Tuesday morning's WAC hoops digest

What did Stew Morrill ever do to deserve what his Aggies have encountered this season? With Brady Jardine now waylaid for possibly the season, now Morgan Grim is ill, all per Tony Jones.

The Aggies host Utah Valley tonight. Kraig Williams, Shawn Harrison and the Tony Jones link above all cover the pre-game territory.

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Jason Groves takes on the "If Only Remi Barry Fan Club" as the young man who is probably still applying Rustoleum in getting ready for his debut doesn't need this pressure. Why not go with Coach Marvin Menzies' judgment on this? After all, he's paid to win games (or else) and would surely use someone he deemed ready and able to contribute.

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Dayton Morinaga writes that Hawaii will be seeing stripes again, but on the road this time tonight.

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Continuing a series of matchups with in-state rivals, Louisiana Tech hosts Northwestern State. LT athletics looks at the contest.

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Robert Kuwada writes about Coach Rodney Terry and recruiting sensibilities.

Kyle Gibson signed

Former Louisiana Tech star Kyle Gibson is healthy again and has signed with an NBA Developmental League team. he scored 15 points and nabbed four rebounds in his initial game.

Here's a December 2 video interview with Gibson.

Deonte Burton WAC POW

Nevada’s Deonte Burton has been named the Verizon Western Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for the week of Novwmber 28 - December 4. The honor marks the second career WAC Player of the Week award for Burton.

Burton, a sophomore guard from Los Angeles, Calif. (Compton Centennial HS), led the Wolf Pack to a 76-73 win over Washington on ESPNU last week. Burton scored a game-high 31 points in leading Nevada to the upset victory in overtime as the Pack rallied from a 10-point second half deficit. Burton hit a three-point field goal with 4.3 seconds to go in the game to force overtime. His 3-pointer with 1:41 to play in overtime put the Pack up to stay 72-70. In the overtime period, he scored Nevada’s first eight points and the Pack’s final two points of the game. With 5:54 to play in the second half, Burton hit a 3-pointer which was the start of a run that saw him score 19 of Nevada’s next 22 points.

The game marks Burton’s first career 30-point game at Nevada and the 31 points is the high in the WAC this season. He tied career highs with four 3-pointers made and six attempted. The 40 minutes played, nine field goals made and 18 field goals attempted are also career highs. In addition to his 31 points, Burton also tallied a game-high six assists and six rebounds.

Other nominees included:

* Fresno State sophomore guard Kevin Olekaibe
* Idaho sophomore guard Stephen Madison
* Louisiana Tech junior forward J.L. Lewis
* New Mexico State senior forward Wendell McKines
* San Jose State junior guard James Kinney

WAC basketball items and thoughts

* Say, who's this (James) Kinney dude who is tied for second in WAC individual scoring at 18.1 points per game?

* Of the top 15 scorers in the conference, all are backcourters/wings except for Wendell McKines, Kyle Barone and Morgan Grim. There are a number of ways of interpreting this, so have at it.

* Yes, context is required but three guys on the slim side -- Wil Carter, Trevor Wiseman and Jerry Evans -- are among the top 10 rebounders.

* Landon Tatum (at 5.1) owns the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the league.

* Wendell McKines has to (and can) shoot better than 44% from the floor. He is currently in between Preston Medlin and Cordarius Johnson.

* PTW heralded Brockeith Pane's early season shooting and apparently jinxed him from that point on as the senior backcourter currently stands at 37% overall and 29% from long distance.  

* Did anyone foresee SJSU's Keith Shamburger as the top (5.1 a game) WAC assist man?

* If Christian Kabongo can shoot 84% on his free throws, then the capability is to do better on his outside shots. It will come.

* With Kyle Barone and Djim Bandoumel in the paint, the Vandals are getting close to four blocked shots a contest just from the pair.

* Trevor Gaskins started out as Louisiana Tech's leading scorer for the initial three games but since then it's been spread around among (in order) Michale Kyser, Cordarius Johnson, J.L. Lewis and Raheem Appleby.

* When was the last time (was there one?) when Utah State was last in assists as a team at 9.0 a matchup?

Monday morning WAC basketball rundown -- it's all Utah State minus one item

Jason Groves blogs about New Mexico State's 74-66 road loss to Southern Mississippi.

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Matt Sonnenberg talks Aggie fans down, or tries to do so. Matt is en fuego this season and our feeling is a paying media entity should be hosting his columns -- that is, in a world where value is measured by quality and not noxious hot air and/or bizarre behavior.

USUFans features a piece on the shooting of Preston Medlin and Adam Thoseby.

swishh_15 has posted a note on the USUFans MB quoting Stew Morrill about Brady Jardine's recovery timeline. Is coach sandbagging or not? Who knows?

Aggies fall to Southern Miss again

For the second time in this early season, New Mexico State came up short against Southern Mississippi, 74-66. The Hattiesburg, Mississippi hosts captured the opening 20 minutes by a 14 point margin 40-26.

Christian Kabongo led the Aggies with both 21 points and six rebounds while Wendell McKines contributed 15 points.

Gotta love this

Rob Dauster and friends likening the reps of college basketball teams, coaches, players to bar names, visitors to such and various basketball situations. This is classic.

A few highlights:

@casualhoya 'The Syracuse', an orange drink served each November thru December in New York State and New York State only.

and

@juiceb0x34 "butler" is the white boy at the #ncaabar who can dance

and

@covello5 "The Chris Webber" - ordering another drink when you have no money left

A couple more Sunday links

Matt Sonnenberg reflects on the Aggie loss to Pacific.

Every coach has a system but Utah State's can be more intricate than most and that requires time, experience and patience, especially for any newcomer guards and wings.

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Joe Santoro writes about Deonte Burton's backing of the Pack.

New Mexico State in action today

Jason Groves writes a preview and then blogs about New Mexico State's Sunday noon rematch with Southern Mississippi.

The game reports and results from Saturday night

Fresno State got it rolling with an 82-52 rout of Pac-12 member and visitor Utah. 16 points from Kevin Foster plus 15 apiece by Kevin Olekaibe and Steven Shepp led the Bulldogs who shot 58% overall.

Marek Warszawski was present and accounted for.

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Louisiana Tech kept the momentum going and came away with a 73-71 victory versus host Louisiana-Monroe. Raheem Appleby totaled 19 points and Cordarius Johnson 15. The Bulldogs came up with eight steals and LM finished with 17 turnovers.

Cody Futrell reports.

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Keeping up the momentum, visiting Idaho was 20 points better than UC Davis in a 94-74 triumph. Stephen Madison led with 19 points, closely followed by Deremy Geiger's 18. Freshman guard Conner Gill contributed 17 points, primarily on five treys. The Vandals totaled 24 assists on 32 baskets.

Idaho athletics provides a game report. The same for UC Davis athletics.

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Utah State went down again 65-56 to host Pacific. Preston Medlin topped the Aggies with 15 points while Kyisean Reed scored 13. Medlin shot 4-14 and Brockeith Pane 3-15. Freshman center Jordan Stone produced seven points and seven rebounds in 23 minutes. Freshman Danny Berger was on the court for 19 minutes.

USU athletics offers a game report as does Shawn Harrison

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Hawaii fell 73-67 to host Pepperdine despite 18 points from Shaq Stokes, 15 from Joston Thomas plus Hauns Brereton's 14 markers in just 18 minutes. Zane Johnson finished shooting 2-8 and Vander Joaquim was at 2-7 and was ejected for shoving some Waves.

Pepperdine athletics has the details plus Dayton Morinaga reports.

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San Jose State and Weber State went into double overtime before the host Wildcats emerged with a 91-89 victory. Guard James Kinney (6-12 from long distance) kept up his hot streak with 28 points for the Spartans while the nation's leading scorer. Weber backcourter Damian Lillard, finished with 41 points.

Spartan athletics serves up the scoop -- likewise for Martin Renzhofer while Nicholas Draney offers a number of game photos.

Saturday's WAC-apalooza

Deonte Burton's 31 points powered the Wolf Pack to a 76-73 overtime victory over visiting Washington as Chris Murray details. Joe Santoro covered the contest for the SilverandBlueSports site.

Did anyone foresee Washington and Nevada at 29 and 27 points respectively at the half?

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Big schedule for today:

* Fresno State hosts depleted 1-5 Utah. Bill Oram looks at both teams.

* Idaho is in California to match up with 1-6 UC Davis. Vandal athletics goes pre-game.

* Utah State is in Stockton, not far from Davis, to take on 2-3 Pacific. Both Shawn Harrison and Tony Jones report. Matt Sonnenberg looks ahead to the next Aggie home game.

* SJSU is in Ogden, Utah to battle 4-1 Weber State, the current best team in the Beehive State. Roy Burton checks in with his look at the contest.

* Hawaii is in Malibu, home of 3-3 Pepperdine University, which offers one of the very best view locations in California. Dayton Morinaga previews.  

Jeff Portnoy is unimpressed with WAC hoops so far.

* Louisiana Tech is in-state to take on 1-6 University Louisiana Monroe

This slate looks very WAC favorable -- let's see how it plays out.

Friday and while "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" we'll take any power

Back after 12 more hours minus juice ... may the gods quit exhaling.

Chris Murray leads off with tonight's only WAC contest, the Wolf Pack versus Washington.

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Dayton Morinaga writes about the Rainbow Warriors swing into California for a pair of games and how SoCal is home away from home for many in the Hawaii hoops program.

Jeff Portnoy also checks in.

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Did someone go rogue, thereby creating the breach between Utah State's student section and the athletic administration and school? Read Tony Jones' latest.

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Shawn Harrison digs into the Aggie loss to Denver and it's making PTW think of a television show we never saw but do remember the title of -- "Growing Pains"

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Sam Wasson offers an interview with Coach Marvin Menzies.

A little for more for Thursday

Robert Kuwada blogs about the contributions from Jonathan Wills, who has been mighty the last few times out for the Bulldogs.

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Sam Wasson introduces Bill Harty to New Mexico State basketball aficionados.

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Chris Murray has been busy -- here is his look at Deonte Burton and the balancing act required at the point position, then he offers his four keys plus a prediction to the game Friday night versus Washington.

Hats off to Coach David Carter for whatever he did in making this game happen in Reno and the same goes out to Coach Marvin Menzies for getting Arizona to enter The Land of Enchantment. Those are two mighty impressive achievements. Great job guys.

You can't control the student fans, you can only hope to contain them (maybe)

Matt Sonnenberg/The Sagebrush is all over the 'silence' early on in The Spectrum last night. Go here first, then here and here.

Thursday's WAC basketball rundown

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays PTW from the swift completion of our appointed rounds, but the lack of electricity will. The juice is back, for now.

Is it duck and cover time in Logan? Utah State fell 67-54 to Denver, being outscored in both halves by the visitors. It was back to six assists on 19 baskets for USU while also allowing the Pioneers to shoot 52%. Kraig Williams, Shawn Harrison, Tony Jones, Matt Sonnerberg and Brad Rock all were present and accounted for.

Craig Peterson's thumb is assuredly in a splint today after he snapped 48 game photos.

In breaking news, Commissioner Karl Benson has announced the other WAC teams have magnanimously voted to move up their scheduled Aggie game dates to early this month.

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The Louisiana Tech and Southeastern Louisiana match went into overtime before the host Southland Conference member triumphed 72-69. LT athletics has the game report.

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Fresno State ruined many a promising artistic career with an 85-55 beatdown of the Academy of Art University. The Bulldogs led 45-25 at the half. Robert Kuwada checks in.

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Eastern Washington took down Idaho 73-66 -- it was the Vandals in a hole at the half 38-24. The Eagles shot just 42% overall but went 13-28 from long distance. Josh Wright provides a game report while Vandal Nation liveblogged the contest and also offers a post-game video interview.

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Texas San Antonio rode into Silicon Valley to face San Jose State but a strong Spartan second half shot the Texans down 72-66. Guard James Kinney totaled 30 points in 32 minutes of play. 32 of SJSU's 63 shot attempts were three-pointers. Spartan athletics has the details.