Utah State basketball: Aggies look to improve after road trip

LOGAN — The Utah State Aggies return home to the Spectrum tonight to face Louisiana Tech after a three-game road swing. The trip saw the Aggies rebound from a sluggish start at home to earn victories at Nevada, at Boise State and at Fresno State.

Despite playing in the friendly confines of the Spectrum, where the Aggies have won their last 24 games, the Aggies will be wary of the home-court advantage. In WAC play so far this season, visiting teams have won 13 of the 25 contests.

"What I have always heard is home teams win 70 percent of home games in college basketball," said Utah State coach Stew Morrill. "When you do the math, our league is bucking the norm. I really don't know why. I don't know whether teams are expecting to automatically win at home. We were not as good at home as I would have liked us to be our first week; I know that."

The Aggies got better on the road, but still have plenty to work on according to Morrill.

"We went out and played well at Nevada, and played well enough to win," Morrill continued. "We did a lot of really good things at Boise. Our shooting percentages, our defense, it was just the turnovers that were the issue, and then (we) defended really well at Fresno. If you could answer some of those questions it would make coaching a lot easier."

As Utah State searches for answers on how to get better, Louisiana Tech will be looking for their first conference victory of the season. The Bulldogs have lost all five of their conference contests to start the season, including giving San Jose State and Hawaii their only WAC wins. To make matters worse, Louisiana Tech will be without Brandon Gibson and Darius Redding. Gibson was lost for the season to a knee injury and Redding is dealing with academic issues and will not be eligible to play until late February.

"That will screw you up," Morrill said about the Bulldogs being shorthanded.

"Both of those kids were playing double-digit minutes, over 20, I think for one of them. That probably screwed up their rotation and their confidence level a little bit. It is just like when you get on a roll winning games you can get to the point where it is tough when you lose a few in a row, it is the mentality of it, of we have got to find a way to win."

Even though the matchup looks lopsided on paper Morrill knows better than to underestimate Louisiana Tech, as Kerry Rupp's Bulldogs have always played the Aggies tough.

"Louisiana Tech has always played us well," Morrill said. "They have specific things they try to do when they play us that they may have not done for several weeks or maybe not the entire season. For example, I haven't seen a 1-3-1 zone from Louisiana Tech but they will play a 1-3-1 zone against us. They always seem to do that; they run and double some of our ball screens. They do a variety of things to try and screw up our timing and tempo. There is no way you can really prepare; you would be preparing everything under the sun so you have to kind of adjust on the fly."

Aggies on the air

Utah State (5-0, 16-2)

vs. Louisiana Tech (0-5, 9-10)

Today, 7 p.m.

TV: none

Radio: AM-1230/FM-95.9