Utah State Opens the 2017-18 Season at Weber State Friday Nov. 10

Utah State will open its 113th season of men’s basketball on Friday night, facing Weber State on the road at 7 p.m. (MT). The Aggies are 1,566-1,091 (.589) in 2,657 games played in its history.

• Utah State is 83-29 all-time in season openers and has won 22 of its last 23. The stretch includes seven season-opening victories over Weber State. The Aggies have won 13 of their last 17 season openers when opening on the road.

• Utah State has opened the season against Weber State three times over the past four years, including on the road in Ogden two of the last three seasons.

• Utah State has beaten Weber State in four of the last five, eight of the last 10 and 14 of the last 17.

• The game is riddled with coaching connections as Utah State head coach Tim Duryea and Weber State head coach Randy Rahe were both assistants under former USU head coach Stew Morrill. Weber State associate head coach Eric Duft was on the staff at Hutchinson Junior College with Duryea and WSU assistant coach Dave Marek was on the USU staff with Duryea for two years.

Scouting Weber State

Weber State finished the 2016-17 season with an overall mark of 20-14, finishing third in the Big Sky with a league mark of 12-6. The Wildcats advanced to the second round of the CIT in the postseason, falling 82-73 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

WSU lost its top two offensive threats in graduated seniors Jeremy Senglin (21.1 ppg) and Kyndahl Hill (10.1 ppg) from last season, in addition to its top rebounder in Hill (7.9 rpg). Junior forward Zach Braxton is the top returner for the Wildcats in both categories, averaging 10.1 points and 6.0 rebounds per game a season ago. Overall, Weber State averaged 79.8 points per game, shooting 48.6 percent (908-of-1,867) from the floor, 41.7 percent (312-of-749) from behind the 3-point line and 74.1 percent (584-of-788) at the free throw line.

Defensively, Weber State opponents averaging 73.7 points per game, shooting 45.2 percent (937-of-2,074) from the floor, 35.4 percent (197-of-556) from behind the 3-point line and 73.9 percent (434-of-587) at the free throw line.

Head coach Randy Rahe, a former USU assistant, is in his 12th season at the helm at Weber State, leading the Wildcats to five conference titles and nine postseason appearances.

Coach Duryea vs the Beehive State

Utah State is a combined 99-17 against teams from the state of Utah since now head coach Tim Duryea has been a member of the coaching staff. Since the 2001-02 season, USU is 7-9 against BYU, 6-0 against Southern Utah, 6-4 against Utah, 12-0 against Utah Valley and 14-4 against Weber State.

For more information on Utah State Aggies, visit http://www.utahstateaggies.com/.