While you’re trying to prepare your team to play in an NBA arena, it certainly helps having a close friend who has coached a team to an NBA championship.
Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said prior to Saturday’s game against Illinois State at the Delta Center that his longtime pal, Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, recently encouraged him to “practice what you suck at.”
“And you know, we weren’t very good at rebounding the ball, so we put a huge emphasis on that this week,” Calhoun said after USU’s 83-78 win over the Redbirds.
Thanks in a large part due to a dominating performance on the boards, the Aggies (9-1) ended Illinois State’s seven-game win streak in the second game of the Salt Lake Slam.
Utah Valley defeated UC Santa Barbara 68-53 Saturday afternoon in the opening game of the event.
Utah State, which is 24-1 in Calhoun’s two seasons when it wins the rebounding battle, outboarded Illinois State by a 33-18 margin.
The Aggies pulled down a total of 19 offensive rebounds — their most in a game since 2020 — while the Redbirds (8-3) finished with just seven and didn’t reach double figures in rebounds until five minutes into the second half.
“I was just trying to do my part,” said USU senior forward Garry Clark, who came off the bench to lead the Aggies with eight rebounds. “I’ve been in a little slump lately, so I’ve just been trying to go hard every practice. I’m trying to build, build, build every day and continue to get better.
“I know my role and rebounding is part of it, so I came out and tried to rebound as much as I could. ... I’ve got to bring the energy when I come in; there can’t be any drop off, so I was on every rebound I could.”
Clark also had a big game offensively, going 7 for 8 from the field and 4 for 4 from the free-throw line on his way to scoring 18 points in 25 minutes.
His only miss came on a 3-point attempt with the shot clock running down.
“Well, I haven’t shot one all season,” Clark pointed out, “but it was wide open with almost not time on the clock, so I had to take it.”
Senior guard MJ Collins Jr. paced the Aggies with 20 points (including four 3-pointers), while junior guard Mason Falslev finished with 16 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Utah State, which led 40-33 at halftime, shot 52.5% from the field while going 7 for 18 from 3-point range and 12 for 15 from the free-throw line.
But the Aggies, who led by as many as 15 points in the second half, struggled to put away the Redbirds. Illinois State managed to get back to within three points with 1:57 remaining, but back-to-back scores by Falslev and senior guard Drake Allen helped keep Utah State out in front, and Collins went 4 for 6 from the line in the final 22 seconds to help secure the victory.
“We played a great team; I thought Illinois State really, really battled,” said Calhoun, who has coached alongside a couple members of the ISU coaching staff during his career. “I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys.
“... I’ve known coach (Ryan) Pedon for a long, long time, so I knew they would fight, and they never stopped. They’re going to be a Quad 2 this year, I truly believe that and believe in their team. I think they can win the Missouri Valley (Conference).”
Off to their best 10-game start in 15 years, the Redbirds came into Saturday’s clash with five players averaging double figures, and Pedon’s squad ended up with five players in double figures.
Guard Ty Pence led the way with a game-high 21 points on 8 of 9 shooting, while Landon Moore (14 points), Johnny Kinzinger (13 points), Boden Skunberg (12 points) and Chase Walker (12 points) all scored a dozen or more points.
Overall, the Redbirds shot 58.8% from the field and were 5 for 14 from 3-point range. Illinois State also totaled 17 turnovers, just one more than the Aggies.
“We wasted a lot of possessions,” Calhoun said. “Illinois State’s not a team that forces a lot of turnovers, so we’ve got to look at the tape and figure out the spacing, because usually when you turn the ball over, you have bad space or bad decisions, so we’ve got to improve on that.”
In a game of runs, turnovers came in bunches for both teams on Saturday, and after the Aggies went up 62-47 with 11 minutes remaining, USU miscues and missed shots helped spark a 16-6 Illinois State run that made the decidedly pro-Aggie crowd very nervous.
In addition, Utah State didn’t shoot its first free throw of the game until more than six minutes into the second half, and a clearly frustrated Calhoun was called for a technical foul with four minutes to go when Falslev was whistled for an offensive foul on the perimeter away from the ball.
“I don’t want to say too much about it, but it was actually a joke,” Calhoun said with a slight grin. “I was actually telling the guy a joke, and the joke went bad. ... I mean, officiating is hard. I get it. It’s a hard sport, but you guys saw what was going on out there.”
Calhoun shook up the starting lineup once again on Saturday, inserting 6-foot-10 senior forward Zach Keller into the first five for the first time this season.
Making his return to Salt Lake City, the former Utah Ute responded by scoring seven of USU’s first 11 points of the game on his way to a season-high nine-point performance in just 15 minutes.
“I’m really proud of Zach and Garry,” Calhoun said. “I thought those two kids had great weeks of prep, and you get rewarded when you practice hard and worry about the right things.
“... I kind of made the decision about three days ago to start Zach Keller. He’s a kid that has zero confidence. I don’t know if anybody’s ever given it to him or what the case is, but I really believe in him, and I think the more we empower him and more responsibility we give him, he’s going to get better and better, so hopefully this is a breakout game for him.”
Now 6-7 in games played at the Delta Center, the Aggies improved to 5-3 all-time in the series with the Redbirds.
Utah State, which hasn’t played at home since an overtime win over Montana State on Nov. 29, will open Mountain West Conference play against Colorado State on Dec. 20 at the Spectrum.