Craig Smith hasn’t missed a basketball game in 10 years as a head coach. But when his Utah State Aggies face the BYU Cougars on Saturday in the home opener at the Spectrum, he won’t be on the sidelines as he recovers from COVID-19.
Smith said Friday via videoconference that he feels “dynamite” and says he is asymptomatic. The positive test surprised him, he said, because he’s been almost militant about avoiding the coronavirus — basically self-quarantining for almost a month, not eating out at restaurants or even using drive-thrus, wearing a mask, washing his hands “religiously” and living in his basement away from his wife and children.
Smith said he got tested again just to make sure, and it came back positive a second time.
“So then you know,” Smith said.
Smith won’t coach the next two games — Saturday against BYU and Tuesday against the College of Idaho. Assistant coach Eric Peterson will man the sidelines for the 1-2 Aggies in Smith’s absence.
While Utah State will be missing the energy and passion Smith brings on the sideline, the team has another challenge in the Cougars, who have started the season 4-1 behind 3-point sharpshooting and solid defense.
BYU AT UTAH STATE
When • Saturday, 7 p.m.
Stream • Mountain West Network
BYU is shooting 37.8% from 3-point range, and is third in the country in attempts with 148. The Cougars allow just 40.5% shooting from the field and have a scoring mark of plus-15.2 through five games.
Smith said the key to limiting BYU’s perimeter prowess will be finding more urgency overall on defense.
“Certainly a lot of it is technique in terms of closing out, getting into the ball, carrying a hand, making sure those guys are feeling us — I’m not sure we did that consistently with some of those threes,” Smith said. “But then it’s more urgency in transition defense. It’s more urgency on baseline drive, baseline drift. … So we just have to be better with all that stuff and have the urgency to know what we’re doing as a team.”
Senior guard Alex Barcello leads the Cougars in 3-point accuracy, shooting a sizzling 61.5% from that distance. Aggies guard Marco Anthony may be tasked with guarding Barcello as he’s guarded the opposing team’s best scorer throughout the early portion of the season.
The Aggies are coming off their first win of the season, an 82-71 victory over Northern Iowa. Anthony had a career-high 22 points in that game, making him the only USU player so far this season to reach the 20-point mark.
Utah State features a slew of younger players anchored by veterans like Neemias Queta, Justin Bean and Brock Miller. Smith said he’s liked the way Queta and Bean have stepped in as leaders.
“Both of them have had great attitudes,” Smith said. “They’re not afraid to say what they need to say. They show up ready to compete. They both have played very, very hard and have been dependable in practice every day. We know exactly what we’re going to get out of them in a positive way.”
Queta leads Utah State, averaging 14.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game.
The game at the Spectrum will allow a maximum of 1,628 fans. Smith will have to act as more fan than coach as he watches his team face the Cougars alone from his basement.
“Not much else I can do,” Smith said.
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