Tournament & Upcoming Challenges

The Gossner Tournament was a great success for our team as we have improved in a lot of areas. We were able to get all three wins and got positive contributions from everyone on the team. After the tournament we were all able to go home for Christmas which was very nice. We had to be back in Logan on December 27 for practice. The Christmas break always goes very quickly. We are all grateful for the little break we get to be with our family and friends.

We beat Western Oregon after getting back from the break and then we leave for Las Cruces to start WAC play against New Mexico State followed by a game at Louisiana Tech. Both of these games will be big tests for us. Both of these teams are very athletic and will be a challenge for us. We must play great defense and execute our offensive sets extremely well to have a chance to win. We are excited for the challenge of defending the WAC title and starting that on the road. We are also excited to play on ESPNU and hope that as many people as possible will watch us play!!

-Tyler Newbold

Holiday basketball

We are very excited to play in our three day tournament! This tournament is a very big deal for us coming off a bad loss at Long Beach. We want to get that bad taste out of our mouth and get better and win some games! Three games in three days is a wonderful thing as a basketball player. As an athlete, it does not get much better. A big reason that the tournament is important is because it prepares us to play three games in three days later in the year at the WAC tournament. Learning how to do our game-plan in one day, and playing with a little fatigue must be learned during the tournament. We have three quality teams that are in the tournament this year and it will be a real test for us to play well and to get the wins! We are excited to play basketball at this wonderful time of year.

Merry Christmas!!

-Tyler Newbold

Wins, a loss and learning

With three straight on the road we were so pumped to come back to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum for a season-long five-game homestand. We started out with comfortable wins against Idaho State and Southern Utah.

On December 2, BYU came into town with an undefeated record. All the students and fans at the Spectrum were eager to welcome our rivals from the south as some students camped outside the night before to make sure they got the best seats. At 2:30 as I was driving to our team dinner I noticed the enormous line that was developing outside the Spectrum. It was an incredible sight to see. The game was great as we pulled away from BYU in the late moments of the game. The atmosphere in the Spectrum was electric and its something I will never forget. The winning team, losing team at the end of the game was spectacular!!

A few nights later we welcomed a good Saint Mary's team into the Spectrum. The Spectrum showed up in full force again as the noise was LOUD!! The game was tight the whole way. Key free throw line errors and missed assignments cost us the game as Saint Mary's beat us. It was a very tough loss. We have had a full week of practice to learn from our

mistakes and to get better as a team!! We are excited to play again this Saturday against another in-state team in Utah Valley.

-Tyler Newbold