‘Stangs ride in on high note
Opponents in the Big West Conference don’t like the Utah State men’s basketball team.
Why?
The answer is simple. It’s a successful program.
After back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, the Aggies finished last season with a 23-8 overall record and a trip to the NIT.
“As we go round this league, I keep reminding the kids, ‘people don’t like you much,'” said Utah State Head Coach Stew Morrill. “‘They don’t like you. They don’t like me.’ Anytime you’ve been fortunate enough to win some games through the past few years you kind of get a big target. Until we don’t win games in our conference, that’s kind of what we face game in and game out.”
Utah State forward Desmond Penigar doesn’t necessarily mind having opponents breathing down his neck. As a matter of fact, he likes it.
Penigar said he would rather be the team that other teams fear rather than the ball club everyone wants to play because they are easy.
“We like coming out every game and proving ourselves and showing that we deserve to be at the top of our conference,” Penigar said.
The Aggies will have their first chances to work toward a league victory at home Thursday as they host Cal Poly and Saturday as the University of California Santa Barbara visits Logan for a nationally televised ESPN game.
Tip-off for the game with UCSB is scheduled for 8:05 p.m.
Cal Poly is coming off a 2-0 start in Big West play. The Mustangs perfection thus far in the league doesn’t bother Morrill. The reason being is that teams go through hot spurts.
“We seem to be drawing the hot teams at the start of conference [play],” Morrill said.”It’s funny how being hot it. We were hot until the Pacific game, so it only takes a game or two to get somebody off being hot. We have a challenge trying to do that to Cal Poly.”
And in order to derail the sizzling train, the Aggies must deal with the recently eligible Shane Schilling.
The 6-foot-6-inch forward had to sit out after transferring from the University of Minnesota and has only played five games with the Mustangs, all of which he started.
“He’s a 20-point, 10-rebound a game guy the last few games,” Morrill said. “He reminds me of the kid from Northridge [Ian Boylan], and we did a good job on him.”
Morrill described the similarity between the two players in that each can drive to the hoop well.
The Aggies will also have to deal with Cal Poly’s 6-foot-7-inch forward Varnie Dennis.
Dennis has played in nine of the Mustangs 11 games, missing the Hawaii Festival Tournament, but still proves to be the team’s leading scorer at 17.2 points per game.
“If you just guard him one-on-one, it isn’t going to work,” Morrill said. “He’s just too big and too skilled with a real soft touch. He’s their best three-point shooter and he’s not afraid to take them. He’s got a real nice touch.”
Dennis leads the Mustangs in blocks (20) as well as contributing 7.3 rebounds per game and dishing off 15 assists.
The Aggies have also had their hot hands as of late, a 24-point performance by Penigar against Idaho State and a 17-point outing by Cardell Butler at Cal State Northridge.
And although he may not be shooting well, Mark Brown has still been the one in the driver’s seat for Utah State.
“He’s running our team well,” Morrill said. “He did a great job at Northridge or running our team and handling the press. We need him to be a little more aggressive offensively, we think he can make shots.”
Brown isn’t the only one having trouble finding the whole though. Because of this, Morrill said he did something this week he normally shies away from — a strictly offensive practice.
The extra emphasis on scoring is something Morrill hopes does not draw attention away from an aspect of the game his teams are generally known for — defense.
“I think our defense has gotten better and our rebounding is certainly a positive,” he said. “Now all of a sudden you stress offense, does your defense slip? I hope not. We’re missing enough shots that I guess that helps our rebounding.”
–juag@cc.usu.edu