Utah State draws solid crowd in public practice, puts on good show | Sports

This event was put together on short notice, and came only a week after a practice in which media were invited to attend (which was the second of this offseason so far). Despite the short notice, and it being a weekday, fans of all ages packed the bleachers and cheered on the team through drills and five-on-five work.

“Tonight the new guys got to see what this place is about, what makes it special,” Calhoun said. “You saw Jaycee Carroll in here tonight, former Aggies, a lot of little kids, a lot of youth, that’s who we can impact. And then of course our diehard fans, you saw them in here tonight. Really, really neat. I’m going to do it in the fall. I think we got to have more access. If we’re going to go out and ask people for money to support our program, we got to create some different access points for our fans to come in and see these guys and build a relationship. But it’s good for our new guys to meet people.”

Numerous individuals stood out on the court, junior forward Tucker Anderson chief among them. He made several 3-pointers, along with a fadeaway two on a post-up in the key, showcasing more skills than just long-range shooting.

“You saw Tucker Anderson play great tonight. You know, I really got on him in the film session. I said, you gotta be more active. And just, you can’t rely on that jump shot. Sure enough, he comes out and plays really well.”

Anderson has bulked up from last season, going from a listed weight of 210 pounds up to 230 currently. All of it for the purpose of making him a more effective forward and contributor in multiple ways.

“Talking to Coach Calhoun and the team, like, I want to be more than just a shooter,” Anderson said. “So obviously with the fours and fives in this league I had to be able to put on weight and take hits. And so for me it was just in the summer, just stay in the gym, stay in the weight room and just really put an emphasis on that, and being stronger and be able to take hits in the season.”

Transfer guard MJ Collins Jr. showed out as well, hitting multiple shots in isolation situations (along with several cuts to the basket for easy lay-ins) as he positions himself for a big role.

“If he sees the game, him and Mason [Falslev] will be a heck of a one-two punch scoring,” Calhoun said. “He made great decisions with the ball. His shot creativity is really good. He’s a little bit like Ian [Martinez]. He’s just got to continue to understand he’s going to be a big focal point of what we’re doing. Last year he played 20 minutes [at Vanderbilt]. Got about seven points a game in the SEC. We expect him to have his best year yet. Most of these one year kids do and he’s a guy that I thought tonight was awesome.”

Freshman David Iweze has drawn notable interest, especially when the full extent of his measurables was reported with him being listed at 6-foot-10, with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, and weighing 240 pounds as an 18-year old. He moved well on the court, finishing a few shots and getting an impressive block during the five-on-five portion.

Calhoun noted that Iweze put in a lot of work his senior year of high school to have a college-ready body as a freshman.

“I saw (Iweze) play here in Utah months ago. And that night I saw him, he was not very good,” Calhoun said. He took it upon himself. He called our strength coach. Our strength coach gave him a workout plan. He probably worked his tail off the next four or five months. He came in here at 235 pounds. He has not looked back.”

There’s more to come and more to be implemented, including more potential lineup combinations. Many of the lineups featured just one big on the court, with guys like Tucker Anderson and Luke Kearney playing power forward in some lineups., butCalhoun noted they’ve not even run through all their potential combinations during the summer sessions.

“There’s a number of ways we can play. We haven’t even put our big lineup actions in yet on offense,” Calhoun said. “We’re going to play two bigs a lot of the year.”