The play of Tai Wesley examined

Another intriguing player to watch in the soon-to-be here WAC season is Utah State's Tai Wesley. Again, let's preface the following with we've seen him play twice, have no tape to watch of him, so on and so on.

Let's begin by producing Wesley's conference numbers from last season:

* Played in all league 16 games, averaged 29.1 minutes
* Scored 12 points a contest
* Shot .550% from the floor (71-129), .636% from the foul line (49-77)
* Grabbed 5.6 rebounds a game (behind Gary Wilkinson and Jared Quayle)
* Averaged 2.3 assists
* Credited with 11 blocked shots (33 as a freshman)
* Led the team with 52 fouls -- most on the team by 13 -- but down from 112 the season before

Again, it's unknown to us if Wesley endured any nagging injuries that hindered his play.

The elephant departed from the Logan living room is Gary Wilkinson. This large void theoretically leaves 166 shot attempts to be assumed, along with a .590% from the floor and .839% from the foul line accuracy rates. Wilkie averaged 17.4 points per game and 6.2 boards a contest.

That is a major loss anyway it is measured. But with it, comes opportunity.

It's easy to say that Wesley has to be the highest scorer among the Aggie 'bigs' in 2009-2010. Matt Formisano, Modou Niang, Nate Bendall, Morgan Grim and Anthony DiLoretto are the other Aggie frontcourters, with Bendall having the most promise to work in tandem with Wesley.

It's apples-to-oranges but Bendall posted some impressive numbers last year at Salt Lake City College. In 37 games, at 23.9 minutes each time out, he shot .561% in 353 attempts and went to the foul line 196 times, shooting .689%. Bendall scored 14.4 points and nabbed 6.4 rebounds a contest.

But Formisano in intriguing because he produced a .480% overall shooting percentage on the season for the Aggies, .632% from the stripe. But in WAC competition, his numbers drooped to .333% and .500% respectively and his playing time dipped two minutes a contest in league.

What is known is that more shots will be available and taken by Wesley, with him ending up somewhere around 17 points per game in point production. He has to create the threat in the paint that forces open shots on the perimeter. It's assumed Jared Quayle will have more shooting attempts in 2009-2010 as will Tyler Newbold but an inside scorer obviously aids in other Aggies getting better looks facing the basket.

Will Wesley also reach the teens in rebounding? We're not so sure of happening. That's because Quayle is such an inexplicable force on the boards -- second on the team last season behind Wilkinson. Wesley is actually best as an offensive rebounder and his overall totals will rise but it's hard to see him reaching double-double production game in and game out.

But that may be predicated on others factors.

One, his reduction in fouls committed. He cut his whistles in half while still playing physically last season. It's smarter play at work but that's not to say Wesley can't display even better intelligence about what to attempt and what not to on the court. Yes, his number of blocked shots tumbled by two thirds but the zebras also called his number half as many times and it's imperative that Wesley be on the court for USU.

Another Wesley conundrum is that he (and Utah State) need Nate Bendall and Matt Formisano to perform effectively in the middle even though their production will thereby cut into some of Wesley's.

Not that Stew Morrill cares because that's not the ultimate goal.