Universite Laval at Utah State 7:05 p.m. MST
The wait is finally over.
USU men’s basketball will tip off their 2010-11 season with an exhibition game tomorrow night against the Universite Laval (10-5) from Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. They come to Logan as part of a road trip on which the team will face BYU tonight and Weber State on Monday. Although the exhibition game will not hold any ramifications for their record, the Aggies are just happy to get a chance to play against someone other than each other.
“It’ll be nice to play somebody other than ourselves Saturday night,” Aggie head coach Stew Morrill said. “We’ll find out a little more.”
During last season’s exhibition games, the Aggies’ average margin of victory was 30 points and the Aggies should have no problem defeating the Red and Gold. During the 2007-08 season, the Aggies hosted the Red and Gold and then-senior All-American guard Jaycee Carroll dropped 32 points to lead the Aggies over Laval, 100-46.
Universite Laval is the premier basketball program of their conference, and just like the Aggies, the Red and Gold are loaded with experience. Fifth-year guard Jean-Francois Beaulieu leads the Red and Gold in scoring with 19 points per game, while fourth-year guard Jerome Turcotte is averaging nearly 15 points and six rebounds per game. Fourth-year forward Etienne Labrecque is averaging nearly 10 points per game and fourth-year guard Xavier Baribeau is averaging nearly nine points per game.
Red and Gold fourth-year head coach Jacques Paiement was not present at the exhibition in 2007, but he said the experience sure left an impression on his players.
“The majority of the players still here that went to that game describe the atmosphere as incredible,” Paiement said. “The purpose of this road trip is not to win necessarily, but to compete against players who are bigger and more physical than what we could see otherwise.”
Despite past success in exhibitions, Morrill won’t be looking past the Red and Gold – or any other opponent for that matter.
“We have a veteran crew back, and that’s the good news,” Morrill said. “We’ve still got to go out and play well and our schedule is daunting when you look at the first three weeks to four weeks, it’s pretty amazing what we’ve got going in terms of road games and people we’ve got at home. It’ll get us better; it’ll get us ready for conference.”
Tip-off against the Red and Gold is slated for 7 p.m. at the Spectrum tomorrow night.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu