Idaho hopes to downsize USU
This men’s basketball game isn’t being played when or where it was supposed to be.
Idaho entertains travel partner Utah State tonight at 7 to get an early jump on the Big West Conference season. The game was scheduled for next week, but Utah State had a conflict with its annual holiday tournament in Logan and Idaho coach Leonard Perry agreed to make the change.
Since the game falls on a holiday week with few students in town, Perry wanted a cozier setting than spacious Cowan Spectrum and he successfully lobbied to have the contest moved to Memorial Gym. Idaho will play two more games in Memorial (vs. UC Irvine on Feb. 24 and Long Beach State on Feb. 26) when the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival occupies the Kibbie Dome.
“I’m into environments,” Perry said. “No disrespect to the Spectrum, but if you have some conference games that don’t draw as big as others, I’d play them at Moscow Junior High if I could, put some coats on and play outside if I could sell it out. I think atmosphere gives the kids a heck of a chance. Even when you’re not playing well, the atmosphere can wake a group up.”
Utah State coach Stew Morrill, who played at Memorial Gym during his playing days at Gonzaga, doesn’t mind the switch.
“I’m sure that’s their whole deal, to get it kind of wild and crazy,” he said. “And I’m not so sure that might not be better for our guys than a dead atmosphere. Through the years, we’ve had a tough time when it’s been like it is at (Cal State) Fullerton, where there is a (small crowd) as compared to where it’s wild and crazy and alive.”
Idaho, 1-8 with its lone win over NAIA Great Falls, might need atmosphere, planetary alignment and an otherworldly performance to knock off the Big West’s premier program.
Utah State (7-2) is 71-15 against conference foes the last five years. In Morrill’s six seasons, USU has won 20 or more games five times and claimed three Big West regular-season and tournament titles. Since 2000, only Duke, Gonzaga and Stanford have better winning percentages than Utah State’s 79.4.
“They execute so many different parts of the game so well,” Perry said of the Aggies. “The one thing they never have is a lack of effort. That creates problems right off the bat, before you hit play on the VCR.”
Making matters worse, Utah State is stout where Idaho is struggling. The Aggies are talented on the interior, take quality shots and hold foes to 41.6 percent from the field.
Forwards Spencer Nelson and Nate Harris were All-Big West picks last year. They combine for roughly 30 points and more than 13 rebounds per game. True freshman point guard Jaycee Carroll checks in at 13.2 points and 4.7 rebounds.
Carroll (21 years old), Nelson (24) and starting forward John Neil (24) served Latter-day Saints church missions. Starting guard David Pak will turn 28 on Christmas Day.
“Spencer is a kid we signed, that’s how old he is,” said Perry, an Aggies assistant from 1994-98. “Pak is older than two of my assistants.”
Perry, though, is more worried about his players than Utah State’s birth certificates. Idaho’s interior of freshman Mike Kale and seniors Lionel Davis and Anton Lyons is combining for just 13.8 points and 12 rebounds per game. Perry said 6-foot-10 freshman Zach Proett (Mt. Spokane High) is practicing “a little now” and might have a chance to play at some point. Center David Radlovic is likely out for the year with a knee injury.
“We’re toilet-paper thin on the front line in terms of depth,” Perry said. “I keep hearing ‘no production from our inside guys,’ but we’re facing 100 percent zone (defense). Anton’s shooting 48 percent, Lionel 45, (Kale 67). I don’t know how much more I can ask from them. … It’s very difficult to get the ball to the ‘bigs’ against zone.”