Last week was a busy one in local sports: Jennifer Hamson and the BYU volleyball team played for a national championship; the Utes and Aggies dominated their bowl games; the Jazz had four road games and won half; and Tyler Haws surprisingly played, and played well, vs. Stanford.
The Utah State Aggies
Let’s start things off by taking a look at the state of Aggie football and basketball.
For a long time, Utah State has been a basketball school. During the first decade of this century, the Aggies went to the NCAA tournament in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010 under head coach Stew Morrill. In 2011 they finished 30-4 and made the NCAA tournament as a No. 12 seed. Since then it hasn’t been the same.
In 2012, the Aggies finished with a nice run in the CIT tournament but finished the regular season just 17-15 (8-6 in the WAC). In 2013 they didn’t make a postseason tournament after losing to UT Arlington in the first round of the WAC tournament. Last season, their first in the Mountain West Conference, the Aggies finished 7-11 in conference and lost 73-39 to San Diego State in the conference tournament.
So far this season, things have only gotten worse. The Aggies are just 6-5, having lost most recently to South Dakota State at home. This came on the heels of winning at Utah Valley by just three and by a mere single point at home versus CSU Bakersfield, a 2-10 WAC team.
Just as the Utah State football program has officially entered its golden age, with the 2014 senior class becoming the winningest in school history, the golden era of Aggie basketball appears to be over. The 62-year-old Morrill undoubtedly deserves to go out on his own terms, but you have to wonder if he’s already begun the thought process of turning the reins over for a new era of Aggie basketball to begin.
The football program also could be looking at a new coach in the near future, though for a totally different reason. After leading the Aggies to an impressive two-year debut in the MWC, the name of head coach Matt Wells is being thrown around as a potential candidate for a step up to a Power-5 program.
Regardless of what happens with the head coaches, the Utah State football and basketball programs have crossed paths, with the football program on its way up and the basketball program on its way down.
BYU women’s volleyball
Jimmer Fredette, Taysom Hill, Austin Collie and Tyler Haws. What do they all have in common? They’re all looking up at Jennifer Hamson, not just literally in terms of physical stature, but metaphorically in terms of athletic accomplishment at BYU as well.
What Hamson has accomplished during the 2014 calendar year is truly remarkable. First, she led the BYU women’s basketball team to its best season ever, with a run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament (which might have gone longer if they hadn’t run up against one of the greatest teams of all time in undefeated UCONN).
For an encore mere months later, Hamson led the BYU women’s volleyball team to its best season ever, all the way to the national championship game. Unfortunately the Cougars went up against volleyball’s version of the 1960s-70s UCLA men’s basketball program in Penn State and lost in straight sets in the finale. But what the team, and Hamson, accomplished was remarkable nonetheless.
The Utes just get hotter
Of course both BYU and Utah State would trade anything to be where Utah is right now — in a Power-5 conference with both its football and basketball programs ranked in the top 25. Overall, it’s never been better to be a Ute than it is today.
On the gridiron, the Utes made a statement on behalf of the Pac-12 that surely dealt a blow to the ego of the Mountain West Conference. It wasn’t just that the sixth-best Pac-12 team beat the second-best MWC team — it was that Utah thrashed Colorado State from start to finish like it was nothing, winning 45-10 and outgaining the Rams in total offense 548-278. Yes, the Rams were without their head coach who bolted to Florida before the bowl game, but the Utes simply outclassed the Rams in all facets.
Meanwhile, Utah’s men’s basketball team continued to roll without Jordan Loveridge, beating UNLV 59-46 on a neutral court. Perhaps most impressive, the Utes took it to the Rebels without Delon Wright at the top of his game. Wright shot just 5-16 from the field and 6-11 from the foul line, and only had four assists and two rebounds, yet the Utes won comfortably. That’s a great sign, especially considering that NBA prospect Jakob Poeltl was also limited by foul trouble and played just 14 minutes.
Watch out for the Utes come March. Coach K has something good going in Salt Lake City.
The obligatory Jazz update
Let’s face it — this is a wake-me-up-when-it’s-over season for the Jazz. Slow and steady progress is necessary, sure, but unless you’re on the Jazz’s payroll, it’s not very exciting to watch. A starting five of Dante Exum, Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter could be a barrel of fun in a couple years, but right now it just isn’t.
That said, the Jazz had one of their better weeks of the season last week, recording back-to-back road wins over the Heat and Magic. Hayward was particularly impressive vs. the Heat, scoring 29 points on just 13 field goal attempts to go along with seven assists and six rebounds. Hayward was also good in the win over the Magic, but not as good as Favors, who put up 23 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks on 9-14 shooting.
The most perplexing stat line of the week was Rudy Gobert vs. the Hornets on Saturday. In 30 minutes, Gobert scored 11 points on 5-6 shooting, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked two shots — yet the Jazz were outscored by 20 while he was on the court. On the other hand, Kanter shot just 2-8, grabbed just four rebounds and didn’t block a shot, yet the Jazz were a +3 in his 20 minutes.
Regarding the Exum rookie watch, I was surprised to see Exum entirely left out of NBA.com’s top 10 rookies list as of Dec. 17.
Bits and pieces
Tyler Haws, generally a rather soft player (in terms of defense and taking the ball to the rim at least), showed toughness in coming back from a serious ankle injury without missing a game. Haws was expected to miss Saturday’s game vs. Stanford and probably one or two more, but he gave it a go against Stanford and led the Cougs to a victory with 24 points on 15 shots and four assists in 33 minutes. … BYU picked up a football commitment recently from offensive lineman Kieffer Longson, who chose the Cougs over offers from the likes of Florida State, Ohio State, Missouri, Arizona State, UCLA and Utah. This is exactly the kind of recruiting battle BYU needs to win — the problem is that the Cougs need to win them a lot more frequently to get where they want to be. … You couldn’t help but feel good for Travis Wilson as he accounted for four touchdowns in the Las Vegas Bowl and won the game’s MVP award. It makes the extremely overhyped media-generated stories about Wilson’s demise at Utah seem a bit silly, and the kid just keeps rising above adversity in his career.
Predicting the week ahead
BYU will win its bowl game vs. Memphis on Monday, 27-17. … In men’s basketball, BYU will come up huge with home wins over UMASS and No. 8 Gonzaga. … The Utes will beat South Dakota State at home on Tuesday. … The Jazz will lose big at Memphis on Monday and win big vs. Philadephia at home on Saturday.
Nate Gagon is an opinion columnist featured by the Deseret News and writes a weekly sports feature called Rapid Fire. He shoots roughly 94 percent from the free-throw line and can be reached at: nategagon@hotmail.com or @nategagon.