Aggie Basketball GAMEDAY! Tickets only $5!

It’s finally here! Aggie Basketball GAMEDAY! Tonight at the Spectrum we will get to catch our first glimpse of the 2012-13 Utah State Aggie Basketball team. Tonight’s game will not only be our first exhibition game, but will also act as somewhat of a replacement for the Blue/White Scrimmage event (modified Midnight Madness) that Stew Morrill has held each year since he has been a coach at Utah State. This year’s event was canceled, but to make up for it, tickets for tonight’s game are only FIVE BUCKS (or as always, FREE for students with Student ID)! Talk about a deal! Utah State basketball posters (and likely fridge magnet schedules) will be available at the game. Players will also be available after the contest for signing autographs.

So shell out the five bucks (or get in free as a student), and get yourself and your family up to the Spectrum to kick off the 2012-13 season with a bang.

Save time by getting your tickets online from the Utah State Ticket Office Website, or get them at the gate.

Here are USUStats’s predicted starting five for tonight:

PG – Tenale Roland
SG – Preston Medlin
SF – Danny Berger
PF – Kyisean Reed
C – Jarred Shaw

Watch for large contributions from Marcel Davis, Spencer Butterfield, Jordan Stone and Ben Clifford. I’m also curious to see how well Riley Bradshaw has been learning both the PG and SG slots so far this year. Coach Morrill must have some serious trust in the kid to thrust him into learning two spots in our complex offense. In years past Stew has said that he does not ask this of newcomers for fear of overwhelming them. I think Riley will be up to the challenge.

LET’S GO AGGIES!!!

2012-13 Utah State Basketball Roster Analysis

The season is quickly approaching us and my thoughts are turning more and more to this year’s upcoming squad. I think we are very, very deep this year. More deep than we’ve been for quite some time. I’m curious to see how Stew handles it. As we all know, he likes to get the rotation down to 8-9 guys by the end of the year. It’s going to be hard to do this year, in my opinion.

Here’s how I see the lineups and minute breakdowns:

Point Guard : Roland 20 / Davis 20

I’m not sure what will happen at this position, but I thing both players are very strong. I expect to see Roland start to begin the year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Doc took over as the year progresses. Either way I think we have a strong 1-2 punch. I’m not sure if either of these guys will immediately be as good as Brockeith was for us, but they will be close, and we will be deeper here than the last couple of years.

Shooting Guard: Medlin 33 / Berger 7

For the past year or so I’ve been saying that Riley Bradshaw would come in and contribute right away and compete for minutes. It’s just hard for me to see how he will do that this coming year with the players that we brought in. Preston Medlin will command at least 32-35 minutes per game. I think he will be a strong candidate for WAC POY. Berger will clean up the minutes here and possibly play some SF as well.

Small Forward : Butterfield 26 / Jean 11 / Berger 3

Spencer Butterfield will be a beast for us. I expect him to be All-WAC this year. Probably 2nd team. You heard it here first. He’s a flat out dead-eye shooter from downtown and with him and Medlin holding down the fort on the wings our opponents will really have to stay out on them, opening up the middle. We’ll have a built in zone-buster. Add to that his ability to drive to the hoop and apparent enjoyment of contact down low and you’ve got a good combination. I know very little about Marvin Jean except that our Staff really likes him and the players I have spoken with all said he’s a baller. I expect he’ll see some time, and Berger could command more minutes than I’m giving him if he performs. He’s the only other wing besides Medlin with experience here.

Power Forward: Reed 24 / Harris 8 / Clifford 8

Reed could command more minutes here, but I’m not sure how consistent he will be this year. He’s also been prone to fouling much like Tai was for us. If he can pull it all together for us and be as consistent on the road as he was at home he could be huge for us this coming year. An All-WAC type player. Sean Harris should see some time here for us if he can stay healthy. I’ve heard good things about him, and expect him to compete for minutes. I expect that either him or Clifford will see minutes at both post positions early in the year until Lopez is available. Ben Clifford will be solid for us as usual and clean up the extra minutes at this position.

Center: Shaw 22 / Harris or Clifford 10 / Lopez 8

This position is very up in the air. I think Shaw will command minutes here based on his size and ability to score. Lopez will be ineligible to play until December and Harris or Clifford will likely have to fill in at this spot some. From what I have seen from Shaw he can flat out score, but seems to be in love with the mid-range jumper game. He’s a finesse type player and I haven’t seen him banging down low at all. In the ratball session that I watched he shot the ball about 9 out of 10 times it touched his hand, but probably made at least 75% of those shots, so I’m not sure I can blame him at all. I’m curious to see what Stew does with him. I don’t remember him being outstanding on the defensive end, but he has all the tools. I wonder how he will do against a big bruiser who loves contact down low. Matt Lopez is a very intriguing prospect as well. His game seems pretty raw at this point, but he has the physical abilities to be great. His defense looked good to me and his passing ability stood out. He made good passes in the correct situations out on the floor. He should develop well for us over the years.

Breakdown by playing time:
Medlin – 33
Butterfield – 26
Reed – 24
Shaw – 22
Roland – 20
Davis – 20
Harris – 13
Clifford – 13
Jean – 11
Berger – 10
Lopez – 8

Redshirt Candidates:

Jordan Stone: Jordan seems like the obvious candidate to redshirt down low for us. He could use the extra time to develop and polish his skills and he has the redshirt available. If Stew feels that we can hold down the fort until December when Lopez comes back I expect he might try this. It also depends on whether or not Harris can stay healthy.

Riley Bradshaw: For the past year or so I’ve been predicting that Bradshaw will make an immediate impact on the squad and command minutes right from the get-go. I’ve backed off a little bit from that stance, and I think he might actually be a decent candidate to redshirt this year. Of course, I’m basing this off of one ratball session that I watched, so I may be way off, but with Butterfield, Medlin, Jean, and Berger, there seems to be some room for a redshirt for Riley. If he were to redshirt this year it would set him up to be a 2 or 3 year starter for us which I think would bode well for our future plans. If Stew decides to go this route, don’t be surprised to see his redshirt pulled mid-season if anyone gets injured.

Quincy Bair: The plan for Bair has been to redshirt for quite some time now. The reviews of his game that I’m hearing are very mixed. I have yet to see him play in person, but it sounds like he has very good defense and the potential to be a very solid player in the future. He will need to work hard this season to develop his game to secure his spot on the team in the future. It will be nice to have another lock-down defender on the wings (of the Pooh / Newbold variety) come 2013-14.

That’s all for now. Agree? Disagree? Hit us up with some comments on here!

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).

Utah State’s Point Guard of the Future, Marcel Davis

Marcel Davis

So, who’s excited for this upcoming basketball season? I know I am. One of the main reasons for my excitement goes by the name of “Doc”. Marcel Davis (M.D. aka “Doc”) is the point guard of the future for Utah State Basketball. Stew Morrill got on this kid early, and rightly so. He appears to be the perfect fit as a true point guard for Stew’s system. Doc, one of the highest rated point guards in the west, committed to play basketball for Utah State directly after his sophomore season at American Fork High School. Shortly thereafter, his highly athletic teammate Quincy Bair committed to play for the Aggies as well. Both of them signed their letters of intent on November 11, 2011.

For those of you who are not yet familiar with Marcel’s game, take a look at this brand new highlight video that was provided to me earlier today.

The kid can play. Marcel is a great floor general with a team-first attitude. Yes, he has moved to get to the hoop and score with ease, or knock down the open jumper, but it seems that he gets even more excited by getting his teammates involved and tallying up the assists. The kid is a winner. He is selfless both on and off the court. In a spotlight article in the Salt Lake Tribune, you can read about his life away from the court, and how he has taken his severely autistic little brother under his wing and provided care for him. Much of what Marcel does on the court is in tribute to his little brother.

Things are really looking up for the Aggies folks. We have a great floor general who will be suiting up for us this coming fall, and that’s only one part of the puzzle that makes me excited. His good friend Quincy Bair is also a highly sought after recruit who will provide a much needed athletic presence in coming years. And we haven’t even mentioned our third incoming freshman this year, Montana All-Star Riley Bradshaw. Riley played point guard in high school, but with him and Doc here for the next several years, I expect to see them both on the court at the same time quite a bit. Riley is more of a scoring guard who could probably slide over to the Shooting Guard position, but also provide an incredible point guard when needed as well. I don’t remember a time when I have ever been this excited about an incoming recruiting class. And that’s just the freshman coming in. We also have the California Junior College player of the year Spencer Butterfield joining the squad with his Power Forward teammate Sean Harris. Then there’s yet another Junior College all-american TeNale Roland, and one more J.C. standout from New York, Marvin Jean. Jean is in Vegas this week playing in a Junior College all-star event.

Oh, and in case you need them we have two near seven-footers transfers in the wings as well who should see some serious playing time this coming year. 6-foot-10 Oklahoma State transfer Jarred Shaw and 6-foot-11 La Salle transfer Matt Lopez.

Yes, the future is looking up folks. And we have one year to get everyone on the same page before we leave the crumbling WAC and enter the Mountain West Conference. I think we will be up to the challenge.

For more information on our incoming recruits, check out the Recruits Section of our sister site USUFans.com.