Men's Basketball 12/18/2008 7:00:00 AM Southern Utah Athletics

T-Bird Men Travel To Utah Valley

    Southern Utah's men's basketball team plays its penultimate 2008-09 road non-conference game Saturday when the Thunderbirds travel to Orem, Utah, to take on Utah Valley at 7:00 p.m.
   The Thunderbirds (3-7, 2-0 Summit) will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak Saturday after suffering close losses in three straight games. Over the past two weeks the T-Birds have lost a 72-65 decision to Utah State (Wednesday night), 66-62 to Weber State (Dec. 13) and 67-63 at UC Riverside (Dec. 6). The loss at UCR snapped a modest two-game winning streak in which the Thunderbirds opened Summit League play with wins over Oakland (82-66) and IPFW (78-62). The Oakland win had snapped a four-game skid.
   Utah Valley (5-4) has been off since a 69-50 home loss to Utah State last Saturday night. The Wolverines opened the season with four straight wins, then lost three in a row before winning at Sacramento State, 64-44, on Dec. 9, then losing to the Aggies. UVU is 4-2 at home so far, with wins over Northern Arizona (68-62), Montana Western (90-80), Louisiana-Lafayette (71-41) and Montana (82-75) and losses to UC Santa Barbara (62-57) and Utah State.

   The Game: Southern Utah (3-7, 2-0) at Utah Valley (5-4), 7:00 p.m. (MST) in the McKay Center (8,500), Orem, Utah.

   Radio: All of 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.

   TV: There will be no live television broadcast of Saturday's game in southern Utah. Video highlight packages of the Thunderbirds' home Summit League games as well as selected non-conference games will be available to legitimate media outlets via the SUU ftp site. For more information on obtaining the highlight packages contact SUU director of athletic media relations Neil Gardner at 435-586-7753 or at gardner@suu.edu.

   Webstreaming: All of SUU's regular-season home games and road Summit League games will be available over the internet through the SUU website site. Complete packages, including SUU men's and women's games, are available for just $29.95. For more information, go to www.suutbirds.com.

   The Series: Saturday's game will be just the fourth between the Thunderbirds and Wolverines, and all three previous meetings have been exciting. Utah Valley holds a 2-1 edge and has won two straight in the series, including a 91-88 double-overtime win in Cedar City last season. UVU is 1-0 vs. the Thunderbirds in Orem after claiming a 64-55 victory in the McKay Center during the 2006-07 season. SUU got a win in the initial meeting between the two teams, a 68-60 triumph in the Centrum, also during the 06-07 campaign.

   Next Up: Next week the Thunderbirds travel down I-15 for a Tuesday game vs. UNLV, then host Sacramento State Saturday night (Dec. 27).

   Practice Schedule: During the holiday break the Thunderbirds are working out each day from noon until 2:30 p.m. in the Centrum. The ?Birds work out daily from 2:00-4:30 p.m. in the Centrum while school in session and they will return to that schedule following the holidays. 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 13-26 in his second season on the Thunderbird bench.
   Reid takes a career Division I mark of 165-102 into Saturday's game.
   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 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.

T-Bird Notes:

Dave Marek scored a season-high 21 points and played all 40 minutes vs. Utah State. He hit 5-of-7 shots, including 4-of-6 3-pointers, buried all seven of his free throws, pulled down two rebounds and dished out three assists as well vs. the Aggies. Earlier in the season Marek dished out a season-high six assists vs. Oakland, then bettered that with seven vs. IPFW.
Davis Baker saw an eight-game streak of scoring in double figures come to an end vs. Utah State when the junior wing hit just 2-of-12 shots and finished with five points, his fewest since he scored just four after getting into early foul trouble in the opener against Mesa State. Baker was coming off a team-and career-high 27 point night vs. Weber State. Baker has led or co-led the team in both scoring and in rebounding five times, and the silver lining for him vs. USU was that he led the team with a career-high five assists.
Tyler Quinney has led or co-led the team in rebounding five times after pulling down seven boards and scoring 20 points in playing all 40 minutes vs. Utah State. Two weeks ago Quinney scored a career-high 35 points against Oakland when he knocked down 11-of-16 shots and 13-of-15 free throws. Quinney also grabbed nine rebounds, picked off three steals and had an assist while playing the entire 40 minutes against the Grizzlies.
After scoring in single digits in in three straight games, John Clifford finished with 14 points against Utah State. Clifford also co-led the squad with seven boards vs. the Aggies. Clifford tallied his first career double-double earlier in the season when he scored 11 points and corralled 13 rebounds at Boise State.
Drew Allen got the first start of his SUU career vs. Utah State. The junior guard scored his first basket as a Thunderbird, dished out two assists and had a steal vs. the Aggies.
The Thunderbirds tied their season-low for turnovers with just 10 vs. Utah State.
SUU played without guards Mike Josserand and Cory Davis as well as without forward Byron Byrd vs. Utah State as the three served suspensions after violations of team rules.
Guard Eules Thompson has been dismissed from the team.
Jaren Jeffery scored his first collegiate points vs. Weber State when he hit three-of-four free throws.
Since blocking five shots in the season opener against Mesa State the Thunderbirds have swatted just four more. Clifford got SUU's first block in three games against Weber State but the team went without a block again vs. Utah State.
Southern Utah has been out-rebounded in back-to-back games after losing the battle of the boards just once in the first eight games. SUU was out-rebounded 35-32 against Weber State (32-25) and 27-25 vs. Utah State. Utah State had been out-rebounding opponents by more than 12 boards per game heading into the SUU contest, however.
SUU is off to its first 2-0 start in conference play since the 2002-03 season.
The Thunderbirds' loss at UC Riverside is their only setback this season when shooting better than 50 percent and when out-shooting the opponent. SUU shot .561 at UCR, to .532 for the Highlanders.
Two of the T-Birds' three best shooting games came two weeks ago, the game at UCR and a .571 performance against IPFW. The best shooting night for SUU was the opener against Division II Mesa State, when the ?Birds knocked down .574 percent (27-of-47).
Josserand got his first start of the season (and his first since the season-opener at Utah State last year) at Boise State, where he responded by dishing out a team-high five assists and picking off a pair of steals with just one turnover in 26 minutes on the floor. Until missing the Utah State game he had started every game since.
Davis had a career-best five dimes vs. Oakland, then matched that figure with a team-high five more at UC Riverside.
Jake Nielson scored a career-best 14 points vs. IPFW. He also tied his career-best with a team-best four steals at UC Riverside, in just 12 minutes on the floor.
The Thunderbirds' 16-point wins over Oakland (82-66) and IPFW (78-62) represent the largest margin, win or lose, in an SUU game so far this season.
The Thunderbirds have either equaled or had higher assist totals than all but one opponent this season, with Seattle Pacific the exception with 18 to SUU's 13 dimes.
The Thunderbirds are also 2-0 when they score 80 points or more but hadn't won with less than 80 points until the IPFW game when 78 was good enough to get past the Mastodons.

   Wolverine Notes: Utah Valley competes in the Great West Conference, the same league in which SUU competes in football. The league, originally known as the Great West Football Conference, expanded last summer to sponsor 14 sports. Southern Utah, Cal Poly and UC Davis are football-only members. Utah Valley is joined by football playing North Dakota and South Dakota as well as non-football schools Chicago State, Houston Baptist, New Jersey Tech and Texas-Pan American in the conference.
   Two Wolverines carry double-figure scoring averages, guard Ryan Toolson at 25.0 ppg and Josh Olsen at 10.8 ppg. Toolson, who seemingly single-handedly beat SUU last year with 35 points, shoots at a .518 clip from the floor and has hit 27-of-60 3-point attempts (45 percent). Olsen also leads the team in rebounding (4.4 per game) and assists (4.1 apg).
   As a team, UVU averages 67.9 points on .457 shooting (.373 threes) while giving up an average of 63.3 points on .455 shooting (.362 threes). The Wolverines have out-rebounded their opponents by an average of 30.8-to-28.9 boards per agme and have hit an outstanding 84.8 percent of their free throw attempts.

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