LEFT – Utah State forward Great Osobor attempts a free throw against Southern Utah | RIGHT – Utah State guard Darius Brown looks for an opening in the Aggies game against South Dakota Mines.
LOGAN – On a team filled with newcomers and players who’d never even set foot on the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum floor during a game, someone had to step up and lead Utah State into its next era of basketball.
Graduate guard Darius Brown and junior forward Great Osobor, a pair of transfers from Montana State who followed head coach Danny Sprinkle to Logan, are the two player doing just that so far.
In the first three games of the season, Brown and Osobor have undoubtedly been the best players for the Aggies. Between the two, they lead the team in 15 different statistical categories, including each of the five main statistical categories (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks). Osobor leads USU in points (22.3), rebounds (8.7) and blocks (2.7) with Brown holding the lead in assists (7.7) and steals (2.0).
For Osobor, this is the first time in college he’s had a larger role. In two seasons at Montana State, he had to play behind Jubrile Belo, a four-time All-Big Sky center that made time for Osobor hard to come by. But Osobor doesn’t see having to play second fiddle to Belo for two years as a negative.
“I learned a lot from him,” Osobor said. “Got to watch him every day. The way he works. The way he approached going to games, practice, the weight room, everything. I feel like that helped me now that I’m in a situation where I’m expected to do a lot more. I have a blueprint, a cheat-sheet to the test.”
Despite playing that smaller role, only averaging 19.0 minutes as a sophomore, Osobor made the most of his time, averaging 10.1 points per game, one of just three players last year to average double figures in under 20 minutes per game. That fact made him the easy choice for the Big Sky Sixth Man of the Year award.
Now in a much bigger role, Osobor is free to take advantage of his unique combination of size and skill, a 6-foot-8, 250-pound frame and a 7-foot-4 wingspan Osobor said, “God blessed me with having.” Sprinkle has several times noted how much of a matchup problem Osobor can present.
“He’s really hard to guard because he can do it on the block. He can drive your big. He spins. He’s so nimble for how big he is,” Sprinkle said. “And trust me, if you’ve ever had the pad on him in practice, he’s heavy. He’s big-boned dude. And when he hits you, you feel it.”
Teams have long had trouble guarding Osobor without fouling him. Last year, Osobor ranked 15th in fouls drawn per 40 minutes played according to KenPom.com. This year, that rank has only increased as Osobor is up to the ninth-highest rate of drawing fouls and he ranks third in the nation in free throws attempted (36).
This aspect of his game in particular aided Osobor in his career-high 31 points against Southern Utah on Tuesday. He made 13 of 17 free throws, both of which are career-bests for Osobor. In fact, two of the four highest free throw attempt games in Osobor’s career have occurred within the last week (17 vs SUU and 11 at Bradley).
“I feel like every game I need to try and be physical,” Osobor said. “And It’s a physical game (in the post). I’m probably going to foul, they’re going to foul me. I just try to keep being consistent with it.”
Unlike Osobor, Brown is no stranger to playing a large role on a team. He started 32 games as a true freshman at Cal State Northridge and has averaged at least 29 minutes per game in each full seasons of his career (the 2021-22 season being excepted as he played just eight games due to injury) and started 129 of the 133 games he’s appeared in. He’s also averaged at least eight points every year along with at least four assists.
The biggest change in Brown’s role with a team, at least in recent years, occurred in his lone year at Montana State. Brown’s tenure with the Bobcats didn’t start out particularly well. In his first seven games, Brown averaged just 4.6 points on 27.0 percent shooting. His assist numbers were fine, he even tallied an absurd 16 assists against Middle Tennessee which tied an MSU record and set a personal career-high.
But Sprinkle wasn’t happy with the lack of scoring from his point guard. Brown didn’t attack teams that went under screens by shooting 3-pointers, among other things. So, during Montana State’s game against Southern Utah last year, Sprinkle gave his point guard some motivation to shoot it more.
“If they go under a ball screen and you don’t shoot it, I’m taking you out.”
According to Sprinkle, Brown went out and on the next play, drilled a 3-pointer in just the type of situation Brown had hesitated shooting in.
Following that coaching moment, Brown picked up his scoring, going from 4.6 points in the first seven games, to 10.3 over the last 27. That included a pair of 20-point games which made Brown’s 2022-23 season the only year in which he’s had multiple 20-point games (so far).
Brown’s assertiveness on offense has only grown in coming to Logan. He’s hit double digits in scoring all three games so far, averaging what are currently career-highs in points (15.0) and field goal attempts (11.7). His 3-point attempts per game has skyrocketed from about 2.5 per game all the way to 8.0 per game this year. He’s also dishing out assists at the highest rate of his career, averaging 7.7 dimes per game.
“He’s a floor general. He knows when to shoot, when not to shoot,” Sprinkle said.
Perhaps it’s a coincidence that the two players who followed Sprinkle from Montana State to Utah State, bringing with them knowledge of playing in that system, are the ones leading Utah State right now. Or perhaps it isn’t. Brown and Osobor are arguably the two most accomplished players for the Aggies, having the best resumes among the 13 newcomers or the three returners, so maybe this would have happened no matter who the coach was. It’s probably a bit of both. Either way, these two players will be the catalysts for whatever happens with the Aggies in the first year of the Sprinkle era.
