Updates on Spencer Butterfield and Sean Harris

The folks at the USU Stats site took in a night of Ratball -- competition between the players on the Utah State roster -- and offered this on a pair of former NorCal talents:

* Spencer Butterfield – Absolutely tore it up out there today. Dropped in 29 points. Hit 5 three pointers. I didn’t keep track of misses, but he didn’t miss many. I’d say he shot over 60% from downtown and I don’t remember him missing many two pointers. He got to the hoop with ease several times. Played with toughness and ran the floor. Played some solid defense. I was most impressed by him today. He also had 5 boards and 3 assists.

and

* Sean Harris – DNP. He was there in basketball shorts and a nice pink Aggie shirt. He’s a pretty big kid. He took shots at times while the teams were on the other side of the court. After the scrimmages he went out and did a little running and put up some shots. He is very adept at hitting the three point shot (at least in practice). He was hitting them with consistency. Appears to be a good FT shooter as well ... He is cleared to play starting in August.

Harris to go from 49er to Aggie

 photo courtesy of Brian Drake/Appeal Democrat

It was a lot of little things that added up to a big one recently when Yuba College frontcourter Sean Harris offered a commitment to Coach Stew Morrill and Utah State.

Speaking with Yuba Coach Doug Cornelius recently provided the opportunity to learn more about both Harris and the background of his decision.

Harris was the team MVP as a senior at Rocklin High. At 6-foot-6 and 200 pounds, he averaged 16.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.6 steals and blocked two shots a game. 

He then moved over to Yuba College and put up 14.9 points and 11.7 rebounds a contest in the 2007-08 season in which Yuba went 32-4. "He was the MVP for us too," Cornelius said.

Then it was almost UC Santa Barbara for him, but Harris signed a letter-of-intent with Coach Jim Les and Bradley of the Missouri Valley Conference after sorting through multiple D-1 offers. He would have three years of eligibility remaining.

At that point, it was a period of time off for Harris to prepare for his LDS mission in San Pedro, Honduras scheduled to begin in August 2009.

While he was on his mission, Les (now the head coach at UC Davis) was let go at Bradley in early March 2011 and Harris eventually asked for and received his BU release.

He returned to the United States in early July 2011 as a college basketball free agent so to speak. It was then decided that a second season at Yuba was the best route to take.

Here's Cornelius on his 6-foot-8 sophomore: "Sean had offers from Utah State, UC Santa Barbara and Idaho, with UC Davis and BYU really interested. He went to Utah State and fell in love with it. He thought it was a great social fit. They showed him love and he is a very loyal kid. Sean came back and said, 'Coach, I'm done.'"

It didn't even take witnessing a game in The Spectrum, Wild Bill and all, to win Harris over.

What's fascinating is that BYU was Harris' dream school, plus his mother went there. But even without the Jimmer, the Cougar roster has three freshman -- one at 6-foot-8, two at 6-foot-10, also a 6-foot-9 sophomore, a 6-foot-8 junior plus a 6-foot-9 junior. Such played a factor in Harris' decision to go with Aggieville.

Cornelius continued, "Sean hasn't played in three years but is an extremely hardworking kid with a high motor. I call him a skilled four, someone skilled and strong who really runs the court. He has put on 15-20 pounds of muscle and is going to be a really hard matchup but first he needs to get his legs back.

As always, Yuba will be in the fight for a state championship in the upcoming season with Harris as a key component.

Yuba College's Sean Harris to Utah State

Per Tony Jones/Salt Lake Tribune, Utah State has landed a junior college verbal: 6-foot-8 Sean Harris (on the left in the above photo) out of Coach Doug Cornelius' ultra-successful Yuba College program.

By the way, Cornelius had five all-conference players last season including one that moved on to Minnesota and another who landed at Idaho.

Here's a note from when Harris signed a letter-of-intent with Coach Jim Les and Bradley in 2010.

Here's a July 2011 post all about Harris returning to the court from his LDS mission.

Zach Nelson hits BYU and Utah State

Yuba City's Zach Nelson has been hitting the road a bit lately, specifically Logan, Utah. But he is also talking with BYU and visited Salt Lake City this past summer:

BYU basketball prospect scores 56 in a game
Darnell Dickson
Daily Herald
March 1, 2010

I read a story by Talo Steves on totalbluesports.com about a kid BYU basketball is recruiting. His name is Zach Nelson (he's 6-foot-8) and he plays at Yuba City (Calif.) High School. So I searched for some stories on him online. He averages about 25 points and 15 rebounds a game. And it turns out that in February, he scored 56 points against Natomas.

Wow.

The most amazing thing about the performance? He got the 56 points in just 20 shots. He made 18 of 20 from the field and rebounded his two misses, scoring on putbacks.

Go here for the remainder.

Here's the Talo Steves article referenced above -- a Scout sub is required.

and

Recruits soak in Spectrum
Jared Eborn
Deseret News
March 7, 2010

When it comes to convincing a potential Aggie that Utah State is the place to be, Stew Morrill has 4,000 of the best salesmen he could hope for -- the USU student section.

During Saturday's regular season finale, Utah State had a pair of potential Aggies in the building and the ear-splitting, heart-pounding atmosphere made a big impression on at least one of them.

Zach Nelson, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound senior from northern California's Yuba City High was on an unofficial visit to USU with his father, Brad. Nelson is an explosive scorer who led the Honkers (yes, that's the real mascot for Yuba City) all season and had a monster game of 56 points, 17 rebounds and five blocked shots recently...

Go here for the remainder.

E.J. Farris at Utah State?

On the Scout Utah State message board is a post mentioning E.J. Farris being a walk-on basketballer at Utah State in Logan, Utah. Farris is a backcourter who was a senior at Newark Memorial High last season.

Interestingly, E.J.'s Facebook page has Brian Green and Tyler Newbold -- both current USU players -- as friends.

His Myspace page has his mood as :Ustate hooper.

Can anyone confirm?