Normally I would put together an awesome segment of the highlights from this game, but in all honesty, I could not be in Logan until 8:20 p.m. Saturday, and by that time the doors to the building that houses the Fusion Studios had long since closed. So, fault me for this one. I don't deserve to have the responsibilities I do - my only solace is that our next show is 6 days away and by that time, this game will be very old news.In any case, here's my thoughts from the game.
The crowd in this game was epic. Bill's Mardi Gras getup caused Babbitt to miss his first free throw of the second half, and the roof nearly flew off after Jardine blocked Babbitt early in the second. There were several opportunities in which a 3-pointer would have triggered implosion quality vibrations, but it was not to be. USU didn't even hit a 3-ball in the second half.
If the statistic that USU always wins when shooting five three-pointers were to hold steady, this game was as good as done at halftime. USU shot 6 of 11 from deep in the first half (54.5 percent) in half numero uno. The good news: the stat held. The bad news: USU missed all six of their 2nd half attempts. Credit Nevada's perimeter defense.
USU played to their unchanging game plan just like always. The only Aggie in double figures at halftime, at which point USU led 39-35, was Jared Quayle on two 3-pointers and 50 percent shooting. However, USU had 3 other players in the 6-10 range at halftime (Tai Wesley, Pooh Williams, Tyler Newbold). Compare that to Nevada. Babbitt and Johnson combined for 25 of Nevada's 35 first half points. No other member of the Pack scored more than five in the first.
USU had four players in double figures by the end of the night and one player with eight points.
Utah State continues to dominate on the assist-to-turnover ratio. After 20 minutes, the A-T ratio was 6. Yes, that's correct. At the end of the game, the ratio was 4.5 (18 assists, 4 turnovers). I don't care who you are, when you get that stat, you're going to do well.
Rebounding continued to be a huge advantage for USU. Of USU's 17 first half rebounds, 9 of them were offensive, which resulted in 8 first half 2nd chance points and 20 2nd chance points in this game. The 21 offensive boards were a season high for the Aggies.
USU got loads of points off of Pack turnovers. The POT/TO ratio was 2. I'm pretty sure that stat is not well known, because it's never used. POT/TO stands for (Points off Turnovers) divided by (Turnovers). If a team is able to get that ration to 2, it basically means the team scores on every turnover the opposing team commits - a vitality in a game like the Aggie-Pack game. Nevada gave the ball away 7 times, and USU capitalized for 14 points. Wow.
Tai Wesley came to play in the second half of this one. The Tai-phoon had 10 points in the first 6.5 minutes of the second half, at least four of came as the second-chance variety of points. He struggled in the first, but more than recovered in half number two. Tai's bucket with just over four minutes remaining stifled a Pack run that got Nevada back within single digits. Also, Tai's free throws in the final minutes all but shut the Pack down and put the game out of reach, even though he missed one.
I was sad to see Brian Green disappear during this game. Credit his recent success to make Nevada pay more attention to him during film time. As Stew said afterwards, "It was bound to happen, but we were happy to get a win out of it."
Nevada played excellent defense given the circumstances in this game - they played so well that I have to give them credit. USU's FG percentage fell from 44.1 percent to 39.7 percent in the second half. However, it didn't matter because USU had 10 more free throw attempts and 9 more 2nd-chance points. more free throw attempts.
The moment that Babbitt fouled out of the game was just about as sweet as the Winning Team-Losing Team chant. Both Tai Wesley and Stew Morrill gave Babbitt credit for the type of ball he plays and his strength of character. Still, it was good to see him choke.
And finally, Pooh's dunk at the end of the game when Nevada was in the full-court press was epic.
I'm convinced. This team will not lose another until the NCAA tournament, which is where they're going, by the way.
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