Vandals likely to force Ags outside
Big West Conference play is familiar — maybe a little too familiar.
After eight league games, BWC foes know the Aggies’ strengths and weaknesses. Probably the biggest weakness comes in the form of outside shooting.
Prior to last Saturday’s game against Cal State Fullerton, guard Mark Brown was 5-of-20 from behind the arc going into the game, but finally his shots started to fall. He finished the game with four baskets from downtown.
But Brown wasn’t shooting 3-pointers because he wanted it, it was more out of necessity.
The Titans had read their scouting reports and knew exactly what to throw at the Aggies (6-2 in conference play, 15-4 overall).
The same will ring true as Utah State heads to Moscow with a game Saturday against the University of Idaho (4-4, 8-9). The Vandals are currently in fifth place in league play, while the win over CSF moved USU into first.
“I think that is what they are going to do — pack in a zone a lot,” said USU Head Coach Stew Morrill. “Because that is what they have done game in and game out. They are playing more and more zone.”
One thing Morrill said he is looking for from his team is a return to its defensive intensity. He said the reason the Titans were able to make about 62 percent of their shots is the Aggies were not playing their game.
The message to USU this week was to get back on defense and crash the boards more often like the Aggies had been doing prior to the CSF game.
“Sometimes you get fooled thinking it was all about [the Titans] packed in zone, when it was a little bit about us not defending as well as we needed to,” Morrill said. “They went by us a lot on the dribble.”
Because of only having one game this week, Morrill said he is going to take a somewhat different approach to practices. Instead of focusing on Idaho, the Aggies spent most of the week looking at what they needed to do to improve.
But once Morrill does look more toward Idaho, he said he is going to close in on the mental aspect of playing against the Vandals.
“The last three years up there in the first half we have just been in a coma,” Morrill said. “The surroundings are weird and [Idaho] has improved. We cannot afford to do that this year. They have gotten better, and we can’t go up there and play a half and think we are going to win. We’ve got to play the whole ball game.”
Last season, the Aggies defeated the Vandals 57-46 at the Cowan Spectrum in Moscow.
Unfortunately for Utah State, 35 of the total points came from Tony Brown (25) and Jeremy Vague (10), both of who are no longer playing after completing their eligibility.
Desmond Penigar recorded 10 points against Idaho last season on the road.
USU also defeated Idaho at home 65-56. The Aggies also defeated the Vandals 61-41 in the BWC tournament quarterfinals.
Tyrone Hayes leads UI with 13.6 points per contest, 10th best in the league. He also pulls down 6.9 boards per game, fourth best in the Big West.
Aside from an offensive effort by Penigar, Morrill will look for the power forward to repeat something he did against the Titans — take a couple of charges.
“Those were big plays, it was nice to see him do that,” Morrill said. “He hasn’t taken a lot of charges and we haven’t as a team taken that many charges. Obviously those were really big plays.”
USU will not return to the Spectrum until Feb. 13 to take on UC Irvine.
–juag@cc.usu.edu