Six USU newcomers will vie to replace former stalwart guards

This year, Utah State head coach Craig Smith is faced with the prospect of heading not only what fans hope will be a third straight year of Mountain West dominance, but also a youth movement with nine newcomers featuring seven freshman.

Six of the newcomers are guards, five of which are freshman. These six players are among those tasked with replacing a guard rotation that helped lead the Aggies to back-to-back Mountain West Tournament Championships.

Last year Utah State ran a thin, but tight, ship with its backcourt rotation, led by it three stalwart veterans: Sam Merrill, Diogo Brito and Abel Porter. Brito and Merrill were both four-year standouts, the latter cementing himself as a program legend and the former being one of the most reliable two-way guards of the past decade in Logan. Porter rounded out the crew and while not a star, he was a steady hand who always seemed to make plays just when the team needed them (fitting such reliability, Porter played the fourth-most minutes for the team between the start of the 2018-19 season and the early conclusion of 2019-20 even though he didn’t make his first start until midway through ‘18-19).

To say these three men were the backbone of the backcourt would be nigh upon insulting. They were the backbone, head, arms, hands, legs and soul. The only other player who owned any sort of real estate in the backcourt was Sean Bairstow and he played less than half the minutes of any of USU’s three musketeers (it should be noted before moving on that, while junior Brock Miller is indeed listed as a guard, he played a role more akin to a small forward and not a ball-handling guard like the other players so far mentioned). Head coach Craig Smith relied on these three veterans to handle the ball, run the plays and make the passes. Merrill, Brito and Porter accumulated 330 assists between them; the rest of the team had 231 combined. Outside of garbage minutes, there was hardly a moment where at least one of these three weren’t on the court and there were usually two of them out there.

Now Smith will be without all three permanently. Merrill and Brito graduated, and Porter has moved on to the presumably greener pastures of Ohio State. The remaining stable of guards consists of Miller — who will likely retain his largely off-ball shooting role — Virginia transfer Marco Anthony and the five freshman: Steven Ashworth, Max Shulga, Rollie Worster, Zahar Vedishchev, and walk-on Karson Stastny. Outside of Miller, this crew has a combined 596 minutes of Division I experience.

Bairstow, the only current ball-handler who played a single minute for USU last season, had an up-and-down freshman campaign last season with plenty of flashes — and plenty of freshman blunders — in low, but consistent minutes (he played in 32 of USU’s 34 games, averaging 11.7 minutes per outing). Thanks to the outstanding nature of his backcourt compatriots and Smith’s lineup tendencies, there was a small correlation between Bairstow’s minutes and how tough Utah State’s opponent was, playing more against weaker foes. However, Smith said Bairstow played a crucial role at times, specifically citing the Mountain West Tournament first-round game against New Mexico when Bairstow played 20 minutes, filling in for a banged-up Porter.

“We wouldn’t have beaten New Mexico in the first round of the tournament without Sean Bairstow,” Smith said.

With the rotation much more open, Bairstow has a chance to prove himself beyond singular scenarios. This situation is hardly a surprise for Bairstow, he’s been expecting it since before he set foot in Logan for the first time.

“Since my recruitment I’ve been told, last year, my freshman year we were going to be really good and the year after that’s when we need people to step up,” Bairstow said. “Last year was a real big prep year and now it’s time to go show what we’re about.”

Anthony’s expectations are far above that of Bairstow. His pedigree of being a three-star recruit who landed himself at Virginia — and winning a national title while there— carries significant weight, even with Anthony’s limited experience (he logged just 222 career minutes at Virginia). Smith, noting Anthony’s 6-foot-5 stature and roughly 225-pound frame, said the junior “can play really any position on the floor with the exception of (center).”

While Anthony and Bairstow’s experience is limited, their talent and at least some on-court time appears to be leading them to starting or, at least, consistent roles. The five freshman guards will have to prove themselves anew, building on their pre-college resume, all of which are impressive in their own right.

Shulga and Vedishchev starred in international roles at FIBA tournaments in 2019, the former playing in U18 Division B and the latter in the U19 World Cup. Vedischev led Russia’s fifth-place effort, averaging 16.5 points largely off his 40.4 percent 3-point shooting on 8.7 attempts from deep per game. Shulga’s Ukrainian side finished ninth, but the young guard shone in his eight appearances with averages of 13.3 points (second on his team), 7.3 rebounds (also second) and 2.6 assists (third).

Worster, Stastny and Ashworth lack the FIBA experience of Shulga and Vedishchev, but were dominant high school players. Worster averaged 19.2 points as a four-year starter at Hellgate High School, topping out at 21.1 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.4 assists his senior season en route to Hellgate being named co-champions (the title game was cancelled due to COVID-19 and the two competing teams were named co-champions). Ashworth led his team, Lone Peak High School, to a championship of its own, leading the team in scoring at 16.4 per game. He also thrived at playmaking, dishing out 7.1 assists per night. Even at just six feet tall, Ashworth also gathered in 4.1 rebounds per game and was a steals machine, averaging 3.0 per game. Stastny did not lead his team to a state title, but racked up local awards and stats like trick-or-treaters gather candy on Halloween. In total, he accumulated over 2,000 points and 500 assists in his prep career, averaging 20 points, five rebounds, five assists as a senior.

All of this talent in one position group, and an enormous hole in the rotation opening this offseason, will lead to one heck of a battle to reach the top of the depth chart. Though Ashworth has said it isn’t a poisonous feud, but rather “healthy competition.”

“We’re competing against each other but we’re also making sure that we’re helping each other get better as well each and every day, each and every workout,” Ashworth said.

From the top of this new guard rotation to the bottom, there is talent in all areas of basketball — scoring prowess, outside shooting, defense and passing. Smith has praised his recruiting class and young roster over and over. It’s just a matter of getting experience.

“We’ve got a lot of very good, young players. But they’re young and inexperienced,” Smith said. “I think it’s a group that’s going to keep getting better quick. And so, this is a very important time for us right now to see what these guys can do and introduce them to our system and our terminology and everything that that entails.”

Replacing program legends who took this program to heights never before seen won’t be easy, but this changing of the guard could be much smoother than most on the outside are expecting.

@thejwalk67

— sports@usustatesman.com