USU continues to look for consistency
Consistency. Utah State University basketball Head Coach Stew Morrill is wondering if his team has any.
The Aggies tend to be successful in the Spectrum, winning eight of the last nine games played in Logan, but falter on the road, losing three of the last five road games, including splitting the last two trips.
“Obviously we are looking for consistency,” Morrill said. “We played about as good of a road game as we can play [against the University of California Riverside] and then [against Cal State Fullerton] as bad of a road game as we could play.”
Morrill said he thought the team got its defense back against Riverside but then gave up 49 percent shooting against Fullerton. He said this was an example of the team’s inconsistency.
Following the 65-51 loss at Fullerton Saturday, the Aggies received an unusual Monday off from practice. Morrill said he needed the break both mentally and physically.
“You very seldom get to take two days off as far as practice during the season,” Morrill said. “We just were exhausted, for whatever reason, mentally and physically [after Fullerton].”
Morrill said, after reviewing the tape of the game, his team looked like they were moving through mud against CSF. The team had the opportunity to watch the second half of the game on tape Tuesday.
“It will be gone after and we won’t refer to it anymore,” Morrill said. “We will flush that game down the toilet.”
An aspect of basketball which is really starting to catch up with the Aggies is how teams are psyched to play USU.
“We sure talk about that a lot,” Morrill said. “What has happened the last couple of years has made everybody really focused to play us.”
Morrill compared the Aggies’ situation to a conversation he was having with Mike Montgomery from Stanford about UCLA. When UCLA plays someone it knows it can beat, it shows little interest, Morrill said. When UCLA plays a team such as Kansas though, it shows a lot of interest and is really good.
“That is what we are getting,” Morrill said. “Everybody has kind of peaked when they have the Aggies on the schedule.”
Morrill said he feels his team has limitations though and when they don’t do certain things, the team will struggle.
“It really helps us when we can get a third scorer to step up like [Jeremy] Vague did against Riverside or Ronnie [Ross] did against Santa Barbara,” he said.
Having a third scorer step up relies on Desmond Penigar and Tony Brown always having good nights. Morrill said that won’t always happen, though.
The Aggies will hope both Penigar, who had 17 points and nine rebounds against Fullerton, and Brown, who had 12 points and five assists against Fullerton, have a good night as the team travels to Moscow, Idaho, to take on the Vandals.
The Vandals (6-11 overall and 3-5 in Big West Conference action) are coming off a two-game winning streak and have won three of their last four games. Idaho defeated Cal State Fullerton (63-59) on Jan. 17 and UC Riverside (60-58) on Jan. 19. Both games were in California.
“They [have a lot of confidence now],” Morrill said. “They’re just scrappy. They are just finding ways to win close games.”
Morrill said Idaho is athletic but not very big. He said they win games by making them ugly.
“That is a compliment,” he said. “I don’t mean that in a negative way. That is smart on their part. They are playing zone, but it’s a good, aggressive zone.”
UI Head Coach Leonard Perry is in his first season as a collegiate head coach. Perry, a former assistant Utah State coach under Larry Eustachy from 1994 to 1998, left USU with Eustachy to go to Iowa State prior to coming to Idaho.
Morrill, who said his assistants know Perry better than he does, said he has heard nothing but good things about the UI coach.
“He’s kept those guys [the Vandals] going when things were tough and that’s a credit to him,” Morrill said.
One Vandal in particular the Aggies will have to watch out for is junior forward Moe Jenkins. Jenkins leads his team in scoring (10.9 points per game) and is the only UI player to average in double-digits this season.
Against Riverside, Jenkins finished with 16 points, but the Vandals were led by guard Rodney Hilaire with 19 points and four steals.
Hilaire is averaging 9.2 points per game.
“It is interesting when you look at the different places people are in their program, like the team we are playing this week [Idaho],” Morrill said. “They are just delighted to get a few wins whenever they can.”
Morrill said because the expectation level for the Aggies is so high the team finds themself capable of having “gloom and doom” with a 5-3 record.
“That is what you have to fight, not getting your confidence level down and believing you can’t play. There are a lot of positives that we can still get from this season. We just have to try to get as many wins as we can.”