"Too much practice" and too few games for Aggies hoops

Practice? We're talking about "too much" practice?

Believe it or not, that's what Stew Morrill said on Thursday of his Aggies. But it was less a reflection of the amount of practice time and more a statement about how few games Utah State has played to this point.

Part of that is unusual circumstance, with Danny Berger's collapse wiping out last week's scheduled BYU game. But including the exhibition schedule, Utah State has only played two contests in a week once in the first seven weeks of the season.

"All you've got to do is look at the records: We're 5-1 and have played 6 games. Utah Valley has played 11 games," Morrill said. "We're behind most of the teams in the country in terms of how many games we've played. To be honest with you, we've had too much practice and too little games. It gets to that point where this time of year, you need to play some games."

A quick scan of the NCAA DI stats show that a number of other programs had only played 6 games coming into the week. It's been a good season to have so many practices with a new core of players growing together, but it does add up to a bit of practice fatigue.

"Sometimes practice can get overwhelming," Preston Medlin said. "You kind of want to get up for these games."

Of course, Utah State is just around the corner from catching up with the rest of the country on games, so it's a short-lived issue. Three games in as many nights for the World Vision Challenge at the Spectrum will test the Aggies in a tournament format.

Utah State also has a fast opening to the WAC schedule, playing four games in eight nights, with two on the road in Texas to start. By January, the Aggies might be ready to get back to practicing again.

— Kyle Goon

kgoon@sltrib.com

Twitter: @kylegoon