Hey Shockers, USU fan here...

[USUALUM]

USUALUM,

From the youtube clips you posted, USU was using a zone defense. Is that the defense your team uses all the time? Or, do you mix it up? Do the Aggies press much?

No, yes and no. USU employs switching defenses, sometimes alternating as often as between possessions. So both man and zone ... nothing too exotic. I'm sure your boys have seen it all before. No press. They might throw in a little half a**, token pressure but I'd be surprised if a press came out.

How about the Shockers??

[SubGod22]

USUALUM,

From the youtube clips you posted, USU was using a zone defense. Is that the defense your team uses all the time? Or, do you mix it up? Do the Aggies press much?

No, yes and no. USU employs switching defenses, sometimes alternating as often as between possessions. So both man and zone ... nothing too exotic. I'm sure your boys have seen it all before. No press. They might throw in a little half a**, token pressure but I'd be surprised if a press came out.

How about the Shockers??

We're pretty much a M2M team and will throw in a couple of different presses from time to time. Sadly, it's usually more of a token pressure. I hope you guys play very little zone against us.

[ShockerFever]

Welcome USUAlum.

Thanks for your input and inside breakdown of the Aggies.



As Sub mentioned, we are strictly M2M. We have a very weak interior defense and refuse to take charges to prevent dribble penetration. 90% of your shots should be of the easy layup variety if you guys are smart, which I fully think you are.

[USUALUM]

USUALUM,

From the youtube clips you posted, USU was using a zone defense. Is that the defense your team uses all the time? Or, do you mix it up? Do the Aggies press much?

No, yes and no. USU employs switching defenses, sometimes alternating as often as between possessions. So both man and zone ... nothing too exotic. I'm sure your boys have seen it all before. No press. They might throw in a little half a**, token pressure but I'd be surprised if a press came out.

How about the Shockers??

We're pretty much a M2M team and will throw in a couple of different presses from time to time. Sadly, it's usually more of a token pressure. I hope you guys play very little zone against us.

Interesting with the M2M. Our offense is kind of predicated on constant movement on so your guys are going to have to run quite a bit if in M2M. You will see A LOT of off the ball screens. You might find it interesting that our press breaker often involves our big man (Wesley) bringing the ball up the court.

On another note, not sure if you're aware but the Aggie offensive plays are called in from the sideline on each possession using "flash cards". There are two sets of cards that are flashed, one is the "hot" set and the other is a dummy.

We don't run and gun. More of a ball control game. If the opportunity presents itself we have a solid fast break game, but don't expect a track meet. Often on offense the Aggies will run a stall game for a few seconds at the beginning of each possession, then reset and get the play. I think this is done to run a little clock and scout the D ... I'm not sure about this but you'll see it happen for sure.

What's the Shocker style of O?

[WSUShokker]

Welcome USUAlum.

Thanks for your input and inside breakdown of the Aggies.



As Sub mentioned, we are strictly M2M. We have a very weak interior defense and refuse to take charges to prevent dribble penetration. 90% of your shots should be of the easy layup variety if you guys are smart, which I fully think you are.

Yeah Fever I think we should just mail this one in...go through the motions and then figure where to go eat in Salt Lake before the flight home...LOL

[SirShoxAlot]

USUALUM,

From the youtube clips you posted, USU was using a zone defense. Is that the defense your team uses all the time? Or, do you mix it up? Do the Aggies press much?

No, yes and no. USU employs switching defenses, sometimes alternating as often as between possessions. So both man and zone ... nothing too exotic. I'm sure your boys have seen it all before. No press. They might throw in a little half a**, token pressure but I'd be surprised if a press came out.

How about the Shockers??

We're pretty much a M2M team and will throw in a couple of different presses from time to time. Sadly, it's usually more of a token pressure. I hope you guys play very little zone against us.

Interesting with the M2M. Our offense is kind of predicated on constant movement on so your guys are going to have to run quite a bit if in M2M. You will see A LOT of off the ball screens. You might find it interesting that our press breaker often involves our big man (Wesley) bringing the ball up the court.

On another note, not sure if you're aware but the Aggie offensive plays are called in from the sideline on each possession using "flash cards". There are two sets of cards that are flashed, one is the "hot" set and the other is a dummy.

We don't run and gun. More of a ball control game. If the opportunity presents itself we have a solid fast break game, but don't expect a track meet. Often on offense the Aggies will run a stall game for a few seconds at the beginning of each possession, then reset and get the play. I think this is done to run a little clock and scout the D ... I'm not sure about this but you'll see it happen for sure.

What's the Shocker style of O?

Pass up wide open threes and jack up illadvised long balls.

Seriously, though, you may see some of that. Our offense likes to pass around the perimeter until we find an angle to pass to the inside, shoot the three or drive. We usually go with the three or the drive. Sometimes a mid-range jumper from Ellis, Murry or Hannah. Pretty basic stuff though.

[WSUShokker]

Pretty generic here and im know there are many someones more qualified than myself to do this....but in the spirit of sharing....here it goes


Clevin Hanah our only senior is the "glue and HC" on the court for this team. He is a very good shooter when open...doesent take alot of contested shots and drives and dishes well.

JT Durley has been our best interior player this year overall. Lately though he has been in kind of a funk scoring and playing defense.

If either of these two get in foul trouble it presents alot of problems for us.

Toure "Ray" Murray is our shooting guard...I guess but hasnt really been much of a scorer lately. He will guard the heck out of your best perimeter player.

Graham Hatch....the stormin mormon on this squad has been the hardest worker HCGM has ever had in his career. He can shoot the 3 and will dive for any thing he can get to. A solid interior player who has a nose for the ball and gets his share of rebounds on both ends of the court.

Much debate here on our fifth player

Aaron Ellis Our designated get the tipoff guy. Huge wingspan and a very good defender.....ocassionally will find his offense but not very often...

His replacement and the best 6th man in the valley is Gabe Blair ...a physical forward with decent moves around the basket who can score and rebound and a decent defender.

[SuperiorBlueDiver]

Hey another Utah State fan here. I like the rundown that USUALUM has given. I happened to watch most of your game vs. Northern Iowa. For some reason during that game I got a feeling we might see you in the Bracketbuster matchup.

I love the matchup. I said I wanted to play Wichita State as soon as our message board starting discussing possible matchups. Well I woulda like Sienna too but we all knew Butler was gonna get Sienna.

Here's a few numbers on Utah State basketball recently:

We have won 45 of our last 46 home games. We had a 37 game home winning streak snapped earlier this year by St. Mary's. Boy we did not play well offensively in that game. But we have rattled off 8 straight wins at home since that game and have been playing our best basketball of the season lately. On a six game winning streak now. Obviously we have five more games before we play you as well.

We are 170-13 for a .928 winning % at home in the past 12 seasons including this season.

Over the last ten seasons USU has averaged 25.2 wins per season and is one of just 3 schools in the nation to win 23 games in each of those seasons joining Gonzaga and Kansas.

Over the past 10 years USU has one 5 regular season conference championships and 5 tournament championships.

USU has advanced to the post season in 10 consecutive seasons. 6 times to the NCAA Tournament and 4 times to the N.I.T.

We have 4 starters and 2 bench players returning from last years team that went 30-5 and lost to Marquette 58-57 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Losing a close NCAA Tournament game again still stings.

Yet with all of those things I very much envy Wichita State's sweet sixteen run in 2006. Utah State is due a run like that. Hopefully this will be the year.

Can't wait for the matchup on Feb. 20. I'll be keeping track of WSU until then. btw you can see USU play on Wed. Feb. 3 on ESPN2 when we host Idaho and on Sat. Feb. 6 on ESPNU when we host Nevada. Also on Feb. 11 ESPN2 vs. Louisiana Tech.

Hopefully both of us win out until we meet and it'll make it a very big game.

[shocklight]

Hey another Utah State fan here. I like the rundown that USUALUM has given. I happened to watch most of your game vs. Northern Iowa. For some reason during that game I got a feeling we might see you in the Bracketbuster matchup.

I love the matchup. I said I wanted to play Wichita State as soon as our message board starting discussing possible matchups. Well I woulda like Sienna too but we all knew Butler was gonna get Sienna.

Here's a few numbers on Utah State basketball recently:

We have won 45 of our last 46 home games. We had a 37 game home winning streak snapped earlier this year by St. Mary's. Boy we did not play well offensively in that game. But we have rattled off 8 straight wins at home since that game and have been playing our best basketball of the season lately. On a six game winning streak now. Obviously we have five more games before we play you as well.

We are 170-13 for a .928 winning % at home in the past 12 seasons including this season.

Over the last ten seasons USU has averaged 25.2 wins per season and is one of just 3 schools in the nation to win 23 games in each of those seasons joining Gonzaga and Kansas.

Over the past 10 years USU has one 5 regular season conference championships and 5 tournament championships.

USU has advanced to the post season in 10 consecutive seasons. 6 times to the NCAA Tournament and 4 times to the N.I.T.

We have 4 starters and 2 bench players returning from last years team that went 30-5 and lost to Marquette 58-57 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Losing a close NCAA Tournament game again still stings.

Yet with all of those things I very much envy Wichita State's sweet sixteen run in 2006. Utah State is due a run like that. Hopefully this will be the year.

Can't wait for the matchup on Feb. 20. I'll be keeping track of WSU until then. btw you can see USU play on Wed. Feb. 3 on ESPN2 when we host Idaho and on Sat. Feb. 6 on ESPNU when we host Nevada. Also on Feb. 11 ESPN2 vs. Louisiana Tech.

Hopefully both of us win out until we meet and it'll make it a very big game.

Great job on your team comments and recent history. I for one, am really looking forward for this game. I also hope both teams keep winning up to this game. It's also great to have classy fans from other schools come to our board.

[shocklight]

USUALUM,

From the youtube clips you posted, USU was using a zone defense. Is that the defense your team uses all the time? Or, do you mix it up? Do the Aggies press much?

No, yes and no. USU employs switching defenses, sometimes alternating as often as between possessions. So both man and zone ... nothing too exotic. I'm sure your boys have seen it all before. No press. They might throw in a little half a**, token pressure but I'd be surprised if a press came out.

How about the Shockers??

We run a motion offense and set plays. We use a soft press just to throw teams off a little, but mainly to slow them down. Our defense is M2M, once in a while we slip into a zone, just to change things up.

[SubGod22]

I'm gonna have to take a long nap or two that day to guarantee I can make it thru the game. Thank God for the DVR too just in case.

[SuperiorBlueDiver]

You guys sound like a carbon copy of us only more athletic. We won't overwhelm anybody with our athleticism. Instead we execute our offense and game plan with precision and may be one of the most disciplined teams you'll ever play. We rarely take bad shots and are very patient. Our team defense this season is the best it's been in a long time. We change defenses often throughout the game. Stew Morrill is one of the best x's and o's coaches in the country. We usually play about 8 guys and all of them can produce so you can't really focus on stopping one guy. Occasionally we'll go 9 or 10 deep but lately we've narrowed down to an 8 man rotation.

[Veritas]

With the Shox playing at USU, we will all get a chance to see how other teams feel about playing at Koch. Their arena seems energetic, and they have an incredible winning percentage.

This game could very well be the toughest game we have played and will play all year. Their arena won't seem like the "Quiet" Arena in Omaha or the smaller 7,000 seat arena at UNI.

Not sure how to predict this one, but the Shox need to amp up their mojo. This could be a punch-mouth, floor burn, chess game that really gets the ears ringing.

Go Shox!

[BOBB]

Het there USU fans. Ww would be the closest, reasonably priced yet good places to stay, eat, ski/snowboard for those of us making a weekend out of it?

[lawmaker]

Do not forget former Andover Central player Stephen Ducharme (sp) went there a few years back and was pretty darn good for them.