It’s that time of year again folks! Time for some Aggie Football on Merlin Olsen Field at Romney Stadium! The Bull Sheet / Refraction staff have officially kicked off the season with this week’s edition of The Bull Sheet, Romney Stadium’s Premier Belligerent Game-Day Newsletter. This Weber State Edition revisits our oh-so-close epic upset at Auburn, Dave Baldwin’s offensive schemes, Chuckie Keeton, a scouting report on the Wildcats and more. Check it out!
Romney Stadium’s Premier Belligerent Game-Day Newsletter, The Bull Sheet has returned for its third season this year. Check out the season preview which is geared to help the freshman understand the ways of Aggie fandom. The issue has details on how to do things at the games, when and where the Aggie Stampede will begin (a student march through campus to round people up for the game) and some details on a few of USU’s key players to give the newbies something and somebody to look for on the field and get attached to.
Yet another former Aggie will be continuing his basketball career after graduating from Utah State. Former WAC Defensive Player of the Year Pooh Williams recently announced via facebook that he will be playing in the NBA D-League this fall. It is not yet known which squad Pooh will be on, but he will apparently find out on November 1st.
A four-year starter for Utah State, Pooh ranks #4 all-time in career games played behind only Tai Wesley, Tyler Newbold, and Jaycee Carroll.
Pooh was well known at Utah State for his defensive prowess and athleticism. He was routinely assigned with the task of shutting down the opposing team’s biggest offensive threat, and more often than not succeeded in doing so. Pooh will also be remembered for his high flying dunks, whether they be in traffic, on the back door alley-oop play, or on the fast break. Throughout his career Pooh also developed a very good outside shot and ranks #8 all-time in 3-point field goals made. Pooh also became a clutch performer often taking over games down the stretch and hitting clutch free throws. Pooh’s passing ability was also a strength and he ranks #24 all-time in career assists with 242.
Good Luck Pooh! And keep up the good work!
ESPN has recently confirmed what we here at USUStats.com have already known for months. When it comes to high school basketball players in the state of Montana, there is no one better than Corvallis High School’s Riley Bradshaw. After completing his senior year at Corvallis, Riley will be joining the Utah State basketball program for the 2012-13 season.
ESPN recently created a recruiting profile for Riley ranking him as the #1 player in the State of Montana. On a scale of 100 Scout has given him a rating of 86. While these grades are usually given based on limited knowledge and actual observations (usually at AAU events around the country), here is the explanation ESPN provides for this grade:
83-88: Mid-major prospect
Player is a multi-year starter at the mid-major level.
Bradshaw also ranked as the #53 overall prospect in the west region of the 2012 recruiting class and #50 in the nation at the Point Guard position.
For those of you without ESPN Insider Access, the write-up on Riley talks about his excellent abilities on the offensive end. He can hit the three, drive and pop for the mid-range jumper, or take the ball to the hole with good body control and finish with either hand. Scout.com reviews from Las Vegas earlier this year also talked about Riley’s cross-over dribble completely devastating opponents over and over again. ESPN mentioned that he also has excellent all around skills and a good understanding of the game. Things that Riley needs to work on (according to ESPN scouts) are his stength and speed to be able to compete with stronger and quicker guards at the next level.
At the end of the ESPN Insider write-up, it was mentioned that Riley has a lot of upside. With one more year left to play at Corvallis, Riley’s rating may very well move up the scale.
While Riley has played PG in high school, it is yet to be seen what position he will play for the Aggies. He may come in sharing time with Marcel Davis at the PG slot, or Stew may opt to put them both on the court at the same time, moving Riley to the 2-guard. Either way, Utah State’s backcourt for the next several years is looking very, very strong.
At this time in the summer it is common to be yearning for some more information regarding Aggie hoops. The Official Utah State Athletics site has us covered. They have released the 2011 Men’s Basketball Summer Prospectus. Check it out!
The Utah Pump-N-Run squad has continued their recent success this week at the DoublePump Best of Summer Tournament in Anaheim, California. The team went 3-0 in pool play games, and has since won their first two games in the tournament bracket.
The first tournament win came yesterday against EBC Elite, a team from Seattle, Washington. Leading the way for the Pump-N-Run was David Collette with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Jordan Loveridge chipped in with 12 points and 6 boards. Collette and Loveridge have seemingly been taking turns as scoring leader. In pool play Loverdge dropped 26 and 10 boards on GroundUP while Collette dropped 23 and 12 on Houston.
Today the team pulled out a nail biter against the Minnesota Select winning 69-66. Up 67-66 with under 30 seconds remaining in the game, Marcel Davis came up with a big deflection, knocking the ball to Jordan Pryor who was subsequently fouled and made two clutch free throws. Pryor and Quincy Bair have both been suffering from flu-like symptoms.
Some stats from today’s game:
Loveridge – 22 points and 7 boards
Collette – 18 points, 3 boards, 5 blocks
Davis – 11 points
Pryor – 10 points with two timely 3’s
There are reports that all of the major universities from around the state are represented at the tournament including Utah State, BYU, Utah, Weber State, SUU, UVU, and Dixie College.
This Salt Lake Tribune writeup had a couple of interesting quotes from Jordan Loveridge:
When asked about how his three Utah State bound teammates pushing him to commit to Utah State he said:
“It’s all good, they don’t bug me too bad about it, but they don’t have to,” he said. “They know that they want me to join them up there real bad, and they know that I know, so they don’t say much. I really like Utah State, but I like a lot of schools right now.”
Regarding his current offers and prospects for more he said:
“They can’t contact me when I’m playing, but I definitely know that they’re there,” said Loveridge. “I want more offers. That would be great. We’ll just have to see what comes my way after we’re done with all of this.”
With the limited internet coverage of this tournament, usustats has received limited news on the rest of the Aggie recruits who are participating. The only news we have heard is that Jalen Moore’s Cache Valley Elite squad won their first game behind an impressive scoring performance by Jalen.
A lot has been said about the Utah Pump-N-Run’s epic run to the semi-finals of the Adidas Super 64 Tournament this week in Las Vegas Nevada. I figured I better chime in with my two cents as well. I’ve focused more on Adam Thoseby’s recent play for the Great Britain National Team and Riley Bradshaw’s play in the Adidas 64 Tournament mainly because there was little to no coverage out there for them. That doesn’t mean that this blog wasn’t paying attention to the Utah Pump-N-Run Squad.
In a lot of ways the Utah Pump-N-Run may as well be named the Utah State Aggies Pump N Run. The squad consists of three commits in David Collette (2011), Marcel Davis (2012), and Quincy Bair (2012). It also has two other Aggie recruits in Jaden Jackson and Jordan Loveridge. Jackson has not received an offer as of yet, but Loveridge is Stew Morrill’s top target to finish off a stellar 2012 recruiting class that also includes top prospect out of Montana, Riley Bradshaw.
The run to the semi-finals was very unlikely for the Pump-N-Run crew, especially considering that they had to get through four national powerhouse teams on their way there. After going 3-0 in group play, the Utah Pump-N-Run tried on the glass slipper… and it fit. At least until the semi-finals.
On Sunday morning they faced off against the Florida Rams and one of the top national recruits Joel James. They made quick work of the Rams winning the game 71-52. Marcel Davis led the way with 12 points and 12 assists in the game and Jordan Loveridge chimed in with 18 points of his own. Hitting double digits in assists was not a rarity at this point for Davis who had done so in three of his first four games up to that point. In fact, in the last game of group play Davis nearly pulled off a triple double with 15 points, 10 boards, and 9 assists. Quincy Bair had two points in the game, and David Collette chose to sit that one out due to his LDS faith.
As if beating the Rams wasn’t enough the Pump-N-Run came up with another huge victory over the Compton Magic, winning the game 83-72. Loveridge once again led the squad in scoring dropping in 25 points. Marcel David scored 7 and dished out 13 assists.
Next up on the chopping block were the Atlanta Celtics. The Celtics were the overall #1 seed in the tournament, their squad packed with top elite prospects. And did I mention that they were also the two-time defending champions of the Adidas Super 64 event? As if that wasn’t intimidating enough, they also had NBA star Josh Smith sitting with the team on the bench. If they were intimidated, the Pump N Run didn’t show it, pulling off possibly the biggest upset of the tournament and perhaps the biggest upset in the history of their AAU program. They pulled out a 69-68 victory with a potential game winning bucket coming after time expired for the Celtics. Loveridge led the way again with 23 points, and Davis overcame an elbow to the face requiring four stitches to the tune of 8 points and 11 assists. David Collette had a huge game as well scoring 20 points facing off against some of the best post players in the country.
With the win (already their second of the day) The Pump-N-Run were played their third contest of the day, facing off against the Michigan Mustangs. By now the Pump-N-Run Squad had become accustomed to the same old story, showing up as the huge underdog, being scoffed at, and then taking the opponent out to the woodshed for a serious beating. Check out this Marcel Davis quote from an Aggieville Blog entry (Tony Jones):
“They look at us, they see Utah on the front of our jerseys and they think they’re going to have an easy game,” Davis said. “They’re playing and joking in their lay-up lines, and we’re serious and here for business. Then we hit them with an 8-0 run to start the game and they’re calling timeout.”
The Pump-N-Run beat the Mustangs 71-62 once again getting big contributions from Jordan Loveridge (26 points) and Marcel Davis (10 points, 12 assists). David Collette dropped in 10 points and Quincy Bair had two. West Jordan guard Jordan Pryor had a great tournament as well, and was unconscious from downtown through the first seven games. Jaden Jackson also contributed with 8 points and 6 boards.
Earlier today the Pump-N-Run faced off against the Texas Assault. It was a game of runs and the Pump-N-Run squad went into halftime with a 31-25 lead. The Texas Assault came roaring back in the second half, only to see the Pump-N-Run make another run. Then everything changed. With 5 minutes remaining Jordan Loveridge committed his 5th foul and was subsequently whistled for a technical foul which disqualified him from the contest. From that point on the Pump-N-Run squad only managed to score two more points which wasn’t enough. The Assault finished off the game on a 16-6 run winning it 65-57.
Next up for the Utah Pump-N-Run? They have no time to rest. In fact, team members have already been tweeting from the west coast tonight. They have arrived is Southern California for the Double Pump Best of the Summer Tournament in Anaheim.
Also joining them will be Aggie commits Jalen Moore (2013) and Riley Bradshaw (2012) with their respective teams, the Cache Valley Elite, and the Idaho Select Black.
Hopefully we will see some more great performances from our future Aggies. I, for one, can’t wait to see them all suit up in Aggie Blue.
Riley Bradshaw got some national publicity from his recent performances in the Adidas Super 64 Tournament in Las Vegas, NV.
In a premium article on Scout.com, recruiting analyst Josh Gershon mentioned Riley along with a handful of big name 2012 recruits.
Josh mentioned that Utah State got a real steal in Bradshaw, who stood out to him in the games he watched, even though he wasn’t initially there to see Riley play. Bradshaw’s crossover was apparently devastating for defenders and he could hit from downtown, get to the hoop, or get past defenders for the mid-range shot.
I can only assume that the writeup was in response to Riley’s 29 point performance against Utah’s “The Factory” team featuring top BYU prospects Nick Emery and TJ Haws.
To give you some perspective of this praise, the other players covered in the article (for those of you who don’t have Scout.com subscriptions) were the following:
2012 Recruits
Ranked:
Shabazz Muhammad – #1 prospect in the nation
Robert Upshaw – #11 ranked C
Winston Shephard – #14 ranked SF
Xavier Johnson – #16 ranked SF
Prince Ibeh – #21 ranked C
Javan Felix – #23 ranked PG
Unranked:
Joe Rahon – PG (on same AAU team as Muhammad, Upshaw, Shephard, Johnson)
Matthew Willms – C (raw 7-footer from Detroit)
Riley Bradshaw – PG (Utah State commit)
Keep up the good work “Red”!
2012 Aggie commit Riley Bradshaw scored a combined 48 points in a pair of clutch victories on Sunday for his AAU squad, the Idaho Select Black. The Black are playing in one of the most prestigious AAU tournaments in the country, the Adidas Super 64 Tournament. Early in the day, the Black were faced a do-or-die play-in game against the Dallas Mustangs. Bradshaw came up big, leading all scorers with 19 points as his squad came away victorious, 67-55.
Riley has been playing the point guard position for his team, and from all reports has been doing it very well. The win over the Dallas Mustangs gave the Black an entry into the “Adidas Super 64 17u Gold Bracket” and a shot at a very good team from Utah, “The Factory” later that night. The Factory squad includes two top BYU recruits: Nick Emery (2013), and TJ Haws (2014).
Riley came up even bigger against The Factory, scoring 29 points and leading his team to a 94-83 victory. The Idaho Select Black are scheduled to play the Arizona Sting today at 1:00 p.m.
Adam Thoseby came up with his second straight good outing, this time scoring 17 points in a win over Romania. Great Britain obliterated the Romanians 104-50. Thoseby went 5-11 from the field and 2-4 from downtown. He also tallied a rebound, an assist, three steals, and a blocked shot.
With the win Great Britain had won six straight games in the tournament and advanced to their final contest meeting up once again with Iceland for the #13/14 spot.
The Brits made it 7 straight wins in their final game against Iceland on Sunday locking up the #13 spot in the tournament despite going 7-2 overall. Thoseby scored 5 points (2-3 from the field) and grabbed 2 rebounds while dishing out two assists in the win.