On the Road & Now Ready for Tough Teams

We had two tough games on the road at Northeastern and at Utah. We played great for 33-35 minutes in both games and its too bad that a five minute stretch in both games cost us. We need to learn from those games and know that we can't have any lapses like that anymore. In Boston we were able to go a day early and we were able to take a tour of the city and learn more about its history. The arena we played in was pretty cool. It was the original home of the Boston Bruins and the Boston Celtics. It is also the oldest ice hockey arena in the United States.

Following that road trip we have been excited to return home for a bunch of games. We played really hard in our wins against Idaho State and Southern Utah. The first week of December brings two games that will bring the toughest competition we have had in the Spectrum this year. Both BYU and Saint Mary's are great teams that are off to great starts this season. We are excited to see where we stand against teams like this and we are excited for the atmosphere for these games. Go AGGIES!
-Tyler Newbold

This Week's Update

The Start of the Season...
We beat a good Weber State team on the road Friday. We did not play great
but we did play hard and kept Weber to a low shooting percentage. It was
such a fun game to start out the season. The 'Spectrum on Wheels' was in
full-force as we had a huge showing. The atmosphere was awesome and we were
able to come out with the win.

This Week...
This week we will be on the road Tuesday through Saturday as we have games
at Utah on Wednesday and at Northeastern University on Saturday. We
appreciate the treatment we get on the road.

Insight Into Aggie Game Day...
For all of you who wonder what we do when we are on the road for games, here
is a typical game day for us.

We wake up around 8:30 or 9:00 on game days. We then usually have a
breakfast buffet in the hotel we are staying at. After we are done eating
breakfast, we go straight to get taped for our shoot around at the arena. We
then have a conference room in the hotel where we watch about a half hour of
film on the opposing team. After we are done watching film we board the bus
and go to our shoot around. The shoot around usually lasts a little over an
hour. We do a lot of shooting drills and we do a lot of playing defense
against the scout team. The scout team does a great job of running the
opposing teams plays. During shoot around is when we fill out the ticket
list for people we want to come to the game. After shoot around we go back
to the hotel. We usually have time to take a shower and relax for an hour or
so before we have our pre-game meal. Pre-game meal is usually around 2:30 or
3:00. After we stuff ourselves full of food, we have a few hours before we
have to get dressed and ready to go to the arena. Most players will take a
short nap and relax before we get ready to go. We then leave and arrive at
the arena usually an hour before game time. After we play and hopefully win,
we then board the bus. A lot of times we will have food on the bus after the
game. Coach Beckert is in charge of keeping us fed on road trips and we
appreciate him a ton!!

-Tyler Newbold

Trinity Western Game

The Trinity Western game this past week was fun to play in. As players we must understand that the regular season is right around the corner and we needed to improve in our second game. The first half went very well and we played pretty good defense. The second half was not nearly as good as Trinity Western played a different defense which we did not adjust well to.
With three road games to start this season we must learn how to compete for a full 40 minutes. We had a lot of good things happen from this last exhibition and things we must tune up before we head down to Ogden to face a good Weber State team.

This next week we must have a good week of practice. Being a veteran on this team I know how difficult it is to win on the road. We must execute precisely and stay together when bad things happen in order to have a chance to win. Practice concentration is always important but even more at the beginning part of the year as we are learning new offensive sets and defensive schemes so that we can be prepared to face tough opponents. We are so excited to go down to Ogden on Friday night and to play well!!!

-Tyler Newbold

First game vs. Northwest Nazarene

We played Northwest Nazarene on Friday and it was fun! It was awesome to play somebody else because it gets old beating each other up in practice everyday. We shot well on offense but we still have a lot of work to do with the timing and execution of our plays. Defensively, we have plenty to work on. We must rebound a lot better and not get beat off the dribble on the perimeter as much.

We play our first three real games on the road and we must be better in those areas if we want to win. With another week of practice coming up we surely will get a lot better in these areas! While we do have a lot to work on, there are many positives and we are getting better everyday! We were so excited to have over 8,000 people to our first exhibition game. The support we get is incredible!!

-Tyler Newbold

New team locker room

We had a fun week of practice this week leading up to our first game!! Before I talk about that, let me mention how amazing our new team locker room is. It is an incredible upgrade from the past. The furniture just got put in on Friday and the room looks great. We are so thankful to the past players and individuals who donated time and money to help build it.

More pictures of what the locker room looks like can be found
http://www.utahstateaggies.com/school-bio/ust-spectrum.html.

-Tyler Newbold