Aggie19 wrote: ↑

August 10th, 2022, 10:27 am

My biggest concern with Horvath was his post defense. Yeah, I know positionless basketball and all that, but he was our center, at least defensively many times and he got pushed around by Ike, Robinson, Roddy, Etc. Not that a lot of folks don't get pushed around by those 3, but it was rough. Offensively, I felt he added to the team, but admittedly I don't study the metrics as others have.

Ike, Robinson and Roddy pushed a lot of guys around, but Mladen Armus was a mediocre big and he looked like Shaq in the home game against Boise. I'm sure there were other examples but that one really stood out. Armus went 2/10 at the FT line and still had 22 pts (to go with 19 rebounds).

In addition to his defensive limitations, Horvath shot 22% from 3 in Mountain West games. He was a good offensive player overall, but not enough to make up for the fact that he was playing out of position on defense. I'm not trying to knock Horvath, but Akin and/or Johnson could have a bigger overall impact even if they likely won't match Horvath's scoring average.

The problem is that they will need to be a lot better than Horvath because Funk could have a fantastic season and still fall well shy of Bean's production last year.

One nice thing is that of all the bigs that have been listed only Ike is actually coming back next year. Everyone seemed to leave off Mensah when naming problematic bigs for us last year, he’s back and will be a challenge for the new trio. I think things will look much better this year defensively but I need to see how the staff is going to use the current make up of new and existing players before I make any type of “we suck” or “we’ll be better than last year” statement…but I lean towards the glass half full crowd.


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aggies22 wrote:

SSaggie wrote: ↑

August 10th, 2022, 7:31 am

I think we have addition by subtraction regarding Horvath.

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He was our second-leading scorer, led us in scoring many times, and was a capable rebounder. Would you care to expand on your comment my Aggie brother?

I liked Horvath but I think he was forced to play out of position. He moved well and could get a hot hand. He had a nice offensive touch inside. He was a fair rebounder.

As others have mentioned, his post defense was awful. His free throw shooting was impressively bad, and he 3pt shooting at the end of the season was also terrible. He had nearly as many turnovers as assists. Seems like he had missed several gimme shots as well, which could go a long ways given our close losses. Sometimes I wondered if he could dunk or not (ok, I know i am being dramatic), he wasn't exactly intimidating to other bigs because of his lack of strength.

I think he would make a very nice role player as a small forward. In that scenario, if he was hot handed he could go ahead and score. If he was laying bricks, he could back off and let the star players score. Unfortunately he was one of our primary options on the team.

I think we will be better off without him not because of his abilities (sans the crappy shooting) but because we will not rely on him and a first or second option.

Essentially it is a fit issue.

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I’ve read the arguments and nonetheless conclude that losing Horvath is not going to be “addition by subtraction.”

I think we will all be thinking halfway through the season: “damn, how did Horvath and Bean carry THIS group to the NIT?”

SSaggie wrote:

aggies22 wrote:

SSaggie wrote: ↑

August 10th, 2022, 7:31 am

I think we have addition by subtraction regarding Horvath.

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He was our second-leading scorer, led us in scoring many times, and was a capable rebounder. Would you care to expand on your comment my Aggie brother?

I liked Horvath but I think he was forced to play out of position. He moved well and could get a hot hand. He had a nice offensive touch inside. He was a fair rebounder.

As others have mentioned, his post defense was awful. His free throw shooting was impressively bad, and he 3pt shooting at the end of the season was also terrible. He had nearly as many turnovers as assists. Seems like he had missed several gimme shots as well, which could go a long ways given our close losses. Sometimes I wondered if he could dunk or not (ok, I know i am being dramatic), he wasn't exactly intimidating to other bigs because of his lack of strength.

I think he would make a very nice role player as a small forward. In that scenario, if he was hot handed he could go ahead and score. If he was laying bricks, he could back off and let the star players score. Unfortunately he was one of our primary options on the team.

I think we will be better off without him not because of his abilities (sans the crappy shooting) but because we will not rely on him and a first or second option.

Essentially it is a fit issue.

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That sounds like a coaching issue and players-around-him issue.

It’s not his fault he was our second best player last year and was expected to carry the team.

I’m in the camp he’s gonna be a big loss.


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I know several "basketball people" who have seen Funk play who have said he will be better than anybody we had last year, including you-know-who, because he can actually do all the things you need a power forward to do. And these observers know basketball, they just didn't read about it in Sports Illustrated.

I'm excited for what Ryan Odom is doing. He has a pretty good pedigree, and I'm confident we'll be just fine. Give him some time.

ColoAggie wrote:

Chupamedia wrote: ↑

August 8th, 2022, 3:04 pm

SwaggieAggie wrote:It can't just be "Logan" as the excuse. I get it, I get it.. But still, Laramie has been bringing in bigger ballers than us. Gonzaga was able to build a powerhouse in Spokane in a smaller conference than the MWC. Of course, every situation is different, but it all comes down to having the right coaches who can get it done.

Duryea was a fine recruiter, the dude just couldn't coach. Different sport, but BA's staff has been able to bring in multiple studs, guys who I never thought we could never attract to Logan, and he's done that each of his two years here coming off a 1-win season.

Comparing Logan to other small cities is only part of the Logan issue. Like it or not there is a stigma that comes with Utah and small town Utah and that stigma doesn’t play well with the type of recruit you are talking about wanting to land. Laramie may be small and in a cold place, but they don’t have the same stigma and limited night life a place like Logan has

Have you been to Laramie?

Yes I have - and I think it has more to offer the type of recruit the OP was talking about. That’s one reason why I think recruiting a more mature group from the portal is a better strategy for USU. It also seems that mid majors that do land kids that have high level AAU talent are only developing them for a P5 school to poach. I’m not arguing that Laramie is a place I want to live - but I’m not a big time recruit from out of state either