SECTION F for April 7
To say it has been a struggle in refraining from writing about the Butler Bulldogs each of the past two weeks would be an understatement. I made a slight mention last week, but for the most part, I didn’t want to jinx them or sell them short by prematurely congratulating them on making it as far as they did in the NCAA tournament. Turns out they were about an inch away from being the champions on Monday night. To cap off their incredible tournament run, they look to return all but 2.9 points per game of scoring from this team going into next season.
Running around different Internet sources and forums, the hottest topic of debate surrounding Utah State is the question of how and why are the Aggies not primed for a tournament run like Butler just had? The go-to criticism for most is scheduling. The idea from many is that with a tougher preseason schedule, Utah State might suffer a loss or two to quality opponents, but in turn be more equipped and prepared to face another quality opponent by the time March rolls around. While there might be some merit to that argument, it is not the magical cure to USU’s NCAA tournament losing streak that many critics talk it up to be.
If an example is needed of that, look no farther than the rest of the Western Athletic Conference. Most every other WAC team has a couple games on its schedule each year that they have little to no hope of winning, but it should get them ready to beat up on other teams for the rest of the year, right? For the most part, however, those other WAC teams still were unable to hang with Utah State this season as the Aggies outscored WAC opponents by an average of 14.5 points per game with an overall WAC record of 18-3 in 2010.
The way a team like Utah State elevates to reach the status of teams like Butler, Xavier or Gonzaga is by doing exactly what USU has been doing. The Aggies win conference championships, have steadily been gaining more and more national recognition, consistently appear in the NCAA Tournament and in-turn have seen an increase in the caliber of players that head coach Stew Morrill has been able to recruit to the USU program.
Becoming a Butler does not happen overnight. It didn’t happen that way for Butler, and it won’t happen for Utah State. There are countless factors that play into a mid-major program advancing in the NCAA Tournament. What if USU hadn’t had to match-up against a player who was a year away from being the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 2006? What if Jared Quayle and Tai Wesley had not been in foul trouble against Marquette a year ago? What if Utah State hadn’t gone ice-cold while Texas A&M was red-hot? Those are just the recent questions too, while overlooking the 2003 team that nearly knocked off a Kansas squad that went on to play in the national championship game.
If any of these things goes a bit more in Utah State’s favor, they are right there in the conversation of the nation’s top mid-majors rather than facing questions about what is wrong and where the direction of the program is going. USU’s road is just proving to be a bit tougher than some of the others, but just like the Butler’s and Gonzaga’s of the world had to do, the Aggies will continue to produce results in the season, while steadily increasing the talent level in Logan until eventually a few national juggernauts fall by Utah State’s hand in March.
If there was ever a need for encouragement, it would be the incoming recruiting class for next season that includes the top big-man recruit in the state of Utah this past season and two top-flight point guards to aid in replacing Jared Quayle. Junior college transfer Brockeith Pane and freshman-to-be James Walker were both rated a 92 overall by ESPN.com’s college basketball recruiting section. In context, the only other player in the WAC to receive a rating of 92 or higher any time in the past three years was 2010 WAC Player of the Year Luke Babbitt, who was rated a 96 out of high school. Safe to say, the Aggies are reloading very strongly at their only position that is in need of reloading.
It is still a work in progress, but there is no doubt that Utah State is indeed progressing. There will still be tough losses, cold nights of shooting, and any other imaginable things that don’t go Utah State’s way over the years, but at the end of the day Morrill knows what he is doing. Something tells me it will be sooner, rather than later, that the list of mid-major elites will include Butler, Gonzaga, Xavier and Utah State.