USU men’s basketball opens season at Montana State
With a new head coach and only four rotation players returning from last season’s squad, the Utah State Aggies will face their first challenge in Bozeman, MT against the Bobcats of Montana State.
Junior guard Sam Merrill said he and his teammates are ready to get the ball rolling on the season
“We’re really excited to finally get (the season) started,” Merrill said. “We get to start on the road, which is always fun. I think it’s a good challenge to start off with something a lot of the guys aren’t familiar with, playing on the road. So, it’ll be a fun test, we’re excited for it.”
A lot remains unknown for the relatively young Utah State team. Merrill, Quinn Taylor, Diogo Brito and Dwayne Brown are the only players with significant Division I experience on the roster. And with considerable turnover at point guard and center, a lot is still up in the air — especially at point guard
Without Koby McEwen, USU’s only returning point guards are Abel Porter and Crew Ainge, who combined for just 282 minutes all of last year. Head coach Craig Smith did bring in two new guards, freshman Tauriawn Knight and junior college transfer John Knight III, but neither have any Division I basketball experience.
Some light was shed on that question in Utah State’s dominating win over Evergreen State in its home exhibition game Thursday. Ainge started the game and played 18 minutes, but it was Tauriawn Knight who stole the show as point man. The freshman out of Oklahoma scored game-high 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting. John Knight III, who was out for effectively all of the summer due to injury, played 13 minutes and scored seven points and handed out five assists with zero turnovers. Ainge finished with two points, three assists, three rebounds and one turnover.
Utah State point guard John Knight III goes for a layup against Evergreen State. Photo By Tim Carpenter
“That is a spot where we need to see who will make that big step forward,” Smith said. “It is a wide-open spot right now and we’ve got a lot of different guys that we can put into that position. You have to eliminate losing to win. The guys that are sure with the ball, make the best decisions and guard the other teams’ point guard the best will be the guy who will be playing the most on any given night.”
At center, freshman Neemias Queta appears to be the clear-cut starter at this point. A native of Portugal, Queta dominated Evergreen State’s frontcourt, scoring 15 points with eight rebounds and four blocks in 16 minutes. However, Queta, along with current backup and fellow freshman Ben Fakira (who recorded a double-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds) did not have significant competition in the paint.
Utah State faced Montana State last season in the Aggies’ home opener. The Bobcats led by one point at halftime 41-40, but USU stormed back in the second with a 41-point half of its own and holding MSU to 32 points to claim an 81-73 victory.
Smith is also familiar with the Bobcats, having coached against them three times in the four years he was at South Dakota, winning all three contests.
“Their kind of quirky in how they play,” Smith said of MSU. “They run a high post offense, it’s really funky to guard. It takes a lot of reps (to defend). They put you in a lot of pressure situations.”
In defending the Bobcats, slowing down senior guard Tyler Hall will be crucial. The 6-foot-4 guard led Montana State in scoring last year with 17.5 points per outing and is on the verge of setting his school’s record for points this year.
“He’s guy at 6-4, 6-5 and he’s stuck together, he can get a shot off anytime, anywhere,” Smith said. “And he’s one of those guys where when he makes one, two and three are following really quick.”
Hall suffered a left ankle sprain in MSU’s 90-75 exhibition win over UM Western, but not before scoring 16 points, dishing out four assists and reeling in three rebounds in just 12 minutes on the floor. According to Bobcats head coach Brian Fish, the senior should be a “full-go” Tuesday.
The Aggies will also have to account for 2016-17 Big Sky Freshman of the Year, Harald Frey. As a sophomore last season, Frey was second of the team in scoring at 13.1 per game and second on the team in 3-point shooting percentage (37.4 percent on 5.3 attempts).
Even after accounting for Hall and Frey, Smith said there is still an element of surprise at the beginning of the season because of how much teams change in the offseason.
“We told our guys, expect the unexpected,” Smith said. “We’re a new team, they’re a new team. You prepare for what they did in the past, you try to anticipate what they’re going to do going forward, but it’s not an exact science. So, you do the best that you can and then you have to be able to adjust on the fly.”
The game will tip off at 7 p.m. in Bozeman. The game will be available to listen to on radio at 92.3 KBLU-LP in Cache Valley and on 1280 and 97.5 The Zone in the Salt Lake City area.