Southern Utah's men's basketball team plays the first of two 2011-12 in-state contests this weekend as the Thunderbirds head up I-15 for a match-up with in-state rival Utah State on Saturday.

            The Thunderbirds (3-1/0-0 Summit League) are coming off a 63-60 win over Montana State-Billings in their home-opener on Thursday night. SUU led through most of the game but could never really pull away from the pesky Yellowjackets. The Thunderbirds opened the season at San Diego State's Basketball Travelers Classic, where they posted wins over UC Davis (76-75) and Bryant (95-78) and fell to the host Aztecs, 70-37.

            Utah State (1-1/0-0 WAC) opened the season with a 69-62 home win over BYU last Friday night, then took the short trip to Ogden, Utah, where the Aggies lost a 73-63 decision to Weber State on Tuesday.

            The Game: Saturday, SUU (3-1) at Utah State (1-1), 7:00 p.m. (MST) in the Spectrum (10,270).

            TV: Saturday's game will be televised live by KCSG, which is available throughout Utah on Dish Network and DirecTV, as well as on Comcast, Bresnan and most major cable providers.

            Radio: All Southern Utah men's basketball games will be broadcast live by KSUU (91.1 FM) as well as on the internet at www.suu.edu/ksuu. Art Challis will be in his 39th season as the Thunderbirds' basketball play-by-play voice. Dr. Challis is joined on home and selected road broadcasts by former SUU standout Dean O'Driscoll. O'Driscoll will handle play-by-play on the USU broadcast, with his former teammate, Steve Hoagland, providing color commentary.

            The Series: Utah State holds a 5-0 edge in the series with SUU, including a 66-53 win last year in Cedar City. The series began with a 76-63 Aggie win in a neutral court match-up between the two teams in Salt Lake City during the 1994 season but the teams didn't meet again until the 2007-08 season when USU claimed a 60-49 win in Logan. USU won in Cedar City during the 2008-09 season, 72-65, and came out on top of the last match-up in Logan, 89-49, early in the 2009-10 campaign.

            Practice Schedule: The practice schedule calls for the team will work out at 3:00 p.m. daily. Contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner for more information.

            Media Availability: Players and coaches are available for interviews on Tuesdays prior to practice, between 2:00-3:00 p.m., with occasional adjustments due to scheduling conflicts. To contact a player or coach on another day or time contact Neil Gardner at gardner@suu.edu or 435-586-7753.

            Video Highlights: Video highlights of SUU's Summit League games will be available to accredited media outlets via SUU's FTP site. For information on the schedule and obtaining those highlights contact SUU Director of Athletic Media Relations Neil Gardner.

            Affiliations: Southern Utah is in its 15th and final season in The Summit League. All but two of SUU's sports compete in The Summit, with football a member of the Great West Conference and gymnastics an affiliate member of the Western Athletic Conference. Most of SUU's programs will move into the Big Sky Conference in 2012. Utah State is a member of the Western Athletic Conference.

            Videostreaming/Live Stats at www.suutbirds.com: All of Southern Utah's 2011-12 men's basketball home games will be video-streamed on the SUU athletic website at www.suutbirds.com. Live stats for all home games and most road games will also be available. Video streams are on a pay basis but there is no cost for live stats.

            Thunderbird Club Luncheons: The Thunderbird Club's weekly no-host luncheon is held Mondays at noon in the Tradition Room in the home of President Michael Benson. The public is invited to attend the luncheons where Southern Utah's in-season coaches talk about their upcoming contests and review the past week's action.

            Next Up: SUU plays host to a pair of contests over the Thanksgiving break, with Southern Virginia in the Centrum Wednesday night and Troy in town on Nov. 26.

            The Coaches: Head Coach Roger Reid (Weber State '68) is entering his fifth season on the Southern Utah bench.

            Reid brings a career Division I mark of 195-157, including a 43-81 record at SUU, into the season. His record includes six years as head coach at Brigham Young.

            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. 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 40-year coaching veteran who is also entering his fifth season with the program; Johnny Brown (New Mexico '86), an 18-year veteran of the coaching ranks who is in his fifth year in Cedar City; and assistant Kenya Crandell (Nebraska-Kearney '96) who is entering his 15th season as a collegiate coach and his fourth year at SUU.

Captains: This year's captains are the three seniors: Ray Jones, Jr., Matt Massey, and Ramell Taylor.

Thunderbird Notes:

• Ramell Taylor notched the team's first double-double of the season against Montana State-Billings, with 18 points and 10 rebounds. It was his first career double-double and the 10 boards were a career-high.
• Jackson Stevenett just missed a double-double vs. MSUB, with 11 points and a career-high nine rebounds.
• SUU out-rebounded MSUB 41-31. It was the team's second-largest rebounding advantage of the season, behind the 41-21 edge vs. UC Davis.
• The T-BIrds attempted a season-high 36 free throws vs. MSUB but converted just 23 opportunities. The 63.9 conversion rate is the team's lowest this season. SUU also had a season-low eight assists vs. the Yellowjackets.
• Ray Jones, Jr., posted career rebounding and assists highs last weekend. The senior point guard from Little Rock, Ark., pulled down 10 rebounds vs. UC Davis and dished out 10 assists vs. Bryant.
•  Damon Heuir poured in a career-best 33 points vs. Bryant. He hit his first seven shots and finished 13-of-16, including 5-8 from 3-point range and 2-2 from the free throw line.
• Matt Massey had a career-high seven assists vs. Bryant.
• SUU is 2-1 for the first time since the 2006-07 season when the team started 3-1.
• The 95 points SUU scored against Bryant are tied as the second-most during Roger Reid's tenure at SUU and are tied as the most against a Division I team. SUU scored 95 last year against South Dakota State and had an 111-point outburst against Division II University of the Southwest in 2009. The last time the Thunderbirds scored more than 95 points against a Division I opponent was back in the 1999-2000 season when the T-Birds scored 96 at home against UMKC.
• Damon Heuir's 33 points against Bryant were the most by a Thunderbird since Davis Baker scored 34 vs. North Dakota State on Jan. 7, 2010.
• SUU has 54 assists through three games, an average of 18 a game and 20 more than the three opponents combined.
• Through the first three games the Thunderbirds have out-rebounded their opponents by a 31.3-28.7 average.
• SUU shot .491 in the three games in San Diego but the opponents averaged .519.

Exhibition Game Notes:

• Five Thunderbirds had double-figure scoring averages through the two exhibitions. Ray Jones, Jr., led the way with a 16.0 point average, while Matt Massey checked in at 15.5, Ramell Taylor at 15.0, Jackson Stevenett at 14.5 and Wade Collie at 10.0.
• Stevenett averaged a team-leading 8.5 rebounds per game, while Massey and Taylor pulled down 4.5 and 4.0 caroms, respectively.
• Jones and Stevenett co-led the team with 4.5 assists apiece, while Jones and Collie averaged 2.5 steals.
• Stevenett led the team in minutes played during the exhibitions, averaging 38.5 per game. Jones was on the floor an average of 32.5 minutes and Massey 30.5, but no other player logged more than Taylor's 25.5 minutes per game.
• Stevenett blocked three shots against Saint Martin's. They were the team's only rejections in the two games.
• The Thunderbirds did a much better job taking care of the ball in this year's exhibitions than in last year's. After averaging 21.0 turnovers in the two exhibitions in 2010 team had just 25 combined this year, nine in the second half.
• SUU also shared the ball and stole the ball better in this year's exhibitions than in last year's. The team averaged 20 dimes per game in 2011 and 16 in 2010 and had 21 steals in the two games this year compared to 12 in two last season.

2011-12 SUU Trivia:

• SUU has seven lettermen returning from last year's squad as well as a redshirt freshman and another player who was on the squad in 2008-09 before serving an LDS Church mission. The eight total returning lettermen are the team's most during the Roger Reid era.
• Three seniors, six juniors, two sophomores, one redshirt freshmen and four true freshmen, including walk-ons, make up the 2011-12 Thunderbird squad.
• The Basketball Travelers Classic makes it three straight years that the Thunderbirds have participated in an in-season tournament. Last year the team competed at the Great Alaska Shootout and two years ago it traveled to Waikiki for Hawai'i's Rainbow Classic.
• Including the two exhibition games, SUU will play 15 contests at home in the Centrum this season. The regular-season home schedule includes nine conference games as well as non-conference match-ups with Troy and UC Davis as well as games against Division II foes Montana State-Billings and Southern Virginia.
• The SUU road schedule has the Thunderbirds playing at Utah State and Weber State, with a return visit to Troy as well as the nine conference road games. SUU will also play a road game against an opponent to be determined, in the Sears Bracket Buster tournament, in mid-February. This is the first season SUU has participated in the Bracket Buster.
• The Summit League tournament returns to Sioux Falls, S.D., for the fourth straight season this March. Eight men's and eight women's teams qualify for the tournament.
• The University of South Dakota joins The Summit League this season. The Coyotes replace Centenary College, which has moved its athletics program to the NCAA Division III level.
• As a result of the league shake-up, SUU will have a new travel partner in 2011-12: Oral Roberts. SUU had been travel partners with UMKC for the past five seasons.
• Oral Roberts announced on Oct. 25, that this will be its final season in The Summit League as well. ORU is moving to the Southland Conference next season.
• SUU qualified for The Summit League tournament as the number eight seed last year. The Thunderbirds finished the season strong, winning five of their final eight regular-season games, with a 2-point and a 3-point loss as well as a loss to regular-season and conference tournament champion Oakland among the three setbacks.
• SUU is in its 49th season as a 4-year institution, its 24th as an NCAA Division I qualifier and its 15th and final season in the Summit League. The Thunderbirds will join the Big Sky Conference next year.

Scouting the Aggies:

            Utah State has a pair of ties to Southern Utah, as assistant coach Tarvish Felton played his college ball at SUU and was an assistant on the Thunderbird staff for two seasons. USU freshman forward Ben Clifford is the younger brother of former T-Bird John Clifford, the Thunderbirds' single-season shooting percentage champ (.624 in 2008-09).

            USU limited Weber State to just 37 percent shooting Tuesday while hitting 45.1 percent of its own shots but the Wildcats buried 12-of-23 3-pointers while USU hit just 3-of-9.

            Guard Brockeith Pane (6-1, 195, Sr) leads four Aggies in double-figures with a 17.5 ppg scoring average. F Morgan Grim (6-7, 230, Sr) scores at a 13.5 ppg clip and pulls down 5.5 rebounds per game, while G Preston Melin (6-4, 175, So) scores at a 12.0 ppg clip and F Brady Jardine averages 10.5 points and a team-leading 11.0 rebounds.

            As a team, USU averages 66.0 points on .455 shooting (.333 threes) and has connected on 65.4 percent of its free throws. The Aggies have allowed opponents an average of 67.5 points on .416 shooting (.405 threes) and have been out-rebounded by a slight 33.5-33.0 margin.