Ratball Analysis

Disclaimers:

1 – As has been proven over and over, ratball means pretty much nothing. Some players are ratball stars and never contribute when the real season starts.
2 – This is based solely on my opinions. I am not an expert, and according to some have zero basketball credibility. 😉
3 – The stats that I kept track of are far from perfect. I realized that it’s pretty hard to keep all the statistics at once. Keeping track of scoring isn’t too bad, but keeping assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks at the same time makes it hard. I would give them about 80% accuracy. The scoring is fairly close (only missed a couple buckets) but the rebounds, steals, assists and blocks aren’t as close. I’m sure I missed several of them, but it should give you an overall feel.

Now that that’s out of the way… 🙂

Went up to watch some ratball this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The team looked very good offensively today. I’ll try to give a quick synopsis on each player that participated.

The starters were (probably means NOTHING)
Shirts:
PG – Roland
SG – Pane
SF – Berger
PF – Clifford
C – Stone

Skins:
PG – Davis
SG – Medlin
SF – Butterfield
PF – Reed
C – Lopez

Spencer Butterfield – Absolutely tore it up out there today. Dropped in 29 points. Hit 5 three pointers. I didn’t keep track of misses, but he didn’t miss many. I’d say he shot over 60% from downtown and I don’t remember him missing many two pointers. He got to the hoop with ease several times. Played with toughness and ran the floor. Played some solid defense. I was most impressed by him today. He also had 5 boards and 3 assists.
Marcel Davis – Looked great out there today. I was most impressed with his shooting. He hit the majority of his shots and if we were playing NBA Jam we would’ve heard “He’s On Fire!” once or twice throughout the day. Seemed very comfortable distributing the ball. Ended up with 22 points (4 threes), 3 assists (this may be way off), three steals, and a blocked shot.
TeNale Roland – Looked very comfortable and confident out there today. He’s very fast. Has a great handle on the ball and is more flashy than Davis. He hit a couple three pointers and ended up with 20 points. Has a very nice reverse layup that he uses when going full speed towards the hoop. Both him and Doc looked great out there today. I expect Roland to start at the beginning of the year mainly from how comfortable he looked out there running the team. To me it’s a toss up though. He also grabbed 4 boards, 1 assist (this may be way off), and 1 steal.
Jarred Shaw – Shaw had a very good game shooting-wise. He dropped in 24 points on twelve made baskets. He did not show a power game, but more of a finesse game. He has a little jab step pull up jumper that is pretty effective from 8-14 feet out. He hit the majority of the shots that he took. When the ball goes to him he rarely gives it up. Looks to score, possibly to a fault. I can’t blame him too much today though because the shots were falling. Teams will have to guard him close to prevent him from getting his jump shot off. Had 4 rebounds, 0 assists, and a block.
Jordan Stone – Stone had some nice moves under the hoop. All of his shots were within 5 feet of the basket on power moves. He had 14 points. Got several offensive rebounds and picked up at least 1 steal. Didn’t have any assists that I saw. He appears to be the strongest of our bigs and likes to bang down low the most.
Matt Lopez – The thing that stood out to me is his basketball IQ and passing ability. He had some very nice passes out of the post for easy baskets. Ended up with 4 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a block. His post moves need some polishing, but he has the body for it. Didn’t put up a ton of shots. Played solid defense. Appears to have a “power game” but not so much as Stone.
Preston Medlin – Preston wasn’t looking for his shot as much as he normally does, but was getting others involved. He looks very comfortable out there. Had 15 points (1 three), 2 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. Scored on Bradshaw once with a nice post up. Backed him under and got an easy hoop. Appears to be a good leader out there.
Riley Bradshaw – Had 5 points (1 three), 4 assists, 2 boards, and a steal. Had one of the nicest crossover moves and quick drive to the hoop from the three point line that I have seen. It devastated the defender (can’t remember who it was), but he missed the reverse layup. Seemed to show a little bit of nerves out there but played hard and looked good to me. He played mostly the SG position, but did play a bit at point at times. After the scrimmage he was the only player that played to go out and put up some extra shots (besides Harris… I’ll get to that later)
Danny Berger – Berger was shooting well today. Had 15 points (3 threes), 6 rebounds, and 2 assists. Most of his shots were three pointers. Looked pretty solid.
Kyisean Reed – Had a very nice rebound putback dunk (surprise!). Didn’t seem to be quite as assertive as he could have been. Had 14 points, 6 boards, and a steal. Seemed to be trying to develop an outside shot a little bit more. Hit a couple of them but missed several as well. From another report I heard that he was head and shoulders above all the other players, but today he wasn’t. Hopefully he can develop consistency. Has a nice beard and mo hawk ‘do.
Ben Clifford – Played well. Ended up with 10 points, 4 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Didn’t back down on either end of the floor. Was just solid out there. Hustled well.
Brockeith Pane – Scored 8 points (0 threes). Had 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 steal. Seemed to be out there in more of a mentor role. Stuck up for Butterfield from the bench on one play where the other team was trying to call a traveling violation on a Butterfield fast break layup. Also has a nice beard and mo hawk ‘do. Played the SG position most of the time to allow for Roland and Doc to play the point. Did play some point along the way.
Sean Harris – DNP. He was there in basketball shorts and a nice pink Aggie shirt. 🙂 He’s a pretty big kid. He took shots at times while the teams were on the other side of the court. After the scrimmages he went out and did a little running and put up some shots. He is very adept at hitting the three point shot (at least in practice). He was hitting them with consistency. Appears to be a good FT shooter as well.
Quincy Bair – DNP. Was not present due to recent surgery (appendix).
Marvin Jean – DNP. Was not present (recent surgery on thumb).
Quinn Taylor – DNP. Was not present.

I spoke with Doc and Riley after the scrimmage. They said that Harris is out for precautionary reasons. He is cleared to play starting in August. They both said that Marvin Jean looked really good and was playing well for them before the injury. They said he should be back in 3-4 weeks. They said Quincy would be fine as well. Doc is one of the most polite, nicest kids I’ve seen. Riley was very cool too. I’m proud to have them on the team.

Hope that helps ease some slow-summer Aggie hoops update pain. 🙂

Utah State Basketball Pictorial Roster 2012-13

Marcel DavisPreston MedlinKyisean ReedSpencer ButterfieldRiley Bradshaw
It’s that time of year again! Time to try and piece together the team for the upcoming basketball season! We’ve done just that at USUStats.com with our annual “Pictorial Roster“. Check it out by clicking below, and feel free to post questions, comments, or predictions on any of the players you see on the roster.

2012-13 Utah State Basketball Pictorial Roster

Also feel free to reminisce and check out the rosters from past seasons by changing the season in the drop down box at the top of the page (once you click the link above).

2012-13 Gossner Classic Opponents

Even though basketball season is still about five months away, we found out a little more about some of the opponents that we can expect in the Spectrum this coming year. Thanks to ProvoAggie at USUFans.com, we have learned the field for the 2012-13 World Vision Classic (Gossner Classic). The three opponents this year are Southern Illinois, UC-Davis, and Nicholls State.

When I first heard that Southern Illinois would be heading to town I was very excited to be bringing in one of the elite mid-major basketball programs in the country. Then I consulted RPIForecast.com and realized that SIU is no longer the team that I remembered them to be.

Let’s take a look at all three teams:

Southern Illinois LogoSouthern Illinois
Conference: Missouri Valley Conference
Historical record against Utah State: 2-0
2011-12 Record: 8-23 (5-13 in conference)
2011-12 RPI: 255

Nicholls State LogoNicholls State
Conference: Southland
Historical record against Utah State: N/A
2011-12 Record: 10-20 (6-10 in conference)
2011-12 RPI: 298

UC Davis LogoUC-Davis
Conference: Big West
Historical record against Utah State: 0-1
2011-12 Record: 5-26 (3-13 in conference)
2011-12 RPI: 338

Barring an unforeseen disaster, I think it’s safe to assume that the Aggies will continue their string of undefeated dominance in the Gossner Classic and add yet another trophy to the trophy case.

The Southern Illinoisan has a write-up with some quotes from the SIU Associate Head Coach Tom Hankins.

“It’s a great crowd. Their home record over the last six years, I’m sure, is above 80 percent at home, so it’s a really good home-court,” Hankins said. “It’s a mid-major program that is one of the top ones in the country, and not a whole lot of people know about it.”

Some kind words for sure. Unfortunately for Tom he was slightly off. The Aggies are actually 98-7 over the last six years giving them a winning percentage of .933.

Here’s one more quote from Hankins about the advantage of playing in a round-robin type tournament:

“When you play a conference tournament, you’re playing three games in three days, so, we’re preparing for that, playing back-to-back,” Hankins said. “You could compare Utah State to a lot of Valley schools. They’re going to finish in the top three in their league every year. They play like Creighton and Northern Iowa. The level of play is a lot like playing a higher-level Valley team.”

History of Aggie-Hosted Tournaments (43-1)
Big Blue Classic (5-1)
Gossner Sponsored Tournaments (38-0)
Gossner Classic (26-0)
Duel in the Desert (3-0)
Basketball Travelers Invitational (3-0)
World Vision Invitational (3-0)
Athletes In Action Classic (3-0)