Utah State men’s basketball will return to the friendly confines of Logan Tuesday to take on Mountain West rival Boise State at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. The Aggies are 30-9 all time against the Broncos have never dropped a game to Boise State in the Spectrum, sitting at 18-0 over the series.
Utah State’s is coming off of a loss to San Diego State where they dropped to 12-9 on the year and 4-5 in Mountain West play. Boise State is on a five-game winning streak coming of a victory over Colorado State which took their record to 14-6 overall and 5-6 in the Mountain West.
“It is a quick turnaround for us,” Aggie head coach Stew Morrill said. “It is an interesting deal sometimes the way the league schedule falls. Boise hasn’t played in a week and we’ve got the quick turn around from San Diego State. We are obviously coming off a tough performance and we need to be ready to bounce back.”
Morrill is The last time the Aggies and the Broncos met the Aggies came away with the victory on a three-point basket by redshirt freshman David Collette for a final score of 62-61. That game took Utah State to 2-0 in Mountain West play and dropped Boise State to 0-2.
“Watching the video of it, we played pretty dang good for 30 minutes and really bad for 10 minutes,” Morrill said of the last meeting between the two schools. “I’m not talking about the last 10 minutes, but throughout the game. We played a really good first half, but then just an awful start the second half. Then we got back ahead again, by 10 or so, and then played really poorly again that we could have lost, maybe should have lost. We got a little breath of life when they missed a free throw and then David (Collette) throws one in. There was justice served in that we played a really good first half and the year before gave one away.”
Utah State is averaging 64.6 points for game while shooting 43.2 percent from the field and 39.3 percent from behind the arc. USU is 65.2 percent from the stripe.
The Aggies are being led offensively by sophomore Jalen Moore, who is averaging 15.2 points a game and a team-high 7.2 rebounds per game. He is backed up by Collette who is shooting 56.2 percent from the court for an average of 12.9 points a game and the third highest shooting percentage in the Mountain West.
Junior guard Chris Smith is the third player for the aggies to average double digit points per game at 11.1. He leads the Aggies behind the arc with a 46.5 percent three-point shooting average, good for fifth overall in the Mountain West.
Boise is led by senior guard Derrick Marks, who is averaging 19.6 points per game and 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game. Morrill said that guarding Marks is going to be an important part of the Aggies Strategy come game night.
“Our whole team needs to guard him,” Morrill said. “We will need to have a lot of help, no matter who is on him individually. That will fall on our perimeter guys because he plays the two, he plays the one. Our guards are going to have him, but everybody needs to be aware that they play through him.”
Morrill added that the team is not looking for an easy win against the Broncos despite beating them on the road earlier in the season.
Sometimes when you beat a team on the road, you better be smart enough to know that doesn’t mean you automatically win at home,” he said. “Boise has been good on the road and went to New Mexico and won. We better understand what it is going to take.”
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