The man in the plastic mask
Masked men with alter egos are common in Hollywood: Batman/Bruce Wayne, Superman/Clark Kent, Zorro/Diego de la Vega.
Utah State’s men’s basketball team has a masked man – forward Spencer Nelson- thanks to an errant elbow that broke his nose in practice Jan. 20. Nelson will have to wear a plastic protective mask for the rest of the season.
But unlike the Hollywood heroes, Nelson has no alter ego other than the occasional teasing nickname from teammates.
Not only does he not have an alter ego, Nelson doesn’t appear to have an ego of any variety.
The Aggies have been characterized as a balanced, unselfish team – words that are often used to describe the 6-foot-8 Nelson.
Nelson’s leadership has helped the Aggies to a No. 19 ranking in this week’s AP poll, and enters the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll for the first time this season at No. 23.
Nelson said the team expected to be good, but didn’t know it would be this good.
“I think everyone on this team before the season even started had confidence in each other and in Coach [Stew] Morrill’s system, and it’s just kind of panned out the way we hoped it will,” he said.
While Utah State has not had one dominant scorer this season, last Saturday’s box score epitomized the team’s balance. Every starter scored in double figures except Nelson, who was one point away at nine. He also pulled down eight rebounds.
Nelson is the first to say that scoring isn’t everything. He’s among the team leaders in every major category.
“I’m always in search of the perfect game,” he said. “I just want to be a well-rounded player. I don’t want to be just a rebounder, or just a passer, or just a scorer. I want to be a complete player.”
The stats indicate he’s on his way.
Nelson ranks third on the team in scoring, averaging 10.9 points per game to Cardell Butler’s 13.5 and Nate Harris’ 12.5.
Since breaking his nose, Nelson has shot only 43.8 percent compared to 60.6 percent before the injury, struggling at times with wearing the mask.
He has also gone from 11.6 points per game before the injury to 8.5 percent after, but the reduced visibility hasn’t affected his “nose for the ball.” He’s second in rebounds in the Big West, averaging 9.4 per game and his rebounds per game average has actually gone up since injury, from 7.7 to 9.8 per game.
Nelson isn’t afraid to share the ball, as he trails only point guard Mark Brown on the team in assists and is eighth in the conference.
Nelson has been a big part of the team’s success, and Morrill has nothing but praise for him.
“Spence gives us a ton of leadership,” Morrill said.
As an example of Nelson’s leadership and the way his teammates look up to him, Morrill cited the Aggies’ two road games at CS Fullerton and UC Riverside, a trip that Nelson didn’t even make because of the broken nose he suffered earlier in the week.
The team called Nelson and asked him to go through his traditional pre-game ritual to pump up the team, over the phone.
“That tells you he’s a pretty good leader right there,” Morrill said.
Aggie assistant coach Randy Rahe said the team wanted to win “for Spencer,” and they did just that, beating Fullerton 57-49 and Riverside 62-58 on their home courts.
“As good a player as he is, he’s an even better person,” Rahe said of Nelson.
While some of his stats have suffered since injuring his nose, Nelson refuses to use the mask as an excuse.
The broken nose isn’t the first time he has had to overcome adversity on the court.
In a practice on Oct. 31, 2002 before his sophomore year was to start, Nelson’s Halloween turned from the treat of his first season back to the trick of a nightmarish knee injury. He blew out his anterior cruciate ligament, causing him to miss an entire season.
The torn ACL was a learning experience, one Nelson said he wouldn’t change if he could.
“It’s worked out so good that I wouldn’t pass it up,” he said.
Nelson was given a medical redshirt for the year, and last year as a sophomore he was honored with the Big West Co-Hustle Player of the Year award for his work on the court.
As far as the mask is concerned, “he’ll be full-strength when he can take that thing off and stomp on it,” Morrill said, but it’s not stopping Nelson from earning respect on and off the court.
Spencer’s mom, Michele, said people stop her on the street in Spencer’s hometown of Pocatello, Idaho to ask her about how he’s doing.
“It’s just been such a positive,” she says of Spencer’s experiences at Utah State.
Everyone he knows feels like they are sharing the experience with him, she said.
Spencer credits his hometown with getting him started in sports.
“The neighborhood I grew up in was a picture-perfect neighborhood,” he said. “The neighborhood kids were all into sports, so that’s how I got into them.”
Nelson played tennis, golf, soccer and of course, basketball.
“Basketball just turned out to be my favorite one,” Nelson said. “It’s a good release for me to get away from the pressures of school and life, to just go out and play and shoot. The competition, the intensity. I love being on a team and I love my teammates.”
Nelson had one example to follow on the basketball court. His older brother, JT, played center at Idaho State.
But Spencer didn’t follow his brother’s footsteps to ISU, choosing Utah State instead.
In a way, Nelson has been with Utah State basketball for longer even than his coach has.
Nelson was recruited by former Aggie coach Larry Eustachy. He signed a letter of intent with Eustachy before his senior year in high school, but was never coached by him. Eustachy left to take a job at Iowa State. Morrill was hired from Colorado State and coached Nelson in his freshman year.
Nelson left the program for two years in 2000 to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in to Oklahoma, “the best two years of my life,” he says, and returned to Morrill’s program in time to suffer the knee injury.
It’s not hard to tell how Morrill feels about Nelson.
“If you don’t like Spencer Nelson, you ought to check your hole card, because something’s wrong with you,” Morrill said. “That’s the way it is. Everybody that knows Spencer Nelson likes Spencer Nelson.”
Even though the coaching staff changed before he came, Nelson said he’s happy he stuck with his decision to come to Utah State.
“It felt like the best fit for me,” Nelson said. “It just felt right. That was the biggest thing I went by and it’s turned out to be the best decision.”
-royburton@cc.usu.edu
Aggie Spencer Nelson is second on the team in assists and eighth in the Big West Conference. (Photo by John Zsiray)