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Show StatesmanSports Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Page 9 It's all in a state of mind for Ags By TIM OLSEN staff writer Nate Bendall stole the ball and drove for a layup, Tai Wesley had his way inside, and Brian Green and Tyler Newbold knocked down multiple 3-pointers. These plays were not mere highlights spread throughout the game, but part of what may have been the Aggies' most dominant start to a conference game ever. For nearly the first 10 minutes of the opening period, the streaking Aggies blitzed Fresno State. Before the Bulldogs could even catch their breath, they were on the wrong side of a 22-0 deficit. After struggling during a lackadaisical effort at Hawaii, USU opened the floodgates Monday. The Aggies knocked down eight of their first 11 shots, including a trifecta of 3's by Green and Newbold. Even more impressive, however, was USU's dominating defense. While the Aggies were scorching the nets on the offensive end, the Bulldogs looked about as comfortable as a Californian enjoying a Cache Valley winter. Led by former BYU coach Steve Cleveland, Fresno State missed its first 11 shots and turned the ball over seven times in the first 9:51. "I thought they were great defensively ... . We had great looks early on, and it just seemed like we could not get the shots to go down," Cleveland said. "They are really tough in this building, but we've always played them tough in this building, but we didn't tonight. They completely dominated, and it's just been a really difficult road trip." Trailing at one point by as many as 43, Fresno State shot a season low 22 percent for the game. The Bulldogs' 39 points was also a season low, and had USU not scored the entire second half, the Aggies still would have won by one (USU scored 40 points in the opening period). "Defense wins games, and we came out and played really aggressive on defense," Green said. "We talked to each other and played as a team, and as you can tell that really helped a lot. Twenty-two percent is really good defense. We need to keep that up." Monday's win was more than just another dominating win in the string of 14 straight victories the Aggies have put together. The performance against Fresno State highlights the growth the Aggies have made from earlier in the season. Once a group that struggled to put teams away — especially on the road — and seemed to play to the level of its competition, the Aggies are no longer that squad. USU is now a team that establishes itself early and doesn't slack off on its way to victory. "Our team has matured as we have gone along," Wesley said. "We're really a different team than we were to start the WAC season." Fans need look no farther than head coach Stew Morrill to understand where that change in mentality has taken place. After USU opened up its biggest lead of the night at 62-19, Morrill sent the bench in to get some time. Following a 12-2 run by the Bulldogs though, the starters found themselves back in the game with five minutes remaining. Though the starting players only re-entered the game for a couple of minutes, the flow of the game was again returned to the Aggies' favor, and Morrill's point was made. Following the blowout, the bespectacled coach lamented that he needed to have more patience with those players deep on his bench do to the limited minutes they have played this season. He joked, however, that increased patience might have to wait until a next life. Lost in the midst of Utah State's drubbing of the Bulldogs, is the fact that the Aggies did lock up at least a share of their third consecutive regular season conference title. There was no big celebration or cutting of the nets following the win though, as the Aggies have their eyes focused ahead. Saturday night, the New Mexico State Aggies visit the Spectrum in what could be a battle for the No. 1 seed in next weekend's conference tournament. The NewMags are a game behind USU in the conference standings, but a win in Logan would tie New Mexico State with the Ags for the regular season crown and give NMSU the No. 1 seed, as they would hold the head-to-head tiebreaker. "We feel like we haven't won the WAC yet," Wesley said. "We didn't cut down the nets ... We want to get greedy. We want to win the WAC outright, and Saturday night is when we're going to do that." — t.olsen@aggiemail.usu.edu SectionF I A different point of view n a mid-major conference like the one in which Utah State plays, the annual measure of success comes in the form of conference championships. NCAA tournament victories are the next step for a dominant mid-major program to take, but even if a team reaches the tournament, the opportunities for winnable games are sparse. The very fact that Utah State has clinched a share of its third consecutive conference championship speaks volumes about the quality of the program Stew Morrill is running, and when a program operates at this high of a level for long enough, NCAA tournament victories inevitably follow. That is the current state of Utah State, and if you go back two months from now, who can say they really saw this great of a season coming? Split this basketball season into two halves and you get two completely different results. The first half was a pretty solid disappointment by USU's standards, with just a 10-6 record through 16 games. Even though it included the heroics and excitement of the win over BYU, the negatives of losses at Utah, Northeastern and Saint Mary's in the Spectrum seemed to outweigh the positives. The potential of the team was apparent to anyone watching it, whether it be in the elite skill and smarts of players such as Tai Wesley, Tyler Newbold and Nate Bendall, or in the form of the athleticism and talent from the likes of Jared Quayle, Pooh Williams and Brady Jardine. Even though Jardine and Brian Green had yet to emerge as the true aces off the bench that they are now, the team has excellent talent and potential. While production was still a long ways behind the team's potential, it appeared to at least be the best defensive team in the entire Western Athletic Conference. Now, with just one regular season game remaining in the second half of this tale of two seasons, it seems impossible to exclude the Aggies from being in the conversation of the best defensive team in the nation. Topping off the stellar defensive play is the Aggies' return to the top of the charts in offensive efficiency in the nation. Following Monday's 55.4 percent shooting performance against Fresno State, the Aggies are now tied for No. 9 in the nation in field goal percentage. USU moved up to a tie for second place in assist-to-turnover ratio nationally and further distanced itself from the rest of the country as the No. 1 3-point shooting team in the nation. The statistics in WAC play are even more staggering for Utah State, particularly in scoring margin, where the Aggies have outscored all WAC opponents by an average of 13.9 points per game. The next best in that category is New Mexico State, with a margin of 3.9 points. Although Utah State litters the top of the charts in essentially every crucial WAC statistic, New Mexico State checks in at No. 2 in many of those spots behind USU. The main shortcoming for NMSU, though, is scoring defense, where the red Aggies of the WAC rank at No. 7 in the entire conference, allowing 74.9 points per game compared to 58.7 allowed by USU. Regardless of statistics or conference standings going into Saturday's regular season finale in the Spectrum against New Mexico State, this game is crucial for Utah State. USU can clinch an outright WAC championship if Nevada beats New Mexico State in Reno this Thursday evening. The Wolf Pack handed NMSU one of its three conference losses already this year in Las Cruces. So to think that Nevada will win again on its home court is nothing unreasonable. Should the Aggies clinch the outright title Thursday, Saturday's game remains relevant in the sense of continuing USU's dominance at home over other WAC teams. A senior night victory would be the third consecutive season in which Utah State swept its home WAC schedule, and with a team looking to return four starters again next year, that dominance doesn't look to be slowing down at all. It's safe to say that the Spectrum has a mystique about itself to other WAC teams to the point where the opposition has its back against the wall from the second the game tips off. If New Mexico State does indeed win at Nevada, then Saturday's game is the real regular season WAC championship game in that New Mexico State could claim the top seed in the WAC tournament with a victory with what would be a tiebreaker over USU. It would technically be a shared championship, and the record books would state that USU won a WAC championship this season, but some things in life are just not meant to be shared. Given the Aggies' most recent dismantling of a super athletic team that lacks discipline, it seems reasonable to think that the nets hanging on the rims in the Spectrum might be coming down pretty soon. Matt Sonnenberg is a junior majoring in print journalism. Matt is an avid fan of Aggie athletics and can be found on the front row of every home football and basketball game. He can also be reached at matt. sonn@aggiemail. usu.edu. POOH WILLIAMS (5) handles the ball during the first half of Monday night's game against Fresno State. The Aggies led at halftime 40-14. PATRICK ODEN photo Deuce: From big city to agricultural town continued from page 8 him to decide where to go to college, he was in contact with three different coaches in the U.S., but ultimately decided on USU for two reasons: Ericsson chose to come here as well, and the scholarship USU offered was too good to pass up. "It was an easy decision," Asplund said. "This is a unique opportunity to be here, play tennis and have my schooling paid for." He enjoys the opportunity to travel as well as the team atmosphere that tennis in the U.S. brings and hopes to continue to see lots of places, in and out of the U.S., throughout his life. Jakob had a rough time when it came to choosing a major. He switched between multiple majors until he decided on public relations and marketing. After more schooling, he hopes to eventually open up his own firm. "Any type of company doing PR would be great," he said. Other than the Mormon culture, Asplund said he has adapted well. "That's what surprised me the most: the Mormon culture. Sweden is one of the least religious countries around and moving here is so different." he said. "Everyone is always at church activities, people are always knocking on our door to get us to come to family home evening." Asplund said his adversity to the culture is escaped within the walls of his apartment, how- ever. "My roommates aren't Mormon," he said. "We kind of band together. We all get along really well." "I am a lot different from everyone up here," Asplund said. "Everyone is always happy, and I normally keep to myself. Someone will come up to you on campus and say, 'What's up? How are you?' and I wonder if they expect me to say something back." Asplund said he has made a system for life in Logan — he manages a B average in his classes, stays current on tennis and sleep and has a group of tight-knit friends on the team. Asplund said that after graduation he plans to go back to Stockholm. He plans on furthering his education, hopefully, at the University of Stockholm, he said. While university athletics are not offered in Sweden, Asplund said he got an offer from a German tennis league. "I have not really thought about that much though," he said. As for now, Asplund said he is content with what he's got and will continue to roam USU's campus as a silent victor — preferring to pass by without a word. —kayla.dark@aggiemaiLusu.edu Baseball team struggles on real grass By DAN FAWSON staff writer Escaping the friendly confines of its snowcovered home field, the Utah State club baseball team made the long trek down to sunny St. George last weekend to open the spring 2010 baseball season. The Aggies suffered losses of 10-2 and 5-0 Friday against the College of Eastern Utah, and fell 8-5 and 10-3 Saturday against Colorado Northwestern Community College. While they certainly would have been happier coming away with victories, the Aggies felt it was important to get live game action under their belts. "Despite the losses it was a good weekend for us," said assistant coach Norm Doyle. "We were finally able to get outside and play some real baseball, instead of just practicing in the Fieldhouse." Both Aggie opponents were at an advantage having already begun their respective seasons in early February. Outfielder and pitcher Jesse Kunz agreed with Doyle that the live experience was something the team needed, and noted that he thought the Aggies would be in a position to beat both opponents later in the year. USU struggled offensively for the entire doubleheader with the CEU, managing only two runs and two hits over the two games. The Aggies struggled with offensive consistency throughout much of the fall season, but players and coaches believe their slow start over the weekend should more rightly be attributed to season opening rustiness. "In those games (CEU doubleheader) we had little to no offense," Doyle said. "It was our first time against live pitching. Our players felt like they were swinging the bat underwater." The Aggies' bats started to heat up in the second doubleheader, producing eight runs on 13 hits and getting solid contributions from a number of hitters. After the Aggies fell behind 6-1 through the first three innings of game one against CNCC, Kunz provided the highlight of the weekend by belting a grand slam in the top of the fourth inning. "I just saw a fastball away and tried to drop a bat on it," Kunz said. Kunz's weekend performance was especially promising for the Aggies, who were without the starting pitcher and outfielder for all of the fall season while he was rehabbing a broken right pitching arm. The season-opening games were Kunz's first game action back since breaking his arm. "Actually, I was really pleased with my arm," Kunz said, noting he didn't feel any soreness in the days following his return to the diamond. He was able to pitch two innings over the weekend and said any problems he had on the mound were more an issue of mechanics than anything else. The first game against CNCC was probably the Aggies' best opportunity to pick up a win in St. George, but they ultimately came up short due in large part to some poor work on the field. "The first game against CNCC was probably our best of the weekend," Doyle said. "We pounded out seven hits and scored five runs. Ryan Doyle pitched a complete game for us and had seven strikeouts but was hurt by some poor defense." The Aggies committed four errors in the game and eight in the four games total, cornpared to only two combined from both of their opponents. Ryan, coach Doyle's son, was the ace of the USU staff during the fall season and will be expected to continue in that role during the spring. While the team wasn't as sharp as it would liked to have been, the Aggies were pleased with the progress they made at the plate through the four games. "Everybody started hitting the ball in that second series," Kunz said, noting he felt catcher Gavin Johnson and shortstop Zack Gunn seemed to be leading the way. "Zack and Gavin are just really good hitters, so it's not surprising it came to them first." Gunn and Johnson both had four hits in the CNCC doubleheader. All told, Johnson went 5 for 11 on the trip, with three doubles and a stolen base. The Aggies were without Eudy Sanchez over the weekend. Sanchez's speed, range and strong performance during the fall season will give him a good chance at winning the team's starting center field spot. In his absence, Brad Singer, typically the team's starting third baseman, spent time in center field. The Aggies will remain on the road for another week, competing in the National Club Baseball Association "Swing into Spring" Tournament March 4-6. The tournament is held in Mesquite, Nev., and will see the Aggies face off against Eastern Washington, Loyola Marymount, UC-Santa Cruz and Arizona State. —danfawson@aggiemaiLusu.edu |