Author Archives: usustats

Adam Thoseby drops 27 points on Iceland

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Great Britain FlagAdam Thoseby showed off his shooting and scoring prowess in a big way on Thursday night in a game against Iceland. The Great Britain Under-20 National team is deep into the European Championship Tournament, but until now Thoseby had been relatively quiet. That all changed on Thursday night. Adam went off for 27 points in a very close 72-70 victory over Iceland. He also converted the game winning three point play with seven seconds remaining to seal the victory for the Brits. For the game Thoseby went 11-18 from the field including 4-9 from beyond the three point arc. He also made good on his only free throw attempt, grabbed two rebounds, and dished out one assist.

The win against Iceland secured the fifth straight victory for Great Britain. Unfortunately, their slow start to the tournament (losing to Portugal and Finland) has doomed them to be competing for 13th – 16th place.

For a complete writeup and box score visit HoopsFix.com.

2011-12 Utah State Basketball Schedule

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Utah State LogoWhile the official announcement is scheduled for tomorrow, Shawn Harrison of the Herald Journal leaked the majority of the 2011-12 Utah State Basketball Schedule today. The article contains quotes from head coach Stew Morrill, and lists all the games on the schedule.
The details are below:

Fri., Oct. 28 UC SAN DIEGO (Ex.) Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m.
Sat., Nov. 5 ADAMS STATE (Ex.) Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 2:05 p.m.
Fri., Nov. 11 BRIGHAM YOUNG Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU trails 91-136
Tues., Nov. 15 Weber State Ogden 7:05 p.m. USU leads 38-25
Sat., Nov. 19 SOUTHERN UTAH Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 5-0
Tues., Nov. 22 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Corpus Christi, Texas 6:05 p.m. First Meeting
Sat., Nov. 26 Idaho State Pocatello, Idaho 7:05 p.m. USU leads 34-13
Wed., Nov. 30 DENVER Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 54-34
Sat., Dec. 3 Pacific Stockton, Calif. 8:05 p.m. USU leads 42-22
Tues, Dec. 6 UTAH VALLEY Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 6-0
Sat., Dec. 10 Wichita State Wichita, Kan. 6:05 p.m. USU leads 6-4
Sat., Dec. 17 SEATTLE Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 14-13
Tue.-Thur., Dec. 20-22 WORLD VISION CHALLENGE (Sponsored by Gossner Foods)
Tues., Dec. 20 Saint Peter’s vs. Kent State Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 5:30 p.m.
Utah State vs. Texas-Arlington Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 8:05 p.m. First Meeting
Wed., Dec. 21 Kent State vs. Texas-Arlington Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 5:30 p.m.
Utah State vs. Saint Peter’s Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 8:05 p.m. Series Tied 1-1
Thur., Dec. 22 Texas-Arlington vs. Saint Peter’s Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 5:30 p.m.
Utah State vs. Kent State Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 8:05 p.m. USU leads 2-0
Sat., Dec. 31 Mississippi State Starksville, Miss. 12:05 p.m. First Meeting
Thur., Jan. 5 *FRESNO STATE Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 30-19
Sat., Jan. 7 *NEVADA Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 32-12
Thur., Jan. 12 *New Mexico State Las Cruces, N.M. 7:05 p.m. USU leads 35-27
Sat., Jan. 14 *Louisiana Tech Ruston, La. 6:05 p.m. USU leads 12-2
Thur., Jan. 19 Seattle Seattle, Wash. 8:05 p.m.
Sat., Jan. 21 *Idaho Moscow, Idaho 8:05 p.m. USU leads 33-13
Thur., Jan. 26 *HAWAII Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 12-4
Sat., Jan. 28 *SAN JOSE STATE Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 47-21
Thur., Feb. 2 *Nevada Reno, Nev. 8:05 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 4 *Fresno State Fresno, Calif. 8:05 p.m.
Thur., Feb. 9 *LOUISIANA TECH Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m.
Sat., Feb. 11 *NEW MEXICO STATE Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m.
Tues., Feb. 14 MONTANA TECH Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m. USU leads 2-0
Fri./Sat., Feb. 17/18 ESPNU BRACKETBUSTERS Dee Glen Smith Spectrum TBA
Fri., Feb. 24 *IDAHO Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 7:05 p.m.
Thur., March 1 *San Jose State San Jose, Calif. 8:05 p.m.
Sat., March 3 *Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii 10:05 p.m.
Wed.-Sat., March 7-10 WAC Tournament Las Vegas, Nev.
Tues.-Sun., March 13-18 NCAA First, Second & Third Rounds TBA
* Denotes Western Athletic Conference game.
Home Games in BOLD AND ALL CAPS.
All times are Mountain time, tentative and subject to change.

Utah State Scheduling Article

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Stew MorrillSpecial thanks to Parsing The WAC for alerting me to this tremendous writeup by Steve McGargee of Rivals.com.

Steve really did his research and got some good quotes from the Utah State Basketball Coaching Staff. The article touches on Stew Morrill’s scheduling philosophy, the RPI, NCAA Tournament Seedings (including quotes from Selection Committee Member and Utah State Athletics Director Scott Barnes), among other topics. Definitely a well written article worth reading. I was so impressed I wrote an email to the author.

Pair this article up with the one that I wrote earlier in the week about the affect that the new WAC Additions will have on the WAC’s RPI, and it paints a clear picture of why Stew and co. need to beef up their out of conference schedule. I, for one, am very grateful they have already started down that path, and look forward to seeing the final schedule sometime this week.

Brady Jardine named to NABC Honors Court

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Brady Jardine Goes Up For A DunkCongratulations to Brady Jardine for being named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Honors Court yesterday. The athletic forward for Utah State was selected for his academic achievements off the court during the 2010-11 season. Brady is the only player from the State of Utah to be honored with the award.

Brady’s academic prowess (3.71 cumulative GPA in Finance) has also helped him be an Academic All-WAC recipient three times, as well as being named to the College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All District first team in 2011.

For more information read the official announcement at Utah State’s Website.

Utah Media Continues To Call Out Utes

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Big Blue Chasing a "Runnin' Ute"
Mike Sorenson from the Deseret News wrote an article yesterday titled “Utah Utes basketball should keep playing Utah State Aggies“. This is the second piece I have seen coming from the Salt Lake City newspapers on the subject, the other written by Kurt Kragthorpe of the Salt Lake Tribune.

Both writers had basically the same view: The Utes should continue the 100+ year rivalry with Utah State in basketball. They also both concurred that the Utes seem to be avoiding the continuation of the basketball rivalry due to the fact that coming to Logan pretty much guarantees them a loss (they haven’t won there since 1995).

For those of you that missed it, I also wrote a piece on this topic a couple of weeks ago titled “The Runnin’ Utes are Runnin’ Scared“.

The one upside to all of this? At least the Aggies won’t take a hit to their RPI and strength of schedule by playing the Utes this coming year. That said, I still think the games should continue. It’s a real shame to see a 100+ year rivalry come to an end like this.

(Image created by Jason Wright.)

New WAC Additions and the RPI

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WAC LogoAfter seeing team after team abandon ship, the Western Athletic Conference appears to be scrambling to stay afloat. By the end of next season the WAC will have lost Boise State, Nevada, Fresno State, and Hawaii to the Mountain West Conference. In an attempt to counter these losses the WAC has announced the additions of Texas State, University of Texas-San Antonio, Denver, and Seattle. It appears that the WAC isn’t done adding teams either, as there are now rumblings that University of Texas-Arlington has also accepted an invite to the WAC.

What does this mean for Utah State Basketball? Well, their future in the WAC does not look good. Especially considering the affects that this will have on Utah State’s RPI.

The RPI is a tool used to measure a team’s relative strength in comparison to the rest of the teams in the nation. It is instrumental in gaining admission to the NCAA Tournament at the end of each year.  The Aggies have consistently been in the RPI top-100 over the past several years, most of the time falling in the top-50. In fact, they have an average RPI of 38 over the past five years, far and away the best rating in the WAC:

Utah State:
Utah St. RPI Table

While the past couple of years have seen a down-tick in WAC strength, overall the WAC has been able to produce multiple RPI top-100 teams each season. This has usually provided the Aggies with multiple top-100 opponents and chances at top-100 victories come NCAA Tournament time.

Now, let’s take a closer look at what will happen over the next two years as current WAC members leave and new WAC members arrive. I’ve taken the 5-year RPI average of departing teams versus the announced arrivals. (Source: StatSheet.com)

WAC Departures:
WAC Departures RPI Table

WAC Additions:
WAC Additions RPI Table

The departing squads have averaged an RPI of 152 over the past five years.  Each team has also been in the RPI top-100 at least once over the same time period.

The arriving squads have averaged an RPI of 239 over the past 5 years (Seattle has only been D1 for 2 years).  None of them entered into the top 100, with UT-Arlington coming the closest in 2007-08 at RPI 147.

This turns into a lose-lose situation for the Aggies.  They will now be looking at up to 10 games per season against sub-200 RPI teams.  If you win those games your RPI drops and you pick up a “bad win” in the eyes of the NCAA Committee.  If you lose those games your RPI drops even more and you pick up a dreaded “bad loss”, a serious threat to at-large berth chances.

Will these new WAC members be able to step up their game and provide a meaningful addition to the WAC?  If history is any indication, the answer is no. It’s a good thing that Stew has successfully scheduled some BCS teams over the next few years. His team’s NCAA Tournament Resume will surely need the boost.

Adam Thoseby’s National Team Goes Down to Belgium

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Great Britain FlagAdam Thoseby’s Great Britain Under-20 National Team was brought back to reality this week as they registered consecutive losses to Belgium. This comes after going 6-0 in other warm-up games over the past few weeks.

Up until these two games Thoseby had been starting for the team, but against Belgium he came off the bench. In game one he was the 2nd leading scorer behind NBA draft pick Ryan Richards dropping in 13 points in a 94-71 loss. In game two he did not have as much success registering just 3 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal.

For more information on these past two games visit HoopsFix.

The team will now head to the European Youth Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Great Britain is in Group C and will face the following teams in the opening round:

July 14 vs. Portugal
July 15 vs. Finland
July 16 vs. Luxembourg
July 17 vs. Norway
July 18 vs. Czech Republic

Aggies to face Mississippi State

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Mississippi State University LogoTony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune broke the news today that Utah State has signed an agreement to play a 2-for-1 series with the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The first game will be played at Mississippi State on Dec. 31, 2011. The Bulldogs will make their way to the Spectrum two years later during the 2013-14 season. The Aggies will then play a final game at Mississippi State in 2014-15.

This news is exciting news for Utah State fans who have seldom seen BCS opponents in out of conference play in recent years. They should start to get used to this new trend, however, as there will be BCS opponents on the schedule for many years to come. Let’s take a look at what we know so far:

2010-11 @ Georgetown
2011-12 @ Mississippi State
2012-13 vs. USC
2013-14 vs. Mississippi State & @ USC
2014-15 @ Mississippi State.

There were also rumors of a home and home arrangement with Colorado that apparently has subsequently fallen through. It appears that Stew Morrill is willing to bend his strict scheduling philosophy of only home-and-home agreements. Will this prove to be to the Aggies advantage or their detriment? You make the call.

Utah State Basketball Pictorial Roster 2011-12

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Brockeith PaneBrady JardineAntonio BumpusPreston MedlinJordan Stone
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.

2011-12 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).

Adam Thoseby vs. Denmark

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Great Britain FlagAdam Thoseby played a pair of warm-up games over the weekend with his Great Britain under-20 National Team. Great Britain won both games, moving to 6-0 in warm-up play thus far. Thoseby contributed seven points in each of the two games. His team will now have one day off before playing their final two warm-up games against Belgium on Wednesday and Thursday.

Check out the full writeup of the Denmark games at HoopsFix.