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Logan • Stew Morrill has never seen anything like it.

And he's seen a lot.

Entering his 29th season as a collegiate head coach — and his 17th at Utah State — Morrill and his Aggies opened practice on Friday afternoon at the Spectrum.

"It's the most inexperienced team I've ever had," Morrill said following the 2½-hour session. "We don't have many returning players; we have a lot of new guys. They are going to try hard, but we don't have a lot experience."

No kidding.

Utah State starts the new season — its second as a member of the Mountain West Conference — with only four returnees and 13 players who were not on the roster last year.

That translates into considerable teaching by Morrill and his staff, as well as much learning by the players.

"You just have to see what kind of pace you can go at," Morrill said. "When we were going for our [Western Athletic Conference] championships, those kids had seen it all and done it all. These kids haven't. But if we stay positive, we'll get better as we go. It's just going to take some time."

Morrill's most experienced player is sophomore wing Jalen Moore, who averaged 5.6 points and 2.7 rebounds in 17.5 minutes last year. He will be one of Utah State's new leaders, even though he just celebrated his 19th birthday.

"I have a year under my belt and we've talked about me being a leader," Moore said. "I'm going to work on it ... I think I'll be able to do that for these guys."

Said Morrill: "I think leadership is an interesting thing — where it can come from. On some of our championship teams we had 10 or 12 leaders out there. It would be nice if that happened this year."

Utah State's opening practice featured "a lot of drill work," Morrill said. "... It went well."

Asked about the session, Moore said, "Practice will be a little slower for a few weeks. We have a lot of freshmen. We have a lot of [JC] transfers. We're working on teaching them how he coaches us — playing fast, working hard, running up and down the court, don't be lazy. They're all going to have to get used to that."

One player who made a quick impact was senior forward Sean Harris. He was granted a sixth year of eligibility during the offseason after playing only 10 games in the last two years because of knee injuries. "We have a player production chart that we post after practice so they can see what they got done," Morrill said.

"One guy who got a lot done was Sean. He hasn't played a lot at Utah State, but his knee is a lot better and we expect him to help us." —

Aggies' key dates

Oct. 23 • Blue-White Scrimmage, 7 p.m.

Oct. 31 • Exhibition vs. Texas A&M, 7 p.m.

Nov. 14 • Home opener vs. Weber State, 7 p.m.