As the second week of the college basketball season begins, the Aggies are looking forward to a pair of home men's games.
Utah State will host in-state rival Weber State Wednesday night and then welcome UTEP to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Saturday afternoon. The Aggies (2-0) are coming off a nail-biting 80-77 win over VCU last Friday night in Frisco, Texas.
"It's been a fun journey so far," USU forward Garry Clark said. "Obviously, we were expected to win the Westminster game, but the VCU game was a dog fight. We prepared all week for it. I felt we were ready to go and jumped out on them, they fought back. We ended up getting the win."
Clark and Aggie head coach Jerrod Calhoun met with the media Monday to discuss the first week of the season and look ahead.
"The reality of it is every team we play is going to be a little bit different," Calhoun said. "You have to try and clean up what you are doing this time of year. Day by day you need to try and get guys better, whether it's valuing the ball, we had 18 turnovers (against VCU), way too many. We just need to try and improve. That is the message to our guys. We have to improve day to day and then you will get rewarded on game night. We have a good week this week with two home games."
Calhoun then took a moment to praise the weekend USU had last weekend with the soccer team winning the Mountain West Tournament, the volleyball team clinching the regular season title and the football team winning big.
"I watched the women's soccer game, the resilience there for them to get back to the NCAA Tournament, Manny (Martins) is a heck of a coach," Calhoun said. (Volleyball head coach) Rob (Neilson) winning the regular season with games to go, he is just an incredible coach. I told (USU Athletics Director) Cam (Walker) that he was walking into an unbelievable situation. ... I hoping that the momentum of all of our sport, that the Spectrum will absolutely be rocking on Wednesday night."
Against VCU, USU was enjoying an 18-point lead with 11-and-a-half minutes to play. The Aggies still had a 14-point advantage with six minutes left in the contest. The Rams were able to tie it up at 76-76 with 34 seconds to play.
"It's basketball, it happens," Clark said. "They (Rams) are a very good team. They made a great run at the end. I'm glad that we were able to dig it out and finish the game. ... It definitely builds our confidence and shows us we have what it takes to win tough games. A lot of games will come down to the last shot, so being able to pull that out against a great opponent like that was very important for us."
Turnovers certainly played a part as USU had some rough stretches. There were also some fouls that the coach felt could have been avoided, but the defense rose to the occasion.
"We've got to protect the paint and did an unbelievable job of helping each other," Calhoun said. "We've got to continue to play team defense."
Clark grabbed an offensive rebound and immediately went to the basket, scoring with 15 seconds left in the game to give USU the lead for good.
"It was just natural, it just happened," Clark said. "It was happening so fast, but as soon as I got the rebound, I was going back up with it."
The Aggie senior finished with a game-best 14 rebounds and 11 points off the bench. It was the second double-double in as many outings in a USU uniform for the transfer athlete, who has yet to start a game after being a starter for 61 games the past two seasons at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. He also started six games as a freshman for Tarleton State.
"Coach talked with us this summer about how deep our team was," Clark said. "The foundation of our team is our depth. We have a bunch of guys that can go at any time. I'm not really focusing on starting or the rotations, just knowing once your name is called being ready to go and getting in there and doing what I can."
Guard MJ Collins sealed the victory against VCU with a pair of free throws with three ticks on the clock. For the fourth straight game -- counting the two exhibition games -- Collins has led USU in scoring. The senior transfer finished with a game-high 22 points.
The Rams (1-1) may be the best team the Aggies face before starting Mountain West Conference play.
"It was a very important game," Clark said. "Coach stressed the importance of winning that type of game, a Quad 1 game. We came out with the right mindset. They are going to be one of the better teams we play. Moving forward, we need to treat every team we play like we did with VCU."
"VCU is a really good team, but it's time to turn the page.," Calhoun said. "Weber State is a good team that came within one possession of being a Big 12 team, a team that won here three years ago, well coached and very disciplined. We need to lock in on Weber State and understand what problems they present."
Now back home, it's important to not have any slip ups, especially early on. Several MW teams have not fared well in games they were heavily favored in at home.
"Last year's team really set the tone at home," Calhoun said. "We had a couple of hiccups with UC San Diego and New Mexico. This is a great venue at home. You need to come in and establish yourself defensively and win the physicality part, and we are certainly going to need to do that on Wednesday night."
Clark came to USU because of the opportunity to play with talented teammates and knowing there was a need for his position. At 6-foot-9, he is third tallest Aggie.
"They (Aggies) came after me really hard once I had entered the portal," Clark said. "They put an emphasis of trying to build a corps of bigs that can really help them out down low. It made my decision very easy. I came out so I could have this opportunity."