Southern Utah's men's basketball team will host a pair of exhibition games next week as the Thunderbirds prepare for the 2009-10 season.
The Thunderbirds will host Mesa State on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Centrum Arena, then will host Adams State on Friday, Nov. 6, also at 7:00 p.m. in the Centrum.
Practice Schedule: With SUU volleyball in its first season practice schedules will vary through the first month of practice. Next week, the team is scheduled to work out from 2:00-4:30 p.m. in the Centrum, while the following week workouts will begin at 4:30 p.m. Practice sessions are generally open to the public but media personnel wishing to attend practice should contact SUU Sports Information Director Neil Gardner at (435) 586-7753 prior to practice.
The Coaches: Head Coach Roger Reid (Weber State '68) is entering his third season on the bench this year.
Reid brings a career Division I mark of 174-115 into the season.
Coach Reid's career has spanned virtually every level of the coaching strata, including the high school, junior college, and NCAA Division I levels as well as in the NBA and international ranks. He is probably best known for his success at Brigham Young University, where he led the Cougars to five NCAA tournament berths and three Western Athletic Conference championships. He has also coached the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and the Hangzhou Horses of the Chinese Basketball Association. Prior to taking over at SUU Reid coached Snow College to a conference title and a No. 18 national ranking in his final season on the bench there.
Reid is assisted by Ron Carling (BYU '70), a 37-year coaching veteran who is also in his second season with the program; Johnny Brown (New Mexico '86), a 15-year veteran of the coaching ranks who is also in his second year in Cedar City; and first-year assistant Kenya Crandell (Nebraska-Kearney '96) who is in his 12th season as a collegiate coach.
Radio: All Southern Utah men's basketball games will be broadcast live by KSUU (91.1 FM) and KSUB AM (590) as well as on the internet at www.suu.edu/ksuu. Art Challis will be in his 35th season as the Thunderbirds' basketball play-by-play voice.
SUU Last Season: Southern Utah had an up-and-down season in 2008-09. After weathering two four-game losing streaks early in the season, however, the Thunderbirds played their best ball down the stretch. In mid-February SUU handed Summit League regular-season and conference tournament champion North Dakota State its only home loss and one of just two conference losses the Bison suffered all year, then the Thunderbirds went on to notch their first conference tournament win in five seasons when they beat IUPUI 53-48 in the tournament's first round. The tournament win avenged a two-game regular season sweep by the Jaguars and also broke a three-game IUPUI win streak in tournament games against the Thunderbirds.
SUU finished the season 11-20, but among the 20 were losses at then-No. 19 Florida, to WAC champion Utah State and Big Sky champ Weber State, as well as at Boise State and UNLV.
Junior guard Davis Baker earned second-team all-Summit League honors after finishing the season ranked among the league's top-five in scoring and free throw percentage and 19th in rebounding. He finished the year 14th in the country in free throw percentage and 91st in scoring after shooting .877 from the line and averaging 17.4 points per game. Senior forward Tyler Quinney was also a dead-eye at the line, hitting 84.6 percent of his free throws to rank 48th, while center John Clifford was 70th in the country in rebounding, averaging 8.2 caroms per game.
As a team, the Thunderbirds were the top free throw shooting team in the nation, finishing with a 79.6 percent accuracy rate, and their 46.2 percent rate overall from the floor ranked 58th.
About Mesa State: Mesa State is coming off a 16-12 season in which the Mavericks finished third in the west division of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Mavericks were tabbed to repeat that finish this season. Senior guard Jason Herl was selected to the RMAC's pre-season all-West Team. Herl and fellow senior guard Aaron Markham are the team's returning starters this year. SUU opened the regular season with an 85-73 win over the Mavericks last year. Herl led MSC with 18 points while Markham chipped in 10.
About Adams State: Adams State posted a 4-23 overall record last year and finished seventh in the RMAC's west division. The Grizzlies have been picked to finish last again this year in the league's coaches poll. Three starters return from last year's squad, including senior forward Eric Miller and junior guards Sethe Heinbaugh and Nate Ingretson. Heinbaugh averaged 12.2 points and 8.2 rebounds last year, while Ingbretson scored at an 11.0 ppg clip and Miller averaged 8.7 ppg. Miller came off the bench to score 10 points against the Thunderbirds last year while Heinbaugh had eight points and 11 rebounds and Ingbretson got into foul trouble and had just two rebounds and no points.
Southern Utah Outlook:
Southern Utah enters the 2009-10 season with four returning lettermen, including two starters, and although the returning numbers are small, Coach Roger Reid is very excited about the prospects for the upcoming season, and the future of Thunderbird basketball in general.
With nine newcomers – including seven true freshmen – on the squad, the Thunderbirds will undoubtedly have some tough times this season Reid says, but he also points out that the future is bright for this team, which opens the season Nov. 13, at Hawaii's Rainbow Classic.
“There will be ups and downs,” he pointed out. “But we're starting with a good base of talent. We've got a young basketball team but we've definitely got upgraded talent this year. We have better shooters, we have better size and we're better athletically. We're just young. How well we do will depend upon how fast our young players can mature.”
Senior all-conference wing Davis Baker and sophomore wing Jake Nielson are the team's two returning starters, while reserve forward Byron Byrd and reserve guard Drew Allen also return.
Baker was one of the nation's top shooters last season, averaging 17.4 points per game (and pulling down 4.5 rebounds), while Nielson earned a starting spot midway through the season and emerged as one of the team's most exciting players on both ends of the court.
“We need both Davis and Jake to step up and take leadership roles this season,” Reid pointed out. “They're both good players on the court but we're going to need more from them this season. Our young players will be looking to them for leadership and [Baker and Nielson's] contributions there will be as important as they will be in the stat sheet.
“Davis had a great offensive year for us last year,” the coach went on to say. “He's as good a shooter as I have coached and he's also good when he gets to the free throw line.
“Jake had his ups and downs last year, just coming back off [an LDS church] mission. He had some great games for us and wound up starting. He's athletic and energetic, he can shoot the ball and he can defend.”
Allen and Byrd both played limited roles last season – Allen averaged 8.2 minutes in 26 games while Byrd logged an average of 3.4 minutes in 14 contests – but the coaches see them both contributing more as seniors.
“Drew is a good outside shooter who struggled last year, I think because he couldn't relax,” Reid pointed out. “We want him to relax and be the shooter he can be this season.
“Byrd has made tremendous strides since he walked into our gym last year,” Reid pointed out. “He's a guy who has athletic ability, but he's kind of an in-betweener, he's a small post player but not a perimeter player either. He can probably do his best work inside, where his quickness can cause big guys some problems, but he can shoot too.”
The fifth player who has been in the program is forward Matt Massey, an Australian who sat out last year after transferring from Nova Southeastern College, where he averaged 7.1 points and 4.9 rebounds as a true freshman in 2007-08.
“I'm excited to have Matt on our team,” Reid noted. “I don't know if I've ever had a player come in and work any harder than Matt has since he's been here. He's a big body, an excellent perimeter shooter, and he's also nifty around the basket.”
The Thunderbirds also added a pair of junior college players, wings Ryan Brimley, who earned all-conference honors last season at Snow College, and Brian Cameron, who played for Reid at Snow in 2006-07 before serving an LDS mission. Those two will be expected to provide offense from the perimeter.
“Ryan is a player who goes 100 percent all the time,” the coach said. “He's an outstanding 3-point shooter – he shot over 40 percent from 3-point range in junior college – but he needs to work on his in between game. He can't just be a 3-point shooter here but definitely has the ability to develop a midrange game.
“Brian is very athletic, he's strong and he can shoot the ball,” Reid said of Cameron. “He has all the tools but he needs to put it all together. He hasn't played for a couple of years, so how much he picks up after that layoff will determine his playing time. He will definitely help us in the long run.”
Also joining the Thunderbirds are freshmen big men Matt Hodgson and Dallin Bachynski, and that duo is a large part of Reid's long-term optimism. At 6-foot-11 and 7-0, the two were both tabbed as “steals” for the Thunderbirds by ESPN.com. Hodgson has a wealth of international experience after playing for the Australian national squad, while Bachynski was Canada's top prep center last season.
“After coaching some outstanding big men in my past I'm as excited about Matt Hodgson as I've been about anyone I've coached,” Reid noted. “I've recruited and coached some talented big guys in my past, and a lot of those players have ended up being all-conference first team and some have even gone on to play in the NBA but I think, potentially, at the five position Matt has the ability to be an outstanding player here at Southern Utah, but those are the things you need to prove every day in practice. He's got to mature, listen to his coaching and work hard, but he can give us a defensive presence in the inside and he has an outstanding [shooting] touch for a big guy. It's a big jump from playing where he's been playing to this level, but the potential is definitely there and the sky is the limit for Matt.
“We're really excited to have a young man of Dallin's stature here at Southern Utah too,” Reid went on to say. “For a big guy Dallin has a good shooting touch, and for a big guy he has some range. For a freshman he has outstanding skills. He has good athletic ability and strength for a big guy. As with Matt, the thing about him, as a freshman, confidence, maturity, learning the offense, will be critical. He'll get a lot of playing time. He can play the five and he can play the four position. He gives us another player we can build with and gives us a great foundation for the future.”
Those big men will be joined by a freshman forward and a handful of freshman guards, including a pair of Utah 5A all-staters, Scott Friel and Jordan Weirick; a 3A all-stater, Joel Einfeldt from hometown Cedar High School; and another Australian, Damon Heuir, who was also highly decorated as a prep. The forward is Jackson Stevenett, Utah's 5A MVP in 2008, who sat out last season.
“We're really happy to have two freshmen from the state of Utah like Scott Friel and Jordan Weirick,” Reid pointed out. “They come from the largest high school classification in the state, they've played at a high level for successful, winning teams, they were both highly recruited and they both chose to come to Southern Utah.
“Scott has good size, he can play both point guard and on the wing, but he's a pass-first, shoot-second type of point guard, which is someone we've been looking for in our system,” Reid said. “He has great court vision, he's unselfish and he's a great passer. He's got a big responsibility to come in as a true freshman and run out basketball team; he's got to be a coach on the floor and that's a lot to ask of a young man, but we think he is very capable of that task, once he learns the system and gets a feel for competition at this level.
“Jordan is another player who can play both guard positions,” Reid added. “He's a player who won a state championship, was 5A MVP, and we're excited he could see the value of SUU. He had very good high school coaching. He's a good perimeter shooter who can also get to the basket and finish very well; a lot of guys can get to the basket but can't finish, Jordan can finish. Learning the system and getting him to play defense, and you could say that about all our new players, are going to be his biggest challenges, but we know he loves the game and those are challenges, with hard work and dedication, he can meet.”
Heuir is another combo-guard, who has the ability to play the point or out on the wing, giving Reid a good group of options with his young players.
“Damon is a young man we saw in a tournament and I said 'this is a guy I'd love to have in our program,' because he's going to have four years of continuity,” Reid noted. “He'll really develop and grow and give consistency to our program. He can play the point, but he can play some two too, so there's going to be some keen competition among our young guards, which is a good thing. He's an outstanding shooter who is athletic and jumps well. But again, how well he adjusts and learns the system, how well he plays defense, will determine how much he plays.”
Einfeldt and Stevenett are both walk-ons, but, as Coach Reid pointed out, they're a cut above the walk-ons who have typically been in the program. The only real knock on either is their size.
Stevenett was Utah's 5A player of the year in 2008, but as a 6-5 post player he wasn't given much opportunity to play college ball. Einfeldt was a 3A first-team all-stater who was a three-year starter at point guard, but his size also limited his opportunities.
“With both these guys, these are not ordinary walk-ons,” Reid said. “These guys have proven in their high school careers that they're good enough to play division I basketball. So to have two young men with their stature walk on is very exciting for us. It shows us that people want to be a part of our program, that people know this is an up-and-coming program.
“Jackson was 5A player of the year as a senior,” Reid pointed out. “He's very uncanny around the basket, he's a good shooter around the basket, has good moves, good deception, but he's undersized. Depending upon how he can continue to be nifty and crafty around the basket, even though he might be undersized, he has a chance to be a player for us.
“Joel also had an outstanding high school career,” Reid noted. “It's really nice to have a local player make our basketball team. He's a very smart player, he's extremely coachable and he's a good shooter. He will have the ability to understand what we want on the floor as a point guard and to run the offense. When you're his size though, you have to be tenacious on defense, and that's something he will have to work on.”
Now, the challenge for Reid will be to put all these pieces together.
“We'll need to be patient, there'll be good days and bad days,” The coach admitted. “We're building for the future with a lot of freshmen. There will be good days and there will be bad days, but we've also brought in some junior college players and we have a good base of returning players, so we're certainly not writing this season off either.
“We're going to be exciting to watch, and there's going to be some excellent competition in practices,” he added. “We have more depth across the board than we've had since we got here, and that means the players will have to prove they're good enough, that they're ready to step up and contribute.”
Reid said he hopes that by the time the conference season rolls around the team will have come together enough to vie for a Summit League championship.
“Our goal is always to win our conference championship,” he put in. “And with that in mind we have a tough preseason schedule to help develop our team. What we do out of conference really doesn't matter, because we want to win the conference championship and play in the NCAA tournament. I think a tough preseason schedule helps you build that goal, so we're playing UNLV, we're going to WAC champion Utah State and Big Sky champion Weber State, we're going to Nebraska and to play in the Hawaii Rainbow classic. We've got some good teams coming into Cedar City too – including UNLV – as well as UC Riverside and Tennessee Tech.
“Hopefully, those games against that caliber of competition will give us the experience we need to be a contender in our league when that point of the season rolls around,” he said.
“This is an outstanding league, a league that doesn't get as much credit as it deserves. Oral Roberts, IUPUI, North Dakota State, Oakland, those are all teams that would contend for championships in any mid-major conference. Those teams are all good again this year, plus South Dakota State didn't lose anyone and could be a real sleeper, especially with the tournament in Sioux Falls next spring. IPFW has a great young program and UMKC and Western Illinois are two more teams that are heading in the right direction, so we have our work cut out for us in the league as well as in the preseason,” he wrapped up by saying.
