LOGAN -- After a 1998-99 season of somewhat methodical basketball, Utah State coach Stew Morrill unveiled a younger, quicker, more crowd-pleasing club Friday night in the Smith Spectrum.
This will be a Rock 'n' Rolle club.The starting guards are newcomer Bernard Rock, quick as a flash, and veteran senior Troy Rolle, an honorable mention All-Big West selection last year as a junior, when he averaged 13.4 points, second on the team.
The '99-00 Aggies shot 50 percent from the field and whipped Global Sports 92-73 in USU's exhibition opener.
Rolle scored 11 in just 20 minutes of play as Morrill played 12 of his 13 players, no one getting fewer than 11 minutes playing time.
"That's as good a job as I've ever done with minutes," said Morrill. "That's one of the things I was concerned about. They all needed minutes tonight.
"I'm encouraged by our kids' effort. It was our kind of game for 30 minutes. We defended really well in the first half."
USU broke fast but got a bit sloppy with a 35-point lead on a 4-foot basket by new fan-favorite Shawn Daniels, an agile, strong-shooting 6-foot-6, 250-pounder from Bakersfield (Calif.) Junior College. The Aggies led by as many as 30 in the first half, when it had just seven turnovers. It ended with 23 turnovers, a product, said Morrill, of switching players so much and lost defensive intensity. "It really got ratty and ugly the last 10 minutes," he said.
"We're up 35, and I'm looking at the clock -- 'How'd we get up this much?' " Daniels said. "We executed real good."
"The first half, we had a lot of intensity," said Rolle, adding the team dedicated the game to guard Rashaun Thomas, whose grandmother passed away two days ago.
Daniels, named BWC newcomer of the year by Street and Smith, led all scorers with 20 points on 8-for-10 shooting, beating out former Aggie all-star Marcus Saxon, who totaled 19 on 8-for-18 efficiency. Another ex-Aggie, Kevin Rice, who invited Saxon to play with the Global team, had 11 points, eight rebounds and one of his famous flying dunks.
"Big Shawn can do some things," said Morrill. "He's a very good passer. We've given him the freedom to take the ball sometimes on the break. He's got great hands."
Global, a collection of former Big West Conference all-stars like Avery Curry (13 points) of Idaho, Paul Culbertson of Nevada, Jameel Mahmud of Colorado State and Denmark Reid of New Mexico State, plus Florida State's Gentry Sparks (17 points, seven rebounds) and 6-9, 290-pound William Peters of East Carolina.
Global (1-1) had just one practice and then took off for an 80-62 loss at Auburn Tuesday and a 93-92 overtime win at Oral Roberts Wednesday.
After a Monday game against his USU coach Larry Eustachy at Iowa State Monday, Saxon is bound for a tryout with the Toronto Raptors after playing last season (20 games) with Cleveland. And Rice is soon off to North Dakota of the International Basketball Association.