Utah State returned to the practice court Tuesday afternoon, and as one would expect, the Aggies weren’t exactly at their sharpest.
“We were a little tired,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “Those conference tournaments and all the travel take a lot out of you. I heard (Oklahoma coach) Kelvin Sampson say (on Sunday) that his team feels like it’s been in a 15-round fistfight.
“And that’s about right.”
Not only did the Aggies play three games in three days last weekend for the first time since the Hilo Shootout in late November, but USU’s starters all logged more time than normal as Morrill road them hard down the stretch in three close contests.
And, of course, the team got very little sleep after winning the Big West Tournament late Saturday night. Had they even been able to fall asleep after celebrating the championship, they had a 5:15 a.m. wakeup call in order to make their Sunday morning flight out of Orange County.
So, other than a brief film session, Morrill gave the team the day off on Monday.
“Their spirits are good, and they’re mentally trying,” Morrill said. “We’re just trying to stay as fresh as we can.”
And that’s not easy this time of year.
“It’s tough,” forward Desmond Penigar said. “Practice could have been a lot better.
“But we accomplished a lot watching film, and I’m sure we’ll have a real good practice on Wednesday. Everyone will be energized and healthier.”
Prior to departing for the airport on Tuesday, the Aggies were still under the impression that NCAA president Myles Brand might postpone the start of the tournament because of upcoming military action against Iraq.
At the time, a delay of anywhere from a day to a week was being discussed.
“I don’t know what you do,” Morrill said when asked about the possibility of his team being stuck in Oklahoma for a few days longer than planned.
“You trust the powers that be will make the right decision. If we get there and they put it off for a couple of days, that will be kind of odd, but that’s a decision they have to make and I assume they’ll make it on the priorities we all need to have.
“But right now, we’re planning on playing.”
Although the Aggies are geared up to play in the biggest games of their lives, sophomore forward Spencer Nelson said they would understand if the tournament was pushed back because of war.
“I support American, so if they want to delay us, there are a lot more important things than basketball right now,” he said. “I mean, basketball is important to us, but not nearly as important as what’s going on around the world.”
In Big West Conference games, Nelson ended up just one-tenth of a rebound behind Cal Poly forward Varnie Dennis for the league lead. But going into Thursday’s game, the sophomore forward is one-tenth of a board ahead of Dennis for the overall rebound title.
That means Nelson better pull down eight or more rebounds against the Jayhawks.
“We better not screw that!” Nelson cracked. “That’s really the focus of our team right now is to make sure I get my rebounds. That’s all we did in practice today was work on rebounding.”
Ever the comedian, Nelson said in reality it didn’t matter if he ended up as the Big West’s leading rebounder or not.
“The Big West is over, we’re looking on to bigger and better things with the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “Statistics don’t even matter. I don’t care if I score or rebound or anything as long as we win in the NCAA Tournament.”
It’s a good thing the Aggies were able to spend their final two weeks of the regular season at home. If they qualify for the NCAA Tournament again next season, they’ll have to spend at least four weekends in a row on the road.
Never much of a travel fan, Morrill isn’t thrilled that the team, whose travel costs are paid for by the NCAA, wasn’t able to get a direct flight from Salt Lake City to Oklahoma City, and therefore spent nearly nine hours Tuesday on buses, planes and waiting for planes.
It also didn’t help that longtime friend and Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery called and let Morrill know that the Cardinal were flying from Palo Alto to Spokane for their first round game via chartered jet.
“I don’t know if the school is paying for part of it, or how the NCAA works that,” Morrill said.
Not-so-sweet 16 seed
‘The Hard Road to the Big Easy’ video
Printable bracket