Page 1 of 2

USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 10:16 am
by Aggie in Boise


Utah State discussion starts at about 2:05

Katz says we have the chance to advance beyond the sweet 16 to the elite 8.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 12:44 pm
by NVAggie
I hope all of this preseason hype is true. I am still trying to recover from the Duryea days where my expectations were very low. I'm like the nerd trying to keep my cool hanging out with the hot chick. I just don't want to blow it.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 1:19 pm
by aggies22
I was just discussing this subject earlier today with USUBlue. We both agreed that top to bottom this is the best Aggie team ever from player 1 through 15.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 1:22 pm
by Aggie in Boise
aggies22 wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 1:19 pm
I was just discussing this subject earlier today with USUBlue. We both agreed that top to bottom this is the best Aggie team ever from player 1 through 15.
Likely the best coaching staff ever, as well.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 1:55 pm
by aggies22
Aggie in Boise wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 1:22 pm
aggies22 wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 1:19 pm
I was just discussing this subject earlier today with USUBlue. We both agreed that top to bottom this is the best Aggie team ever from player 1 through 15.
Likely the best coaching staff ever, as well.
Agreed. In the event that Coach Smith were to ever leave, the next head coach is on the current staff.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 2:46 pm
by BLUERUFiO
Let’s just keep giving Smith raises... please?

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 2:52 pm
by Aggie in Boise
BLUERUFiO wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 2:46 pm
Let’s just keep giving Smith raises... please?
How much will it take to retain him? Larry K. makes 3.4 million per year.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 2:59 pm
by treesap32
Aggie in Boise wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 2:52 pm
BLUERUFiO wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 2:46 pm
Let’s just keep giving Smith raises... please?
How much will it take to retain him? Larry K. makes 3.4 million per year.
That's probably not a great comparison. We don't have PAC-12 level money...

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 3:07 pm
by LarryTheAggie
treesap32 wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 2:59 pm
Aggie in Boise wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 2:52 pm
BLUERUFiO wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 2:46 pm
Let’s just keep giving Smith raises... please?
How much will it take to retain him? Larry K. makes 3.4 million per year.
That's probably not a great comparison. We don't have PAC-12 level money...
Yeah but Larry K is also a sucky coach, so a great coach in the Mountain West should make as much as a sucky Pac 12 coach... Right?

Okay so Larry K is probably very overpaid.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 3:09 pm
by IdaAg93
NVAggie wrote:I hope all of this preseason hype is true. I am still trying to recover from the Duryea days where my expectations were very low. I'm like the nerd trying to keep my cool hanging out with the hot chick. I just don't want to blow it.
Gotta hope USU doesn’t start some hype campaign for this team or Merrill. It would surely take turn for the worse. SMH


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 3:13 pm
by Aggie in Boise
Larry is way overpaid. I wonder how Utah was able to pay him that much? Larry is in the top 10 for basketball coaching salaries. Arizona is the only PAC 12 Team that pays more than Utah. Even Wayne Tinkle makes nearly 2 million per year. I'm not saying we have PAC 12 money. I'm just wondering what we would have to pay to retain Coach Smith. It's very possible that he could go somewhere else and make 2 to 3 million per year, if he has a really good season this year.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 3:19 pm
by nvspuds
Muss jumped up from a million per to 2.5 per when he went to Arkansas. Smith could certainly get in that range if you guys have a big year..

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 3:35 pm
by USU78
Aggie in Boise wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 3:13 pm
Larry is way overpaid. I wonder how Utah was able to pay him that much? Larry is in the top 10 for basketball coaching salaries. Arizona is the only PAC 12 Team that pays more than Utah. Even Wayne Tinkle makes nearly 2 million per year. I'm not saying we have PAC 12 money. I'm just wondering what we would have to pay to retain Coach Smith. It's very possible that he could go somewhere else and make 2 to 3 million per year, if he has a really good season this year.
Image

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 3:45 pm
by Jjoey53
Wasn’t Stew paid about 2 mil? Seems like Smith is worth that much.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 3:52 pm
by AgMan21
Jjoey53 wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 3:45 pm
Wasn’t Stew paid about 2 mil? Seems like Smith is worth that much.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
From this article it looks like he was making $715K.

https://www.rgj.com/story/sports/colleg ... /70727324/

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 5:19 pm
by oleblu111
We have not given Smith a raise yet as far as I know. With total ticket sales for all sports only being just over $2 million where is the money going to come from ? We maybe able to pay him $800,000 but that is the max and a real stretch.

If Smith has a big year he will be gone so we should sit back and enjoy the ride

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 8:17 pm
by AGGIEinIOWA
Who on the current staff would be a legitimate candidate. Do any of them have head coaching experience.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 17th, 2019, 10:40 pm
by aggies22
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 8:17 pm
Who on the current staff would be a legitimate candidate. Do any of them have head coaching experience.
Eric Peterson.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 1:57 am
by Ahbye
oleblu111 wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 5:19 pm
We have not given Smith a raise yet as far as I know. With total ticket sales for all sports only being just over $2 million where is the money going to come from ? We maybe able to pay him $800,000 but that is the max and a real stretch.

If Smith has a big year he will be gone so we should sit back and enjoy the ride
One NCAA tournament unit (which we earned this past year for our tourney appearance) is worth $273,000 for the most recent NCAA tournament year. The NCAA pays those out for six years, so for the next six years, the MWC will receive a payment every April in that amount, which will then be divided 11 ways for the conference. (Hawaii has no basketball.) So for that six years, USU's share will be $148,909. If we even go to the Sweet Sixteen this year, that gives us three credits (for 3 games) which would be worth over $4.9 million to the conference over the next six years. USU's share would be $446,727. Most conferences share out equally but some give a bonus to those who actually earn the credits. If we and the MWC can even have middling success, getting two to three teams in the tourney each year and the occasional break-out year, we can toss about 150k a year towards Smith's salary. We paid Stew over 600k his last few years here and that was just base. He had some other stuff that put it close to 800k. So is it harder to get money to pay a coach? Yes, but athletic inertia will feed on itself. We are at or near the top of the MWC in revenue sports year after year. All these new facilities and such don't come without initial success from somewhere. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... /33074891/

One thing we don't talk about on here as much as we probably should is the amount of new donors coming online over the past decade, which has accelerated quite a bit in just the last two years. It's not just the Laub's anymore. There are some genuinely successful, young, die-hard Aggies who will keep the momentum going for years to come.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 7:32 am
by AGGIEinIOWA
If this truly is our best roster in history I will be very disappointed if we lose to BYU-P yet again. I think we’ve had better teams than them in recent years but just can’t mentally get over the hump and win that game. Need to take a page from the football team and reverse the script.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 9:05 am
by aggies22
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 7:32 am
If this truly is our best roster in history I will be very disappointed if we lose to BYU-P yet again. I think we’ve had better teams than them in recent years but just can’t mentally get over the hump and win that game. Need to take a page from the football team and reverse the script.
I've said exactly this several times on this board! I'm glad to see someone else feels the same way!

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 9:08 am
by AGGIEinIOWA
aggies22 wrote:
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 7:32 am
If this truly is our best roster in history I will be very disappointed if we lose to BYU-P yet again. I think we’ve had better teams than them in recent years but just can’t mentally get over the hump and win that game. Need to take a page from the football team and reverse the script.
I've said exactly this several times on this board! I'm glad to see someone else feels the same way!
If we can negate Yoeli we should win. Keeping Neemi out of foul trouble will be critical.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 9:10 am
by Roy McAvoy
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 9:08 am
aggies22 wrote:
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 7:32 am
If this truly is our best roster in history I will be very disappointed if we lose to BYU-P yet again. I think we’ve had better teams than them in recent years but just can’t mentally get over the hump and win that game. Need to take a page from the football team and reverse the script.
I've said exactly this several times on this board! I'm glad to see someone else feels the same way!
If we can negate Yoeli we should win. Keeping Neemi out of foul trouble will be critical.
...If Neemi even plays that game.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 9:17 am
by Coloraggie
Roy McAvoy wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 9:10 am
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 9:08 am
aggies22 wrote:
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 7:32 am
If this truly is our best roster in history I will be very disappointed if we lose to BYU-P yet again. I think we’ve had better teams than them in recent years but just can’t mentally get over the hump and win that game. Need to take a page from the football team and reverse the script.
I've said exactly this several times on this board! I'm glad to see someone else feels the same way!
If we can negate Yoeli we should win. Keeping Neemi out of foul trouble will be critical.
...If Neemi even plays that game.
Look on the bright side, if he doesn't play then he won't be in foul trouble and that is the key to winning that game.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 10:00 am
by oleblu111
Ahbye wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 1:57 am
oleblu111 wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 5:19 pm
We have not given Smith a raise yet as far as I know. With total ticket sales for all sports only being just over $2 million where is the money going to come from ? We maybe able to pay him $800,000 but that is the max and a real stretch.

If Smith has a big year he will be gone so we should sit back and enjoy the ride
One NCAA tournament unit (which we earned this past year for our tourney appearance) is worth $273,000 for the most recent NCAA tournament year. The NCAA pays those out for six years, so for the next six years, the MWC will receive a payment every April in that amount, which will then be divided 11 ways for the conference. (Hawaii has no basketball.) So for that six years, USU's share will be $148,909. If we even go to the Sweet Sixteen this year, that gives us three credits (for 3 games) which would be worth over $4.9 million to the conference over the next six years. USU's share would be $446,727. Most conferences share out equally but some give a bonus to those who actually earn the credits. If we and the MWC can even have middling success, getting two to three teams in the tourney each year and the occasional break-out year, we can toss about 150k a year towards Smith's salary. We paid Stew over 600k his last few years here and that was just base. He had some other stuff that put it close to 800k. So is it harder to get money to pay a coach? Yes, but athletic inertia will feed on itself. We are at or near the top of the MWC in revenue sports year after year. All these new facilities and such don't come without initial success from somewhere. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/n ... /33074891/

One thing we don't talk about on here as much as we probably should is the amount of new donors coming online over the past decade, which has accelerated quite a bit in just the last two years. It's not just the Laub's anymore. There are some genuinely successful, young, die-hard Aggies who will keep the momentum going for years to come.
I know that donations have gone up, however much of that would be from premium seating in the west stadium complex, and I would think it goes for paying the debt on that building. You can and should give bonus payments for coach's that make the NCAA or win the conference , but to increase the wage based on that every season should not happen..

You can not compare wages for coach's at Utah and USU first of all they sell $19 million in tickets, compared to $2 million and get pac-12 revenue which is much more than MWC revenue.

With that said I.m happy donations are going up, and that revenue will be good when the bonds are paid down.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 10:56 am
by jpswensen
Roy McAvoy wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 9:10 am
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 9:08 am
aggies22 wrote:
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 7:32 am
If this truly is our best roster in history I will be very disappointed if we lose to BYU-P yet again. I think we’ve had better teams than them in recent years but just can’t mentally get over the hump and win that game. Need to take a page from the football team and reverse the script.
I've said exactly this several times on this board! I'm glad to see someone else feels the same way!
If we can negate Yoeli we should win. Keeping Neemi out of foul trouble will be critical.
...If Neemi even plays that game.
I hope this is tongue in cheek and that there isn't some insider info about his injury being worse than is public knowledge.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 11:37 am
by thetrueaggie
The fact that we're having this conversation just 1 year after hiring Smith is incredible in and of itself.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 12:26 pm
by AGGIEinIOWA
Aggie in Boise wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 10:16 am


Utah State discussion starts at about 2:05

Katz says we have the chance to advance beyond the sweet 16 to the elite 8.
Just think, we are playing 2 teams on this list this season in St Mary's & USF (and one of them next season in Davidson). Add these games to Florida, LSU, and BYU-P, we have a very formidable non-conf schedule. Should be well battle tested.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 5:25 pm
by AggiesForever
This years roster is pretty good, but the 1969-1970 team that went to the Elite 8 was pretty great. Marv Roberts and Nate Williams were all-Americans at forward and they had a very solid center in 6-10 Canadian Tim Tollestrip, with saavy Paul Jeppesen at one guard and Sophmore assist man Jeff Tebbs on the point. 4 out of 5 starters scored in double figures, and they brought long-range shooter Terry Wakefield, solid combo guard Ed Epps, off the bench, along with forwards Ron Hatch and John Erickson and center Chris "String" Bean. Roberts and Williams averaged 22 and 21 points a game and everybody else knew exactly what their roles were. LaDell Andersen has said many times that if Williams doesn't hurt his ankle in the first half, the Aggies beat UCLA (who they led at the half) and win the national championship. I don't know about that, but LaDell hasn't been wrong about too many things like that. It was a great team, that's for sure!

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 5:46 pm
by frankiesaysrelax
NVspuds, what was the best roster in UNR history? That team with Snyder back in early 2000’s has to be up there but you’ve had some good teams go through in the last 20 years.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 5:57 pm
by AggiesForever
Aggie in Boise wrote:
October 17th, 2019, 1:22 pm
Likely the best coaching staff ever, as well.
There have been some pretty good coaching staff's at Utah State. Here's two that surpass the coaching staff we now have. Time, will tell, of course.

1966-1971: LaDell Andersen, with Dale Brown and Dutch Belnap as assistants.

After leaving USU, Dale Brown went on to become a national coaching legend, winning 448 games while leading LSU into national prominence with 2 final four appearances and named SEC coach of the year four times. Dale was a fantastic recruiter at USU, bringing Shaler Halimon, Marv Roberts, Nate Williams as others to the Aggies.

As USU's coach, Dutch Belnap led the Aggies to three postseason appearances, playing in the 1975 and 1979 NCAA Tournaments, along with the 1978 National Invitation Tournament. In all, Belnap's teams never had a losing record and two of his teams notched 20 wins as the 1974-75 team went 21-6, while the 1977-78 team went 21-7. In fact, USU's 21-6 record during the 1974-75 campaign was the second-best mark in school history at the time. Belnap compiled a then-school record 64.6 winning percentage, a mark that still ranks third all-time in school history, as his teams posted a 106-58 record.

1974-75: Dutch Belnap, with assistants Jim Harrick and Rod Tueller.

Rod Tueller went on to win 139 games at USU over 9 seasons. His teams appeared in the NCAA Tournament 3 times during that span, and he coached some great Aggies, including All-Century players Brian Jackson and Dean Hunger.

All Jim Harrick did was win 470 college basketball games at Pepperdine, UCLA, Rhode Island, and Georgia, with one national championship at UCLA in 1995. Harrick is still coaching today, serving as an assistant at Cal-Northridge.

We haven't even discussed Stew Morrill and his staff of Randy Rahe and Don Verlin.

We have to be careful when throwing around the title "best coaching staff EVER." Frankly, with only one season under their belt, this coaching staff really hasn't established anything yet at USU except one really good season. But there is no doubt that if they stay here a few years they could ring up some impressive numbers

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 6:12 pm
by GUS
AggiesForever wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 5:25 pm
This years roster is pretty good, but the 1969-1970 team that went to the Elite 8 was pretty great. Marv Roberts and Nate Williams were all-Americans at forward and they had a very solid center in 6-10 Canadian Tim Tollestrip, with saavy Paul Jeppesen at one guard and Sophmore assist man Jeff Tebbs on the point. All the starters scored in double figures, and they brought long-range shooter Terry Wakefield, solid combo guard Ed Epps, off the bench, along with forwards Ron Hatch and John Erickson and center Chris "String" Bean. Roberts and Williams averaged 22 and 21 points a game and everybody else knew exactly what their roles were. LaDell Andersen has said many times that if Williams doesn't hurt his ankle in the first half, the Aggies beat UCLA (who they led at the half) and win the national championship. I don't know about that, but LaDell hasn't been wrong about too many things like that. It was a great team, that's for sure!
Got to agree with AF. That 69-70 team was a good one. Unless this years team wins a couple of games in the tournament, I can't crown it the best in program history.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 7:15 pm
by 72AgGrad
AggiesForever wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 5:25 pm
This years roster is pretty good, but the 1969-1970 team that went to the Elite 8 was pretty great. Marv Roberts and Nate Williams were all-Americans at forward and they had a very solid center in 6-10 Canadian Tim Tollestrip, with saavy Paul Jeppesen at one guard and Sophmore assist man Jeff Tebbs on the point. All the starters scored in double figures, and they brought long-range shooter Terry Wakefield, solid combo guard Ed Epps, off the bench, along with forwards Ron Hatch and John Erickson and center Chris "String" Bean. Roberts and Williams averaged 22 and 21 points a game and everybody else knew exactly what their roles were. LaDell Andersen has said many times that if Williams doesn't hurt his ankle in the first half, the Aggies beat UCLA (who they led at the half) and win the national championship. I don't know about that, but LaDell hasn't been wrong about too many things like that. It was a great team, that's for sure!
Thank you. Your observations and recollections match mine perfectly.

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 18th, 2019, 9:20 pm
by Jjoey53
72AgGrad wrote:
AggiesForever wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 5:25 pm
This years roster is pretty good, but the 1969-1970 team that went to the Elite 8 was pretty great. Marv Roberts and Nate Williams were all-Americans at forward and they had a very solid center in 6-10 Canadian Tim Tollestrip, with saavy Paul Jeppesen at one guard and Sophmore assist man Jeff Tebbs on the point. All the starters scored in double figures, and they brought long-range shooter Terry Wakefield, solid combo guard Ed Epps, off the bench, along with forwards Ron Hatch and John Erickson and center Chris "String" Bean. Roberts and Williams averaged 22 and 21 points a game and everybody else knew exactly what their roles were. LaDell Andersen has said many times that if Williams doesn't hurt his ankle in the first half, the Aggies beat UCLA (who they led at the half) and win the national championship. I don't know about that, but LaDell hasn't been wrong about too many things like that. It was a great team, that's for sure!
Thank you. Your observations and recollections match mine perfectly.

Was the 69-70 team the one that opened the Spectrum or was it the following year? A guy from my old high school came and joined the Aggies in 1970, however he could not play as a freshman, they changed the rule making frosh eligible the following year.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Re: USU Best Roster in Program History?

Posted: October 21st, 2019, 8:36 pm
by FloridaAggie13
aggies22 wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 9:05 am
AGGIEinIOWA wrote:
October 18th, 2019, 7:32 am
If this truly is our best roster in history I will be very disappointed if we lose to BYU-P yet again. I think we’ve had better teams than them in recent years but just can’t mentally get over the hump and win that game. Need to take a page from the football team and reverse the script.
I've said exactly this several times on this board! I'm glad to see someone else feels the same way!
In our defense, BYU is playing for #1 seed in the big dance each year so we should be happy just to share the floor with them. Maybe get some autographs this time around.