Utah State basketball struggling in MW play
The Mountain West has not been kind to the Aggies in 2016.
After starting conference play with a road victory against San Jose State on Dec. 30, the Utah State men’s basketball team has dropped the first three games of the new year – the final two in convincing fashion.
While the Aggies are 9-6 on the year, the 1-3 start in conference play has magnified many of the problems the team has shown previously this season. Foremost among those struggles was the team’s poor defense in a 76-61 home loss to Boise State and a 77-59 road loss to New Mexico. From halftime of the game against the Broncos to halftime of the game in Albuquerque, the Aggies allowed the opponents to shoot 36 of 54 from the field, a blistering 67 percent.
“Defensively, that’s about as unsolid and poor a performance as you can possibly have,” head coach Tim Duryea said after the loss to BSU. “In every area, from every position. Really, you give yourself no chance to win.”
While New Mexico’s shooting percentage declined significantly as the Aggies made a late run in the second half of Saturday’s game, both the Broncos and Lobos shot over 60 percent from the floor, a number that even the NBA’s Golden State Warriors would consider impressive.
“You give yourself no chance to win when you’re that unsolid,” Duryea said.
Even San Diego State — the worst-shooting team in the conference — made 50 percent of its shots against the Aggies on Jan. 2. Poor free throw shooting by the Aztecs and a career performance for USU by junior forward Lew Evans kept the Aggies in the game, but they were unable to overcome 16 offensive rebounds by the visitors.
“This game boils down to one column and that column is second chance points,” Duryea said after the 70-67 loss. “We talked about it again and again, but allowing 16 offensive rebounds is just not good enough.”
The problem in all three conference losses – and at various times throughout the season – has been USU’s inability to control the paint. Boise State feasted on the Aggies, repeatedly taking advantage of mismatches to score on easy shots at the rim.
Unfortunately, the lack of post control isn’t limited to the defensive side of the floor.
“We need to have balance to play the way we play,” Duryea said. “Balance is key. We don’t score it great at the low block.”
The Aggies’ offense is designed to work inside-out, but has sputtered at times when the perimeter players have been unable to get penetration. Trailing New Mexico by just five in the first half of Saturday’s game, USU was struck by an offensive famine, going more than nine minutes without scoring a point. By halftime, a manageable 17-12 game had turned into a 43-18 deficit.
USU also experienced dry spells in road losses to BYU and Duke that turned close games into blowouts. Even against Boise State, the Aggies took a lead on the first possession of the second half, but allowed BSU to go on an 11-2 run. USU never had the lead again.
The sudden departure of forward David Collette just two days before the first game has impacted the team all season long. Forced to retool the offense without the benefit of a training camp, the coaching staff has continued to make changes to the system.
“We kind of tried to switch up our motion offense to fit the players a little bit better,” said junior wing Jalen Moore. “A lot of guys are trying to adjust to that. We don’t have a lot of traditional post guys.”
The team has become dependent on ball and player movement to create scoring opportunities.
“The ball needs to move and we need to make plays for each other,” Duryea said. “If we do that, we have a lot of guys who can knock down the shot, but we don’t have anybody that we can put the ball in their hands and play through. We have to do it collectively.”
Moore has carried the team through the four conference games, scoring in double-figures each time and shooting 26 of 59, for a respectable 44 percent.
The collectivity Duryea spoke of, though, has not been present.
Senior guard Darius Perkins, the only player besides Moore and fellow senior Chris Smith to start every game this season, scored 11 points against San Jose State. He has a total of 11 points in the three games since then.
Evans scored a career-high 22 points against SDSU, shooting 4 of 6 from beyond the 3-point line. In the two games since he has scored a total of five points on 2 of 16 shooting, including 1 of 12 from deep.
And after finishing last season with the second-highest 3-point shooting percentage in the conference, Smith is just 1 of 9 from deep against conference foes and is 14 of 35 overall.
Still, the Aggies have a chance to make some noise in the conference before the season is done. USU struggled at the start of conference play last year as well, but used a six-game winning streak in February to climb near the top of the standings. A similar run this season can put the Aggies in position to compete in the conference tournament.
“[The Mountain West] is wide open and evenly matched,” Duryea said. “It feels like different teams are getting on a roll at different times… It is a wide open league, very competitive, very even and I think it will come down to the last week.”
Utah State will attempt to end the losing streak on Tuesday, when the Aggies host Air Force at 7 p.m. in the Spectrum.
— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tomcat340