With production trending down, will bench take a bite out of the Bulldogs?
The Fresno State Bulldogs do not have a midweek game, which might have been useful in putting a 74-64 loss to No. 10 Nevada behind them.
Instead, they will go Saturday to Saturday between games against the Wolf Pack and at Boise State, which is a long time to think about how they approached Nevada, all of the opportunities that they squandered and how that game might have turned out differently had they mixed it up more vigorously through the middle of the game.
But all of that aside, the loss to Nevada further exposed a soft spot that could impact the Bulldogs (12-4, 3-1 Mountain West) through conference play.
They are getting minutes but little production from their bench.
Fresno State has only 28 points from its bench in the first two weeks of Mountain West play, tied with San Diego State and Wyoming for fewest in the conference.
There’s a lot wrong with that because:
One, the Aztecs have played only three games to the Bulldogs’ four, and the Cowboys have played games with as few as seven scholarship players available due to injuries.
And, two, Deshon Taylor came off the bench for the Bulldogs in the conference opener at San Jose State after missing four games with a dislocated elbow and Braxton Huggins came off the bench against Colorado State coming back from a bout with the flu.
Huggins and Taylor are Fresno State’s top two scorers, 19.3 and 16.8 points per game, and have accounted for 15 of those 28 bench points.
The past two games the Bulldogs bench has produced seven points, four in a 78-77 victory at Utah State and three in the loss to the Wolf Pack. They are a combined 3 of 19, and they have been outscored 32-7.
Bench scoring in conference play:
▪ Boise State – 32.7 ppg
▪ Utah State – 19.0 ppg
▪ Nevada – 18.8 ppg
▪ New Mexico – 18.8 ppg
▪ Colorado State – 18.0 ppg
▪ San Jose State – 17.3 ppg
▪ UNLV – 11.3 ppg
▪ Air Force – 11.0 ppg
▪ San Diego State – 9.3 ppg
▪ Fresno State – 7.0 ppg
▪ Wyoming – 7.0 ppg
There were times against Nevada when the Bulldogs simply did not have much offense on the floor, and 20 of their 22 baskets came from three players. Huggins was 9 of 17 in scoring 25 points, Taylor was 6 of 11 in scoring up 16 and Nate Grimes was 6 of 9 in scoring 15 points and putting together a third double-double in four games.
Coach Justin Hutson has done a nice job deploying personnel in the best matchups, but at some point he is going to have to get that turned back in the right direction
The Bulldogs already are the only MW team with four players ranked in the top 20 in minutes played in all games, non-conference and conference. And all but one of the teams that finished in the top three in the conference the past three years had a bench player average at least 6.8 points – Nevada this season has Jazz Johnson averaging 11.4, with no starts.
New Williams is the Bulldogs’ best chance at some production off the bench — he averaged 15.5 points off the bench in Fresno State’s first two games, scoring 14 against Alaska-Anchorage and 17 at TCU. But he has struggled with his shot since Taylor and Huggins have returned to the starting lineup.
Coming off the bench the past two games after starting six in a row, Williams has an 0 of 8 in 17 minutes at Utah State and an 0 of 2 in 20 minutes against Nevada.
In those six starts, he had averaged 14.5 points per game.
Johnny McWilliams, Laz Rojas, Aguir Agau and Christian Gray are averaging between 3.0 and 1.4 shots per game.
In 89 minutes over the two games, Fresno State had the seven points and 12 rebounds from its bench, but just one assist with six turnovers, one block and no steals.
This week in the Mountain West
Tuesday
Nevada at Boise State
New Mexico at San Diego State
Wednesday
Utah State at San Jose State
UNLV at Air Force
Saturday
Fresno State at Boise State
Wyoming at New Mexico
San Jose State at UNLV
Colorado State at Utah State
Air Force at Nevada
0 of 10 — try not to do it again
Wyoming freshman Trace Young was off to a good start to his college career. The 6-foot-9 forward was slated to redshirt but due to injuries was put into play for a Dec. 29 game against Dixie State and hit a game-winning 3-pointer, and in his first three games put up 16, 16 and 10 points in games against the Trailblazers, Boise State and at UNLV.
He hit 16 of his first 24 shots, including 9 of 14 3-pointers: 66.7 and 64.3 percent.
Then, the Cowboys played at San Diego State.
And Young came to a sudden stop.
He was 0 of 10, starting 0 of 7 in the first half before tapping the brakes a bit in the second. Still, he was 0 of 3 in 14 second-half minutes and 0 of 10 and now on the list of the worst shooting games in the Mountain West over the past 10 seasons.
He is the eighth player to go 0 of 10 or, believe it or not, worse.
▪ Rashad Muhammad, San Jose State: 0 of 11, 3 points, at UNLV, Jan. 10, 2015
▪ Hugh Greenwood, New Mexico: 0 of 11, 0 points, vs. USC, Nov. 30, 2014
▪ Derrious Gilmore, Wyoming: 0 of 11, 0 points, at Air Force, Feb. 26, 2013
▪ Trace Young, Wyoming: 0 of 10, 2 points, at San Diego State, Jan. 8, 2019
▪ Antino Jackson, New Mexico: 0 of 10, 2 points, vs. Maryland, Nov. 25, 2017
▪ Daniel Bejarano, Colorado State: 0 of 10, 0 points, at New Mexico State, Dec. 27, 2014
▪ J.J. O’Brien, San Diego State: 0 of 10, 1 point, at San Diego, Dec. 5, 2013
▪ Grant Parker, Air Force: 0 of 10, 1 point, vs. Northern Colorado, Nov. 21, 2009
Young followed up that 0 of 10 with an 0 of 4 in a loss to Utah State.
Lay ups
▪ When Fresno State won at Utah State, the Bulldogs were only 3 of 6 at the foul line. That is the fewest points from the line for a winning team in a MW game since Jan. 27, 2015, when Utah State was 3 of in a win over Wyoming.
▪ Since taking down No. 10 Nevada, New Mexico has lost by double-digits to UNLV, 80-69, and at Colorado State, 91-76. It held Nevada to 0.744 points per possession, but the Lobos were at 1.212 against the Rebels and 1.230 against the Rams.
▪ Home Sweet Home? Fresno State had an announced attendance of 9,586 for its game against Nevada, its best crowd at the Save Mart Center in some time.
The Bulldogs, though, have now lost four in a row at home in front of at least 7,000.
2018-19
9,586 vs. Nevada, L 74-64
2017-18
9,645 vs. Wyoming, L 78-68
7,317 vs. Utah State, L 65-62
9,225 vs. Oregon, L 68-61
▪ San Diego State scored just 14 points in the first half and lost 62-48 at Air Force, which went into the game 5-10 and 0-3 in conference play including losses at Utah State by 17 points and at Colorado State by 23.
The Falcons are ranked No. 227 in defensive efficiency by kenpom.com, but held San Diego State to 5 of 22 (22.7 percent) and 0 of 7 at the 3-point line in the first half. The Aztecs also turned over the ball seven times in the first 20 minutes.
▪ Quote of the year candidate from Huggins after it was noted he had scored 50 points in the past 60 minutes of basketball, 25 in the second half at Utah State and 25 in the loss to the Wolf Pack: “I have one loss and one win,” he said.
▪ While Nevada was jacking up 37 shots from the 3-point line and missing 27 of them, Fresno State and Boise State both had games last week with 15 made 3-pointers.
The Bulldogs had 15 in their win at Utah State, a number they last hit when going 15 of 22 in a victory over Wyoming in 2015-16.
The Broncos had games last season with 18, 17, 16 and 15 3-pointers in victories over San Jose State, Eastern Oregon, Loyola (Ill.) and Portland.