LOGAN – Utah State’s men’s basketball team will hold its first official practice of the 2014-15 season on Friday, Oct. 3 at 12:30 p.m. in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum as head coach Stew Morrill welcomes 17 players to the floor. Practices are closed to the public

Utah State returns one starter and four players from last year’s team that posted an 18-14 overall and a 7-11 Mountain West record in its first season in the league. The seven conference wins were the most of any of the five newest teams to the league in their first season, topping Boise State’s three wins in its first season in 2011-12, as well as Fresno State’s five wins and Nevada’s three wins in their first seasons in 2012-13, along with San José State’s one win last season.

In 16 years as Utah State’s head coach, Morrill has led the Aggies to an incredible 384-143 (.729) record, including a 193-73 (.726) conference mark in the Big West, Western Athletic and Mountain West Conferences. While at Utah State, he has guided the Aggies to 14 20-win seasons and 13 postseason appearances (8-NCAA, 4-NIT, 1-CIT), both of which are school records. Morrill is also the winningest coach in school history and ranks first all-time in games coached (527). Morrill is also the second-longest tenured coach in school history behind E. Lowell Romney (1920-41) who spent 22 years coaching basketball at USU.

During the 2013-14 season, Morrill became just the 14th active Division I head coach and the 41st Division I head coach all-time with 600 wins, after the Aggies’ 75-58 win at San José State. Overall, Morrill has a 602-281 (.682) career record in 28 seasons as a collegiate head coach and is one of just nine active coaches to notch 18 20-win seasons.

Leading the way for Utah State this year will be sophomore wing Jalen Moore who averaged 5.6 points, 2.7 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.3 blocks as a true freshman, as he shot 52.8 percent from the field (66-125), including 38.9 percent from three-point range (14-36) and 71.1 percent at the free throw line (32-45). Moore scored six or more points in 14 total games a year ago, including tallying double-figures in four contests. He also recorded at least five points and five rebounds in seven games on the season. Overall, Moore played in all 32 games a year ago and made five starts.

A second returner for Utah State is sophomore guard JoJo McGlaston who averaged 2.3 points, 0.5 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game a year ago as a true freshman, as he shot 34.4 percent from the field (21-61), including 42.9 percent from three-point range (9-21), and 40.0 percent at the free throw line (4-10). Overall, McGlaston scored five or more points six times on the season.

The third Aggie returner is sophomore guard Viko Noma’aea who averaged 1.4 points, 0.3 rebounds and 0.2 assists per game as a true freshman, while shooting 36.8 percent from the field (7-19) and 35.7 percent from three-point range (5-14), as well as making his only free throw attempt. In all, Noma’aea made at least one three-pointer in four of the 14 games he played in.

The fourth player returning for Utah State is senior forward Sean Harris who was granted a sixth-year of eligibility by the NCAA. Last season, Harris saw action in 10 games, including a start on senior night against Wyoming, where he set career highs in points (4), rebounds (3), assists (2), steals (1) and minutes played (11). Harris finished the season averaging 0.6 points and 0.9 rebounds, while shooting 20.0 percent from the field (2-10) and 50.0 percent at the free throw line (2-4).

Along with its four returners from last season, Utah State welcomes 13 new players who were not on the Aggies’ 2013-14 roster, including two who redshirted during the 2011-12 season in freshman forward David Collette and freshman guard Sam Orchard.

As a senior at Murray (Utah) High School during the 2010-11 season, Collette averaged 22.4 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game, in earning first-team all-state honors from both the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune. Collette finished his senior season shooting 60.5 percent from the field (201-332), 64.2 percent from the free throw line (106-165) and 33.3 percent from three-point range (7-21) in earning the 5A-Region 2 Most Valuable Player award.

Orchard was named the 4A Most Valuable Player as a prep senior during the 2010-11 season as he led Highland (Utah) High School to the state championship. As a senior, he earned first-team all-state honors from both the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News as he averaged 16.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.4 steals per game, while shooting 44.3 percent from the field (109-246), 37.8 percent from three-point range (28-74) and 81.4 percent at the free throw line (158-194).

Of the 11 brand new players to the Utah State program, five have college experience as three are junior college transfers, one is a transfer from a Division I school and the other is a transfer from a Division II school.

The two four-year transfers are senior forward Grayson Moore and junior forward Lew Evans. Both players will have to sit out the 2014-15 season as a four-year transfers

Moore transferred to Utah State from Northwest Nazarene in Nampa, Idaho, where he played for two years following his freshman season at Sheridan (Wyo.) Community College. As a junior at Northwest Nazarene, Moore earned honorable mention all-conference honors after averaging 10.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.0 block and 1.0 steal per game, while shooting 39.3 percent from the field (75-191), including 35.8 percent from three-point range (43-120) and 76.7 percent at the free throw line (33-43).

Evans comes to Utah State from Tulsa, where he started 22 games for the Conference USA champions a year ago, helping the Golden Hurricane to the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to UCLA in the second round. Evans averaged 5.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 0.7 steals last season, while playing 20.6 minutes per game. He shot 34.4 percent from the field (63-183), including 25.9 percent from three-point range (29-112) and 58.1 percent at the free throw line (25-43). Evans was a four-year letterwinner at Highland High School in Salt Lake City, where he earned first-team all-state accolades after leading the Rams to the 2011 Utah Class 4A state championship, after averaging 15.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.

The three junior college transfers include junior wing Trace Cureton, and junior guards Darius Perkins and Chris Smith.

Cureton comes to Utah State from Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, where he earned the Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) Most Improved Player Award and was a second-team all-OCCAC selection as a sophomore as he averaged 16.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 0.8 steals, in playing 26.7 minutes per game. On the season, he shot 51.1 percent from the field (190-372), 48.6 percent from three-point range (36-74) and 75.0 percent at the free throw line (78-104).

Perkins joins the Aggies from Miami Dade College in Miami, Fla., where he earned NJCAA Region VIII all-state accolades as he averaged 18.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game, while shooting 42.2 percent from the field (180-427), 45.7 percent from three-point range (106-232) and 84.9 percent at the free throw line (118-139).

Smith comes to Utah State from Yuba College in Marysville, Calif., where he was a two-time all-Bay Valley Conference honoree and averaged 21.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game during his sophomore season, shooting 55.2 percent from the field (190-344), including 42.4 percent from three-point range (64-151) and 78.3 percent at the free throw line (141-180).

Four other newcomers on Utah State’s 2014-15 roster include freshman guard Henry Bolton Julion Pearre, freshman forward Elston Jones, and sophomore center Bilal Begic.

Bolton earned second-team all-AA New England Prep School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) accolades as a senior at St. Andrew’s School in Barrington, R.I., as he averaged 13.0 points and 8.0 assists per game. Pearre was named the District 13-4A Co-MVP and earned all-region honors as a prep senior at McKinney (Texas) North High School as he averaged 17.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. Jones was a four-year letterwinner at Millennium High School in Goodyear, Ariz., and earned honorable mention all-state, all-region and all-district honors as a junior as he averaged 14.0 points, 14.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game. Jones only played in seven games as a prep senior due to a knee injury. And Begic prepped at Treca Gimnazija in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzogovina where he averaged 8.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game during his final season.

Utah State’s two other newcomers are a pair of walk-ons in sophomore forward Konner Frey and freshman guard John Bennett, both of whom returned from their LDS Church Missions this past summer. Frey played his freshman season at Northwest College in Powell, Wyo., where he averaged 7.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 0.8 steals per game, and Bennett prepped at Pinewood High School in Palo Alto, Calif.

Utah State will hold its annual Blue-White Scrimmage on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., and its first exhibition game will be on Friday, Oct. 31 against Texas A&M-International at 7 p.m. Following its second exhibition game against Arkansas-Fort Smith on Friday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m., USU will begin the regular season at home against in-state foe Weber State on Friday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m.