Professional storyteller. USU Aggies and local high school sports for
@CVDaily
, Utah Jazz for
@slcdunk
. Co-host of the Full Court Press (
@1069TheFan
)
In case you need a distraction from today's football news, I've finished what may be my final USU men's basketball newcomer breakdown of 2024, a joint effort on the Aggies' two freshmen, Jordy Barnes and Isaac Davis.
Also, a thread for all my breakdowns🔽
It feels like every time someone praises Donovan Mitchell, 76ers fans take it as an insult, not only to Ben Simmons, but also to their honor, their family, their ancestors, their children, and their dog.
The Utah Jazz are 10-3 vs playoff teams this year.
The LA Lakers are 5-6 vs playoff teams.
Why are the Jazz the one people are ignoring and chomping at the bit to call pretenders?
Players since 2013-14 (as far back as
@bball_ref
streak finder goes) with 3-game streaks of 30 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds
LeBron James
Kevin Durant
James Harden
Russell Westbrook
Steph Curry
DeMar DeRozan
...and Donovan Mitchell
This is hilarious because neither Utah or BYU have the best pro athlete in the NBA or NFL. Let's just ignore 3x All-NBA Damian Lillard and 4x All-Pro Bobby Wagner because they didn't go to BYU or Utah.
Utah State is honoring HURD legend "Wild Bill" by making him the first inductee into the HURD Hall of Fame. A well-deserved honor for an iconic person in Spectrum history.
Cougar fans going all-in on it being Utah State's fault they lost to Notre Dame. Never mind that Cooper Legas played just fine after the cheap shot he took at BYU.
The funny thing about people obsessing over Utah State not playing Nevada and UNLV twice is they fail to consider that those two teams also didn't have to play the Aggies twice and coincidently finished 2nd and 4th in a top seven that was decided by a narrow margin.
8 former USU football players made 53-man NFL rosters today.
- Derek Wright (Carolina)
- Patrick Scales (Chicago)
- Jalen Davis (Cincinnati)
- Dallin Leavitt (Green Bay)
- Jordan Love (Green Bay)
- Jaylen Warren (Pittsburgh)
- Bobby Wagner (Seattle)
- Deven Thompkins (Tampa Bay)
.
@ColinCowherd
- "Mitchell is just like Rose, Wall, and Westbrook. He can't shoot"
3PT% as a rookie
Rose: 22.2
Wall: 29.6
Westbrook: 27.1
Donovan Mitchell: 34.0
Mitchell's eFG% (as a rookie) would be a career-best for the other 3, all of whom are at least 6 years older.
Utah State guard Sam Merrill has been named as an Honerable Mention for the All-American team by the AP. He is the first USU player to be recognized on any All-American team since Tai Wesley (2011).
FYI, Jordan Love is now the USU all-time single-season leader in:
Passing yards: 3,429
Passing TDs: 31
TDs responsible for: 38
One more pass TD and 65 more yards and Love will also own the Aggie bowl records for TDs and yards (3 and 286).
FINAL - Utah State 87, UNLV 86
I. Do. Not. Believe. It. Aggies didn't take a lead until 8.4 seconds left in the game. They absolutely steal a win on the road. Great Osobor with 24 points, including the game-winning free throws, with 14 rebounds.
A Merry Christmas for
@smerrill05
who got his first career NBA bucket (a 3-pointer) as part of a 6 point, 4 assist and 3 rebound holiday performance for the former Aggie.
Received a copy of this just now. 110 current and former Utah State athletes sign a letter of support for Jerry Bovee and Amy Crosbie. It was sent to the Utah Board of Higher Education & the Utah State Board of Trustees. It requests an independent investigation into the firings
USU basketball head coach Craig Smith has been nominated for the Jim Phelan Coach of the Year award, given to the top NCAA DI head coach. Smith is one of 25 nominees.
With Utah State's 23rd win on the season, Craig Smith now holds the record for most wins as a first-year coach in Aggie history. He passed Ladell Andersen who went 22-7 in the 1961-62 season.
With all said and done you couldn't have asked for close to what Utah State accomplished this year. New records set, an outright MW title, multiple end-of-season accolades for individual players.
Heck of a season, and something USU can build on no matter what happens this summer
Darius Brown concludes his first summer league game with 6 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block in 17 minutes played. Shot 2/4 overall (1/2 3PT and 1/2 FT).
His great PG skills, defense and solid shot-making are translating well early in the summer league.
Per USU Athletics, there are 6 former USU basketball coaches here tonight -- Tim Duryea, Stew Morrill, Larry Eustachy, Kohn Smith, Rod Tueller and Dutch Belnap.
Also, there are ~65 former players, including most of the '03-04 and '08-09 teams that will be honored tonight.
Sam Merrill is one of six players this season to have multiple games with 8 threes made. Merrill also leads the NBA in 3-pointers made per 100 possessions.
He's very quickly becoming one of the best volume 3-point shooters in the league.
Utah Jazz players with at least 30 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists in a season debut:
- Karl Malone
- Donovan Mitchell
Players who did it with just one turnover
- Donovan Mitchell
FINAL - Utah State 88, TCU 72
For the first time in 23 years, the Aggies are victorious in the NCAA Tournament. A brilliant night for Isaac Johnson (19 pts) and Ian Martinez (21 pts). Darius Brown ties the single-season assist record with his 10 assists (also had 10 points).
I've gotten a lot of questions asking about the departure of Chuckie Keeton from the USU coaching staff so I asked Blake Anderson about it after today's scrimmage. Here's my transcription of his response, but read the thread for a note on the accuracy of my transcription
Pretty good day for USU sports
- Won at No. 18 BYU in soccer (1st time ever beating Cougars)
- Won at AFA in football (1st time on road since 2013)
- Swept Idaho State in volleyball
- Swept 1st place for both M & W Cross Country in Montana
During the timeout the Aggies recognized the 2007-08 WAC Champion USU squad. Six players made it here - Jaycee Carroll, Kris Clark, Tyler Newbold, Tai Wesley, Gary Wilkinson, Pooh Williams - along with Stew Morrill.
BREAKING:
@USUBasketball
selected as the unanimous favorite to win Mountain West, garnering all 17 votes from media voters.
The University of Utah is the only other team to be a unanimous favorite in MW MBB preseason poll, getting all 28 votes in the inaugural 1999 season poll.
Random stat that hopefully nobody else has already said:
Georges Niang's 7-7 night from three is one of just two games by a Jazz player where he was perfect from three with that many attempts.
The other game came from Jeff Hornecek who went 8-8 on Nov. 23, 1994
I don't typically read into which players show up for intro press conferences because of classes that usually happen at those scheduled times. But for those curious, I've seen pretty much every rostered player from MBB and WBB as its about to start.
Utah State showed out well in the Mountain West awards.
Great Osobor
- Player of the Year
- Newcomer of the year
Danny Sprinkle
- Coach of the Year
Josh Uduje
- 6th Man of the Year
All-MW
- Great Osobor, 1st Tm
- Darius Brown, 1st Tm/All-Def
- Ian Martinez, Honorable Mention
Isaac Davis commits to Utah State after originally being committed to BYU. A powerful 6-7 forward out of Hillcrest HS in Idaho, Davis adds more size and bulk to the Aggie frontcourt.
Austin Albrecht, the former Utah State Football Director of Player Development & Community, reached out to
@CVDaily
and provided the following statement regarding his dismissal from USU, where he also played as an offensive lineman from 2012 to 2016.
"During the Gary
Danny Sprinkle was asked about distractions in today's media availability, including rumors of him being a candidate for the not-yet-open Washington job. His response was "there's no truth to any of it." Here's the full answer with the question as it adds context.
Cooper Legas completed 78% of his passes today with 215 yards passing and 76 yards rushing. He and Chuckie Keeton (2013 vs Air Force) are the only Aggie QBs this century to hit all three marks in a game vs an FBS opponent.
Former USU forward, Tai Wesley, who announced his retirement from basketball yesterday, had perhaps the greatest all-around career in USU history. He's the only Aggie to be top 10 all-time at USU in all 5 major statistical categories.
Given the new norms, I'd almost expect Jerrod Calhoun to heavily encourage players to post these "run it back" posts. We saw it with football and it built a lot of hype.
Coach Calhoun with a bold declaration at his intro presser. He said he told the players that if they run it back, they can win a national championship.
Ike Larsen snagged himself an NIL deal with a local car dealership, Wilson Motor Company per his instagram. This is what I'd hoped NIL would be like -- local stars partnering with local brands.
BTW, Blake Anderson is now tied with Matt Wells for most wins as a first-year coach at Utah State.
Noting that Wells took over a team that went 11-2 the previous year and Anderson took over for a 1-5 team I think it's safe to say which year was more impressive.
I asked SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher about facing USU so many times in the MW Tournament. Said he pretty much only remembers the game Sam Merrill hit The Shot.
As the Aggies go off the court, The HURD sings "Happy Birthday" to Javon Jackson, who's 16 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals were some of the most important production of the game.
The final Coaches Poll for men's basketball is out today with the Aggies ranked 20th. USU also finished 20th in the final AP Poll.
Utah State is the highest ranked Mountain West team in the AP Poll (with SDSU 24th) but in the Coaches Poll SDSU is ahead of USU at 18th.
I kind of brought this up on the Full Court Press a week or so ago, but a while back I crunched some population vs stadium capacity numbers just to show how hard it is for Utah State to fill its stadium given its population base. Here I've compared with Utah, BYU and Boise State
Utah State set to test themselves against the Big 10 in non-conference play. USU didn't face a P5 school last year (aside from NCAA Tourney) so it'll be a chance to bolster the resume.
NEWS: Iowa and Utah State are finalizing an agreement to play a neutral site game on November 22nd inside the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, according to multiple sources.
#B1G
#MWC
Anderson had a response to the boos Logan Bonner received during today's game -- a lengthy 72-second response in all. Here's my transcription of what he said.
The scene as Mountain West Womens soccer championship Utah State find out they'll face BYU in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, a rematch of a game earlier this year in which USU beat the then No. 1 ranked Cougars
Utah State's rushing yards allowed the last three games
Hawaii — 12 yards
New Mexico State — 49 yards
San Jose State — 12 yards
Altogether that's 73 yards on 79 attempts, or 0.92 yards per carry.
The Mountain West released its yearly awards. Here are the Utah State individuals that took home awards.
Craig Smith — Coach of the Year
Sam Merrill — Player of the Year
Neemias Queta — Freshman of the Year & Defensive Player of the Year.
The first NFL roster cuts were today as teams trimmed rosters to 85. For USU fans keeping an eye on former Aggies and UDFAs Deven Thompkins and Derek Wright, both survived the cuts and remain on the Buccaneers and Panthers, respectively.
Utah State soccer downs No. 1 ranked and previously undefeated BYU 1-0 at home. Massive win for Manny Martins and the Aggies.
The Aggies are now 2-0-1 against BYU in the last three seasons.
FINAL - Utah State 77, No. 13 Colorado State 72
Fans storm the court as the Aggies get their first win over a ranked team since downing 5th-ranked SDSU in 2020. Great Osobor led the way with 20 pts, 14 rebs. Mason Falslev added 18 pts.
A quick glimpse of the receiving yards records Deven Thompkins is chasing. He currently has 1,441 receiving yards this season and needs...
91 to set USU single-season record
335 to set Mountain West record
620 to set NCAA record
Tucker Anderson, a Central Arkansas transfer forward, has committed to USU. A 6-9 forward, averaged 14.5 PPG as ASUN Freshman of the Year, including shooting 38% from three (on 6.4 att/gm).
Quite frankly it's a massive commit for USU given his talent and the attention he got
Another solid performance from Sam Merrill for the Cavaliers in NBA Summer League. He scored 19 points with 5 assists and 4 rebounds. Was a team-best +11 in the Cavs' 102-99 OT win. He'll have one more chance to play in the SL championship game.
Found it interesting that Ike Larsen played just 11 snaps, but in those plays he...
- Broke up a pass on a 3rd down
- Had a TFL on a 3rd down
- Had a QB Hurry on a 3rd down (pass was incomplete)
- Had a game-icing INT in the 4th quarter