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Logan • After back-to-back losses, Utah State coach Tim Duryea shuffled his starting lineup Saturday night.
Sophomore center Elston Jones and junior point guard Shane Rector started against the Wolf Pack. They replaced redshirt freshman Quinn Taylor and sophomore Julion Pearre, respectively.
"You really don't want to be in a situation where you are changing a lot at this point of the year," Duryea said. "You want to be a fine-tuning mode. But, with the circumstances around our team this year … we haven't had that luxury."
Jones is the Aggies' only center who, on offense, plays best with his back to the basket. Taylor, a power forward, has been playing out of position. So has junior Lew Evans, who usually gets more playing time than either Jones or Taylor.
"We're going to give Elston more consistent minutes," Duryea said. "He's a true five-man, and we need to see what consistent minutes will do with his development. They only way to find that out is to throw him out there and get him in a regular rotation at the start of the game."
Coaches not fans of smaller tourney field
The decision of Mountain West presidents to cut the number of teams participating in the league's postseason tournament from 11 to eight has been harshly criticized.
New Mexico president Robert Frank chaired the subcommittee that recommended the tournament field be reduced. On Thursday, he told the Albuquerque Journal that athletic directors "were part of" the process and the coaches "were asked their opinion about this."
Not so, according to Duryea.
"The coaches were part of the process in saying unanimously that they did not want it to happen," he said. "If that is considered part of the process, then it was a small part because the voice from the coaches was not taken into consideration.
"If we were any more a part of the process than that, then I must have missed the meeting or phone call because the next thing we knew is what we were told or saw in the media. … Our voice was in direct opposition to what was decided."
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