Friday, December 11, 2009

The Aggie Bull Horn - December 11, 2009

BCS System/Bowls

Aggie Basketball

Hockey, Ladies' Ball
and Listener feedback

I'm not going to lie - today we had a great show, despite the lack of Jared and Tyler. I would like to thank everyone involved with the show and the blog this semester, and would like to remind everyone to tune into our show once again next semester on Fridays from 8-10 a.m. Merry Christmas everyone!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Aggies Head into Finals Week with a Loss

Stew Post St. Mary's

Jared Quayle Post St Mary's

Tai Wesley Post St. Mary's

Two years, nine months and two days.  Coming into Saturday, that's how much time had passed since the Aggies had lost a game at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.  The Aggies were riding a 37-game home winning streak, a 65-game regular season non-conference home winning streak, and a 41-game non-conference home winning streak.  But St. Mary's - oooh, St. Mary's - stopped it all when the Gaels edged the Aggies 68-63 in the Spectrum.

Five teams beat USU in the 2008-09 season.  BYU and St. Mary's College were two of those teams.

Both of this week's games were hard-fought scrums, but the SMC game was just too much.  USU found itself down on multiple occasions, but used rallies and stretches in which the Aggie defense held solid and the SMC offense faltered to keep it a one-possession game.  The game was decided in the last minute when SMC took advantage of a double-team on leading scorer Omar Samhan to open up the floor.  Clint Steidl hit the 3, and then Pooh Williams was called for a charging foul on the ensuing possession with less than 20 seconds remaining.  That pretty much did USU in.

Notable from this game was the lack of perimeter shooting.  Pooh Williams went 6-7 from the field with two 3-pointers, but the Aggies two leading scorers, Jared Quayle and Tai Wesley, only managed to go 10-30 from the field.  Wesley had a horrible night from the foul line, shooting 50%.

Also notable was the lack of rebounding at crucial, crucial times.  On numerous occasions, Samhan and the other extremely long Gaels reached up in the air and were able to simply tip the ball away from the hoop and back to their players, regardless of positioning on the floor.  USU won the rebound game and the turnover game, but lost the 2nd-chance points game by nine.

Everything about this game was just weird...  The power went out at halftime, Scott Barnes tripped over his words when he announced that Romney Stadium would be renamed Merlin Olsen Field, I got to the game late, the officials forgot to get their eyes checked, I wasn't sitting in my usual spot among the fans... Everything about this game was just a bit weird.

The impenetrability of the Spectrum is now in question.  This is the 13th loss in the last 12 years that Stew's crew has suffered at home.  Whether or not this team will show the resolve to execute offensively down the stretch will be the key.  Last season's team was always able to knock down the shots.  This season's team hasn't been able to do that in the losses they've suffered so far this year.  Whether this happens because the team can't find an open look or because they just can't sink the shots is up for debate, but I go for the latter.  Quayle can't do it all every night - someone else needs to step up.

Friday, December 4, 2009



Bill Sproat at the BYU game on Wednesday.  Nicely done, Bill.  Nicely done!