LOGAN — The shoe, says Utah acting coach Dick Hunsaker, is on the other foot.
Hunsaker takes a 22nd-ranked 4-2 Ute team still trying to find itself into Utah State's Smith Spectrum Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game televised by KSL-Ch. 5. They're certainly not underdog waifs, but the Utes have already used three different starting lineups with just one starter and three letterwinners from last year. They do have two returned missionaries from the 1998 Final Four team.
Lying in wait are the 4-1 Aggies, who aren't quite playing at the level they did during their last Big West Conference season but have most of the same personnel that put together that 19-game January-to-March win streak. Coach Stew Morrill's lineup has not changed in five games this season.
Usually in this series, at least lately, it's been an Aggie team trying to blend in a number of new players having to meet an almost-always ranked Ute club that knows its strengths before the season starts. Last season, Utah laid a 77-42 beating on its northern neighbors in the Huntsman Center. USU, typically, had seven new players then. "We got them early, before they had jelled," says Hunsaker.
In truth, 11 Ute first-half 3-pointers, and 14 threes in the game, had the Ags jiggling like Jell-o as Utah decisively avenged 1998's embarrassing 62-54 USU win in the Spectrum. In '98, Morrill, who took over Larry Eustachy's program only three months earlier and had almost no recruiting of his own, shocked the U. with a fistful of players he hardly knew. In the Eustachy years, USU faced Utah with many new players every year and was 0-5. The Utes have won six of the last seven against the Ags.
Now, though, the Aggies have four veteran starters and eight experienced players back from the best USU team ever.
And Hunsaker wasn't saying on Tuesday whether he would change his lineup again. Eight Utes have been starters this season. "We're still trying to find a combination that will play well with so many new players," he said. He may not know his own team, but he knows what lurks in Logan. "We know we will face an emotionally charged team and a frenzied crowd," he said.
Morrill says USU hasn't put its game together, either. "We are very inconsistent in some areas right now," he says, chief among them turnovers (18.2 a game) and poor free throwing (63 percent). And he says what's done is done. "I don't think last year has anything to do with this year," he said, answering the next question about 1998's game with, "I don't think that game has anything to do with this year, either. I think it is real easy to look for themes, or whatever you want to call it, when really it is a meat-and-potatoes situation."
He calls it that because fundamentals, starting with rebounding, will likely determine USU's success against a much bigger Ute club that could start a lineup including 6-foot-11 Nate Althoff, 6-10 Chris Burgess and 6-9 Britton Johnsen. USU's starting front line is 7-0 Dimitri Jorssen flanked by 6-6 Shawn Daniels and 6-5 Curtis Bobb. "They (Utah) are huge, and they are very, very good defensively," says Morrill. "Can we rebound and defend with Utah is going to be the meat-and-potatoes of the situation. If we can't, then we are in for a long night."
Hunsaker sees Utah's strength as, "Our energy and our depth." Height is not enough, he says. "It's the size of the heart and the competitive spirit."
"They have had a lot of both through the years," says Morrill. "Utah has size and heart. That has been one of their things: big, strong, physical guys. Sometimes that is mistaken by a lot of people as being slow. No, they aren't. Those guys can move."
Utah gets 10.8 points a game from both guards, Jeff Johnsen (6-4) and Kevin Bradley (6-0), plus 9.5 points off the bench from 6-9 Phil Cullen, 9.2 from Althoff and 8.0 from Burgess. Burgess (5.8), Cullen (5.2) and Britton Johnsen (5.0) are the leading rebounders.
Utah is coming off a 65-60 loss Saturday against Southern Cal. That spooks USU. "Each game going along," says Morrill, "it looks to me like they are getting closer." Utah has lost back-to-back times just twice since 1994-95.
USU is led by Daniels with 14.4 points and 6.4 boards a game. It also gets 12.6 points from off-guard Tony Brown and 10.8 from point guard Bernard Rock.
"Daniels and Jorssen are inside forces. They're confident," Hunsaker said. "Brown arguably is as good a winger as there is in Utah, one of the best in the West, and Rock makes the whole thing work."
E-mail: lham@desnews.com