USU welcomes former Aggies Rice and Daniels
The Utah State University men’s basketball team was picked to finish the season second by the league coaches and third by the media in the Big West Conference preseason polls released Tuesday.
“The tradition that we have established over the last couple of years is why we were picked where we were,” USU Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “It doesn’t have much to do with this team.”
Defending league champion University of California, Irvine was picked to finish first by both groups. The University of California, Santa Barbara was picked second by the media poll.
The Aggies are returning seven letter winners to the team but only one starter- guard Tony Brown.
Utah State will host their final exhibition game of the season Saturday as they take on Global Sports at 2:30 p.m. in the Spectrum.
Former Aggies Kevin Rice, who has played for Global Sports the last couple of years, and Shawn Daniels, a member of the 2001 Big West Championship team and recent USU graduate, will play in Saturday’s game.
Daniels was a two-time, first-team all-Big West player as well as the BWC Defensive Player of the Year in 2001.
During his senior year in 1998, Rice was second-team, all-league.
Global Sports will take on San Jose State, Iowa State, Southern Utah and Nevada as part of its 11-game, 14-day schedule prior to visiting Logan.
Utah State will open the regular season on Nov. 17 at Montana State University.