Utah State men’s basketball begins season 4-0
Senior guard Sam Merrill has a target on his back, there is no question about it. The Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year has won far too many awards and boasts too impressive of a stat sheet to fly under the radar.
But the Utah State men’s basketball team has not been bothered by opposing teams’ attempts to shut Merrill down.
Utah State is currently 4-0, in spite of teams like North Carolina A&T — which kept Merrill from getting on the board for the first 15 minutes of play time on Friday.
Spreading the ball around
In each game, the Aggies had a different player as its leading scorer. Merrill had not led the team since its first game of the season, when he knocked down 28 points against Montana State.
“I think it’s great to have depth,” head coach Craig Smith said. “It’s hard for the other team to key on specific guys… when we have all the different guys that can do so many different things. It certainly opens up the floor, makes it much more difficult for a scouting report.”
In the past three games, sophomore forward Justin Bean, sophomore guard Brock Miller and junior forward Alphonso Anderson each took a turn at Utah State’s helm — recording 18, 27 and 21 points, respectively. The Aggies have won each of these games by margins of 27 points or more.
“We thought coming into the year, we’d have a lot of versatility with this team,” Smith said. “I think it’s showing with some of the stuff we can do on the floor, but also being able to attack teams in different ways than we were able to do that last year.”
Alphonso Anderson producing off the bench
Anderson has proven to be a solid backup for the Aggies, averaging 13.3 points and 5.5 rebounds a game so far. The power-forward has also shown his versatility by spending some time under the net cleaning up the glass and getting steals. Anderson was also Utah State’s leading scorer on Friday night against North Carolina A&T.
Justin Bean averaging a double-double each game
Bean was the leading scorer in a 89-34 blowout win over Weber State and is averaging a double-double this season. He said there isn’t any competition between his teammates over who can sink the most shots.
“We just care what it says by our logo at the end of the game,” Bean said. “It’s all team-ball.”
Coach Smith also noticed the Aggies’ unselfish attitude when it comes to racking up points.
“Our guys, I think, are very just genuinely happy for one another,” Smith said.
Up next
The Aggies will be back in action Monday at 7 P.M. in the Spectrum, where they will take on the University of Texas at San Antonio.