigar last season.
“I think we are going to be really balanced and we will have great chemistry,” he said. “We’ll see contributions from a lot of people this year. We’ve got a lot of weapons.”
Threats which include himself, averaging 10.2 points per game last year, senior guard Cardell Butler (8.7) and senior guard Mark Brown (8.6).
Butler said he thought the first day of practice went well and stressed the importance of being in good physical shape now and later in the season.
“I think everyone is in good physical shape right now,” he said. “Later on in the season is where it gets tough, especially for the new guys. They don’t know what they are in for right now. I struggled the second half [of last season].”
Nelson said, “You can do all the conditioning you want, but only practice will get you in basketball shape. We’re in good shape.”
New faces to the USU squad include one forward (Jason Williams), one center (Cassiano Matheus) and four guards (Quenton Harvey, Jimmy Edwards, Chris Huber and Tyler Williams).
Butler said he was especially impressed with Williams’ play even though he is a little banged up.
“He’s injured and he can’t show that he is injured,” Butler said. “Coach Morrill doesn’t like that. I had a lot of injuries last year and I showed it and he was on me. He has to suck it up. If our trainers say he can go, then he can go.”
Center Mike Ahmad, forward/center Ian McVey and forward John Neil are all coming off redshirt seasons.
The new players will need to “buy into the system” of focusing on defense and rebounding, something Utah State is known for. Nelson said he doesn’t think the team will have any problems this year.
“I think it takes everybody a little while to get used to hearing it over and over and over again,” he said. “But I think everyone has a good attitude and is buying into the concept.”
The Aggies return seven lettermen from last year’s squad that went 24-9 and won the 2003 Big West Tournament, advancing to the NCAA Tournament. USU fell 64-61 to sixth-ranked Kansas in the first round.
Utah State will have exhibition games against Global Sports and Hawaii-Hilo on Nov. 7 and Nov. 14, respectively. It opens the 2003-04 regular season Nov. 21 against Fort Lewis College at 6 p.m. in the Spectrum.
The annual Hoops Fest will be Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. in the Spectrum.
-juag@cc.usu.edu