Utah State point guard Elijah Perryman became the second Aggie to earn Mountain West Freshman of the Week honors this season, joining forward Adlan Elamin who earned the distinction last week. The two are the latest in a very solid line of freshmen contributors to the program and reflect much of the potential of their forebears.
Aggie basketball fans are quite familiar with having freshmen contributors on their team over the years. Since joining the Mountain West, a total of 17 Utah State freshmen have logged at least 350 minutes (the rough baseline to being a regular rotation player). Those meeting that qualifier range from guys just inside the rotation as freshmen, like Sean Bairstow and Brock Miller, or players that were stars in their first year, such as Kobe McEwen and Neemias Queta. Future stars also saw small or medium roles as freshmen, like Sam Merrill, Justin Bean, Jalen Moore and Mason Falslev.
Those 17 freshmen went on to be selected to 16 All-Mountain West teams, six All-MW Defense teams and earn two Freshman of the Year awards and one Player of the Year trophy (with Falslev expected to add to these tallies this season). And barring an early transfer, something unfortunately common with six of the 17 finishing their careers away from Logan, it’s very likely that Perryman and Elamin could add to those honors as well.
The overall Freshman of the Year trophy is pretty much out of reach for the two Aggie rookies, given how guys like New Mexico’s Jake Hall and Wyoming’s Nasir Meyer have played, among plenty others. But the future for Perryman and Elamin is strong, partly because they are waiting their turn to be stars. Mason Falslev and MJ Collins, even Drake Allen and Karson Templin, currently occupy large roles that keep the freshmen from having massive night-in-night-out impacts.
Still, the flashes of potential are happening and with more regularity of late.
Perryman’s recent success comes after a hitting a mid-season wall. The California native started the year averaging 5.9 points and 4.1 assists while shooting 46% from the field in his first 13 games, culminating in him becoming the first Aggie freshmen to record a double-double with points and assists by scoring 13 points with 10 dimes against San Jose State. But over the next 10 games, Perryman’s production and efficiency tanked, dropping to 3.3 points, 2.2 assists and making just 38% of his shots.
Cut to last week and he scored 16 points with seven assists against Fresno State and then had 10 points, nine assists vs Memphis. For the week, he averaged 13.0 points, 8.0 assists with just two total turnovers while making 8 of 11 field goal attempts, including 5 of 7 threes. USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun credited the young point guard with a significant share of the reason for Utah State’s victory against Memphis where Perryman had to play extended minutes due to starting PG Drake Allen being on the bench with foul trouble.
Elamin’s growth has been both metaphorical and literal. When he arrived on the campus of Utah State University, Elamin was a 160-pound basketball player who had come off the bench on his high school team. And while said high school team was the mighty St. Paul VI Catholic, one of the best prep basketball schools in the nation, Elamin clearly had a lot of things to grow into. One of those literally being his own body.
If Elamin was to fulfil his potential as a basketball player, one gifted to be 6-foot-9 and a 7-foot long wingspan, he had to put on some healthy weight. Part of his limitations in high school came down to having the density of a twig. He struggled to rebound and create space for himself inside the paint. The potential was pretty clearly there, it simply needed to be harnessed.
With how thin Elamin was at the end of his high school career, Calhoun was making plans to redshirt the young forward. But over a few months, featuring hard work from both Elamin and the coaching and nutrition staff, the freshman gained roughly 25 points to tip the scales at 183 by the start of the year. It’s still a bit on the string-bean side, but a lot better than weighing less than what a 32-ounce soda costs.
The added bulk, along with a continued emphasis to play more physical, has evidently paid off. Elamin has nearly doubled his rebounding rate since becoming a starter. He averaged about 0.1 rebounds per minute played in the first month-and-a-half of the season. After entering the starting lineup and seeing an increase in minutes, he’s up to 0.19 per minute. Elamin got his own first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds at New Mexico. It makes Elamin and Perryman the only Aggie freshman duo to each have a double-double in the same season since Neemias Queta and Justin Bean in 2018-19.
New challenges will face these two freshmen as they encounter new problems. The task of performing in the regular season, even on the road, is something they’ve now got down, even if some inconsistencies remain. Next up will be tackling the bigger stages of the conference tournament and likely the NCAA Tournament.
