Spencer Nelson is headed back to the Sooner State a little sooner than he thought.
The sophomore forward was “ecstatic” when it was announced that Utah State would be traveling to Oklahoma City to play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament since he served a two-year LDS mission to Oklahoma from 1999 to 2001.
“Oklahoma City is an hour-and-a-half away from my mission,” said Nelson, who served in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission. “It’s like playing an hour-and-a-half away from home. “I’ve got to see how many tickets I can get, and then start calling people to let them know.”
Among those Nelson plans to invite are his mission president and his family, although he noted they’ll have to get special permission from LDS Church officials to leave the mission boundaries.
Even though Nelson said he’s never been to Oklahoma City, the trip brings his career full circle. After playing on a 15-13 team as a freshman, he was on his mission when the Aggies made their back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament in 2000 and ’01.
“I’m glad I missed them, though, because I would have much rather been on my mission,” Nelson declared. “But I have heard the stories, and now I’ll finally be able to get some stories of my own.”
“Stew, what I do know of him, is he’s a really, really good guy,” Williams said. “He’s really a fun guy. We don’t have conversations and that kind of thing, but every time I see him, I say hello and it’s genuine that I want to know how he’s doing and I think it’s the same with him.”
Williams added that he’s seen Morrill’s teams play on TV and that he thinks Morrill “does a great job.”
“I don’t know a lot about his team,” Williams continued. “(Desmond) Penigar is their leading scorer. I remember him, and I remember watching the (Toraino) Johnson kid. I saw him when he was in high school. I don’t know too much about his team right now, but he may know more about us just because we’ve been on TV so many times.”
On Sunday, Morrill said finding film on the Jayhawks isn’t difficult because of how much they are on national television. And although he’s never faced Kansas, he and his staff have a good idea of what to expect because of the system that Williams, a protege of North Carolina coaching legend Dean Smith, runs.
“Their coaching is fabulous with Roy Williams,” Morrill declared. “We understand the system because a lot of people in our league play the Kansas/North Carolina system. And we’ll have a chance to look at what they’re doing out of that system on film.
“The biggest challenge is that the talent level they have is fabulous, and we’re going to have to deal with it.”
Kansas also faced Wyoming this season, but that game — if one were to consider the Cowboys similar in ability to the Aggies — does not make for a favorable comparison, considering the Jayhawks won that Jan. 15 contest at Allen Fieldhouse by 28 points.
As for upending Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament? It hasn’t happened since UCLA bumped the Jayhawks off in their opening game of the 1978 tourney.
And since the tournament expanded to 16 seeds per region in 1985, only four No. 15 seeds have beaten No. 2 seeds. Hampton was the last team to pull off such an upset when it shocked former USU head coach Larry Eustachy’s Iowa State Cyclones in 2001.
But if Utah State is desperate for a reason to be optimistic heading into Thursday’s game, they need to look no further than Holy Cross.
The Jayhawks were a No. 1 seed last year when they took on the No. 16 Crusaders, and Holy Cross was in range of pulling off the most lopsided upset in tournament history until Kansas pulled away the last couple of minutes for a 70-59 victory.
The Jayhawks came into that contest averaging 92 points a game, and this season they’re putting up nearly 83 a night. The Aggies, conversely, are in the top 10 in the country in scoring defense at 59.9 points.
Utah State will practice at the Spectrum today before busing down to Salt Lake City for a 3:30 p.m. flight (via St. Louis) that should have them in Oklahoma City about 10:30 p.m..
The Aggies will face the media at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, followed by their first full practice on the court at the Ford Center from 8:10 to 9 p.m.
