Mystery Aggies to begin regualr season
Expectations and uncertainty.
These are two words Utah State University assistant coach Randy Rahe said are commonly associated with the 2001-2002 men’s basketball team.
With two straight 28-win seasons and back-to-back Big West Tournament championships under their belt, Rahe is apprehensive the expectations of Aggie fans will be too high for this year’s Aggie squad. After all, the team lost four starters to graduation and has six newcomers this year, thus leading to uncertainty about where the team is at this point of the season, Rahe said.
“It’s not fair to our kids to be compared to those other teams [the past two teams] because it is a whole new team,” he said.
While several players will don Aggie uniforms for the first time, Rahe said the keys to success are still the same – defensive intensity, coachability, team continuity and improvement on a daily basis.
“Our goal right now is just to try to get better every day,” he said. “It might sound corny, but that’s really the truth.”
Although there are a lot of questions concerning this year’s team, Tony Brown, USU’s lone returning starter, said he is confident the Aggies have the talent to be successful.
“We have guys at all of our positions who can play,” he said. “I think we have more athletic ability than we did last year.”
While it’s unfair to compare this year’s team to those of recent years, Rahe said they do have one thing in common – quality student athletes.
“We really try to recruit quality guys with good character, guys that want to win first,” he said. “I think we have the same thing this year. I think it’s just a matter of the new guys figuring out [our] system.”
Here’s a position-by-position look at the Aggies:
Point Guards:
Gone is team leader and first-time All-Big West Conference selection Bernard Rock. While the Aggies will miss his presence on the court, USU has a lot of talent at this position, Brown said.
Newcomer Ronnie Ross will most likely be the team’s starting floor general. Named one of the Top 40 junior college players a season ago by Rickballs as a sophomore at John Wood Junior College, Ross averaged 19.1 as a sophomore and 21 points as a freshman for John Wood.
“Ronnie Ross seems to be progressing really well,” Rahe said. “He’s performed fairly well in the [exhibition] games.”
Sophomore Thomas Vincent, Rock’s back-up a year ago, will also see significant playing time. Primarily a shooting guard in high school, Vincent made the switch to point guard last year and has made huge strides, Rahe said.
“Thomas Vincent has done about 100 percent better this year at running the team,” he said. “He’s always been able to make open shots.”
Brown said, “He’s getting better day by day. This year, he had been a lot more patient.”
Adding depth is Calvin Brown. Known for his quickness on the court, the 5-foot-10 redshirt freshman is one of the “quality guys” Rahe mentioned when he talked about recruiting at USU.
“Calvin is a terrific kid and a great team player,” Rahe said. “He hasn’t played a lot yet, but with continued hard work, Calvin will find a way to help us out.”
Shooting Guards
For many teams, having only one shooting guard with Division I experience might present a problem.
Fortunately for the Aggies, that player is Brown, a second-team all-conference pick a year ago.
“If you’ve only got one returning starter, it’s good to have Tony Brown in that spot,” Head Coach Stew Morrill said.
As a junior, Brown finished second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.7 points per game. One of the best three-point shooters in USU history (208 in his career), Brown also set the school record for best assist-to-turnover ratio (2.18-to-1) in a season last year.
Backing up Brown are freshmen Mike Stowell and Kevin Williams, and junior college transfer Ryan Wheeler.
Despite their lack of experience at this position – Stowell is familiar with USU’s system as he redshirted last year – Brown said he is confident in the guards’ ability to bury open shots.
“All of our guards are pretty good shooters,” he said.
Small Forwards:
After playing behind seniors Curtis Bobb and Dion Bailey last season, junior Toraino Johnson will man the small forward position for the Aggies this year.
“Last year, playing behind Dion and Curtis, he got a lot [of] experience and learned a lot from them,” senior Brennan Ray said. “Toraino’s just a tough, hard-nosed player.”
Picked by several teammates to be the “biggest surprise on the team this year,” according to the media guide, Johnson is a versatile player and an easy player to coach, Rahe said.
“Toraino, No. 1, is a very good athlete and he is a tremendous person,” Rahe said. “We love to coach him because he is so coachable. Toraino is a team-first player.”
Sophomores Chad Evans and Jason Napier will back up Johnson.
Capable of playing both the small and power forward positions, Evans has shown signs of brilliance at Hoops Fest, scoring 14 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.
“Overall, Chad Evans has been a nice surprise,” Rahe said. “He hasn’t gotten a lot of [playing] time in the two exhibition games, but in practice and in the scrimmages has played very well.”
Power Forwards:
Gone is two-time first-team all-league selection Shawn Daniels. Daniels led the Aggies in scoring and rebounding in both of his seasons at USU and was the Big West Defensive Player of the Year as a senior.
As daunting of a task as replacing Daniels might be, JC transfer Desmond Penigar is primed to fill the position.
The runner-up for junior college Player of the Year in the state of California the last two years, Penigar averaged 27.8 points and 11.4 rebounds a game his sophomore year and is a superb scorer, Ray said.
“Desmond is by far one of the best scorers I have seen in the low post,” Ray said.
For the third straight year, Ray will be the back-up at the four-position and is commonly referred to as the “heart and soul” of the team.
“The veterans, like Tony [Brown] and B-Ray are pretty much what you see is what you get type of players,” Rahe said.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, they will be without the services of Spencer Nelson, who suffered a season-ending knee injury a couple of weeks ago.
“It [Nelson’s injury] changes our team automatically,” Ray said. “Spencer is a high-energy, high-emotion player and he was going to contribute a lot and play some solid minutes.”
True freshman Nate Harris is also available to play the power forward position, but Harris might use this season as his redshirt season, Rahe said.
Center:
As of right now, the starting center position is still up in the air.
The Aggies will rely on both Jeremy Vague and Junior College transfer Mike Ahmad to fill the shoes of last year’s starter, Dimitri Jorssen.
“What we need is both of them to be big contributors,” Rahe said. “Whoever is starting is the least of our concerns and I really don’t believe that’s in their minds either.”
Vague is one of three seniors on the team and averaged more than 12 minutes a game as a reserve last year, while Ahmad was a junior college first-team all-state selection in California as a sophomore at Irvine Valley Junior College.
“Between the two of them, we need them to get 12 to 14 points a game [and] 10 to 12 rebounds a game,”Rahe said.