Top 20 Departing #15: Konner Veteto

I am counting down the top 20 players that are departing the Big Sky via graduation, transfer, or any other way.

In a conference that doesn't always produce a lot of quality big men, Sacramento State's Konner Veteto looked like he might become one of the best in the Big Sky. At 6'8'', 290 pounds, there was not a lot of guys that could match up with him on the block. He leaves Sac State with a productive two years, but didn't quite become the dominant force that he sometimes threatened to be.

As a senior, he averaged 10.2 points and 5.9 rebounds per game, as he overcame some of the fouling issues that plagued him throughout his junior season. He jumped from 18.8 minutes to 23.4 minutes per game in his final season. He was one of the best offensive rebounders in the conference, and his 12.6 OR% was second to Joel Bolomboy in the Big Sky. He also had a solid 16.9 DR% (down from 18.7% his junior year). He was very good on the glass throughout his career.

However, he never developed into a truly efficient scorer. He shot 50.3% on twos his junior year, and 49.3% his senior year. Those are not terrible numbers, but not good enough to be dominant down low in comparison to top big men. He was good at drawing fouls and getting to the line, but shot around 60% from the stripe for his career. In short, he was a good scorer, but not great.

He was not a very good passer out of the post, as he had just five assists all of last season. Veteto leaves the Hornets after a stellar two year run - I don't think anyone at Sacramento State is disappointed with what they got out of him. He was a good scorer, and a very good rebounder. He will leave a big void in the middle of the Hornets frontline next season.

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Michael Dunn The Hero Again For Northern Arizona

Michael Dunn is starting to look like the most clutch player in the Big Sky. You may remember his game-winner against Northern Colorado a couple weeks ago, and now he had a big role late in helping Northern Arizona go in and knock off Sacramento State in Sacramento.

First, with the Lumberjacks trailing 59-58, it was Dunn with a steal and layup with 50 seconds left to give NAU the lead. After the Hornets took the lead back (on a Mikh McKinney basket), Mike Dunn was sent to the foul line with 7.4 seconds left, calmly knocking down both shots.

Dunn was far from the only hero for Northern Arizona. Gabe Rogers had a game high 22 points, including hitting 4/6 from downtown. Over the last two weeks, he has really found his stroke. Max Jacobsen had 16 points on 8/11 shooting, continuing his extremely solid junior season. NAU moes to 5-7 with the win.

Sacramento State falls to 5-7, and it had to be a disappointing game for Brian Katz. No disrespect meant to NAU, but beating the Lumberjacks at home is something you have to do if you want to be a top 4 team in the Big Sky. Konner Veteto (0 points, 0 rebounds, 3 turnovers in 14 minutes) was still hampered by a knee injury suffered on Thursday, but this will be a tough one for the Hornets to take, especially since they were up by 14 points with 11 minutes to play.

Congrats to Northern Arizona on a great win! With Portland State and Eastern Washington coming to Flagstaff this week, Jack Murphy could have his club sitting very pretty heading into the stretch run.

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Five Takeaways From the Weekend

It was a busy weekend in Big Sky country, so let's take a look at some takeaways from all of the games.

1. Montana misses Will Cherry - They wound up getting a 67-66 win on a late three-pointer from Kevin Henderson, but it is clear that they are missing Will Cherry. Keron DeShields and Jordan Gregory are solid players now and will be good starters eventually, but they are not good or experienced enough right now to lighten the burden on Kareem Jamar. Jamar had 11 assists on the day (including on the Grizzlies' last two buckets, but was just 2/9 from the field, scoring eight points. Cherry is a lockdown defender, but he is also a creator on offense and a guy that defenses have to pay a lot of attention to because of his ability to get to the rim or hit the midrange jumper. They miss him offensively.

2. Weber State needs to find a go to scorer - In an dreadful game to watch, Weber State fell 65-55 to Utah State. While their free throw shooting was alarming (15/27), the bigger concern was their lack of an idea of where to go at the end of the game. Scott Bamforth (four points on 1/7 shooting) and Kyle Tresnak (five points on 1/5 shooting, and wasn't even on the court in crunch time) were supposed to be their all-conference guys, but neither was a factor at the end of the game.

Davion Berry led the team with 11 points, but was just 5/14 from the floor and 1/5 from the line. Gelaun Wheelwright is obviously talented, but showed his inexperience with some poor decisions down the stretch. On paper, WSU is as talented as anyone in the conference, but they need to find a pecking order at the end of games.

3. Idaho State is winless, but not hopeless - The Bengals fell to Wright State and Central Michigan, dropping them to 0-5. But they are slowing the game down and keeping things close (CMU needed a shot with 0.5 seconds left to beat them), and as a result they are in most games. They haven't allowed more than 60 points in a game (on the flip side, they have only cracked the 50 point mark once). They aren't the most talented team, so their best chance this year may be to slow things down and shorten games. They are embracing that, and it will eventually give them a win or two that will surprise some people.

4. Sacramento State keeps racking up wins - They trailed by as many as 14 against Central Arkansas, but used a 21-5 run in the second half en route to a 71-68 win. UCA scored 45 points in the first half, but the Hornets defense was locked in after the break, allowing just 23 points in the second frame. The star of the game was Konner Veteto, who had 19 and 11 off the bench for the Hornets (Joe Eberhard also had a double-double for Sac State). Veteto has always been a productive player when he has been able to stay on the court, and he was huge in this game.

5. Portland State may be closer to the bottom than the top - Both the coaches and media picked the Vikings to finish fifth, while I pegged them at eighth before the season. So far, I'm still sticking with my pick. It's not that they are losing (recent losses to Portland and especially Oklahoma State aren't terrible), but it is the way they are losing. They seem to be getting blown out every game. They trailed 51-30 at halftime against the Pilots, and were down 53-24 at one point to Okie State. Their defense is getting shredded, and they don't seem to know where to go for points without Charles Odum and Chehales Tapscott. They have the talent to be a solid team, but thus far, they look like a long way from being able to show it.

Any other big storylines?

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Weber State, Portland State, Sacramento State All Notch Wins

Weber State, Sacramento State, and Portland State all started the season with home games against lower competition, games they should dominate. All three schools did just that.

Weber State lived well in their first game without Damian Lillard, dropping a ridiculous 110 points on Arizona Christian. AZ Christian is an NAIA school, but still nice to see them score 55 points in each half. Seven guys scored in double figures in this game for the Wildcats, and they shot 64% from the floor (and still wound up with 16 offensive boards)

Two quick guys to focus on... Davion Berry scored a cool 17 points in his debut (in 23 minutes), shooting 6/10 from the floor and 3/5 from downtown. Off the bench, Joel Bolomoboy played 22 minutes and notched a double, with 16 points (5/5 FG, 5/8 FT), 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks. They are deep.

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Sacramento State started things off right with a 96-62 win over UC-Merced. Going into the year I thought the Hornets seemed settled at a starting lineup, but Brian Katz started Joey Quigley and Mikh McKinney, relegating Konner Veteto and Jackson Carbajal to coming off the bench (I believe he used this lineup in the exhibition game also).

Five guys scored in double figures for the Hornets, who led by just 8 at the break before blowing it open in the second half. John Dickson led the way with 18 and 9, while Veteto had 17 and 8. Dylan Garrity picked up where he left off last year, scoring six points, but dishing out nine assists.

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Portland State's victory margin was less than the other two games, but winning was never really in doubt in a 77-58 win over Pacific. Their lead was 26-24 late in the first half, but the Vikings went on a 13-4 run to head into the break, and never looked back.

Dre Winston led the way with 16 points, shooting 5/6 from the field and 3/4 from downtown. Aaron Moore (13) and Michael Harthun (11) also scored in double figures. PSU turned it over 19 times, which is just way too much. Lateef McMullan needs to be the steady hand as a senior PG, but he struggled. He was just 2/7 from the field and had 5 TOs.

The Vikings will travel to face Oregon on Monday night.

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Sacramento State Begins Practice

Sac State Sports provides lots of good Hornets' content, and they have a nice article on the start of practice.

They focus on transfer big man Alex Tiffin, and how he will be using his redshirt year during the transfer year to get stronger and better.

Katz has high hopes for Tiffin’s development. Konner Veteto had similar numbers (3.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 12.6 minutes per game) when he transferred from UC Irvine.

“He’s getting an extra workout each week on weights on his own,” Katz said. “Our goal for him is to improve his vertical. He’s an ‘at the rim’ player right now. We feel like he can get above it.”

There is lots of optimism in the Sacramento State camp this year, and the presence of guys like Tiffin in practice every day should help to make the team better.

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Weber State, Montana Remain Tied at Top

We are moving closer to the Big Sky dream scenario of a regular season finale featuring 14-1 Weber State traveling to take on 14-1 Montana, as both teams took care of business on Saturday night.

Weber State hosted Eastern Washington, and won a hard-fought contest 84-75 over an Eagles team that could have really used the win. It was the type of game that showed why Eastern Washington could be a dangerous team in the Big Sky tourney if they make it.

Eastern Washington stayed in it despite a poor night from Collin Chiverton, who finished with just seven points. He found time to fire up 13 shots in just 17 minutes, missing 11 of them. Cliff Colimon led the team with 20 points, but he turned it over 7 times. Parker Kelly continued his ascent up the depth chart, as he may have been the best player for them on this night, finishing with 17 points on 10 shots (including 5/8 from downtown). The freshman walk-on has been one of the most pleasant surprises of the conference.

The Wildcats did not get a great shooting night out of Damian Lillard (4/13) but he found different ways to contribute. He got got to the line 12 times (making them all), so he finished with a game-high 22 points. He also had six rebounds and four assists. Continuing their run of nice balance, four other guys were in double figures, led by Byron Fulton's 16 points (and 9 rebounds).

Weber State is now 20-4 on the year. EWU sits at 5-7 in the Big Sky, just a half-game ahead of Northern Colorado, who they host on Wednesday night.

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In the other game, it looked like Montana was in serious trouble against Sacramento State, but they battled back to win 67-58 to finish 7-1 on the road (their best since the mid 1970s). It was their eight straight win and 14 out of 15, stopping Sacramento State's streak of four straight wins.

The Hornets led 32-27 early in the second half, before the Grizzlies went on a 16-2 run helped by their 1-2-2 press, the same thing that was so instrumental in beating Northern Colorado. Eventually, Montana built the lead to 49-37 (helped by a Brian Katz technical), before the Hornets went on a 7-0 run to cut the gap to five. However, just when it looked like they were back in it, they made the kind of mistake that costs team's ballgames.

Konner Veteto swatted a Derek Selvig shot, then taunted Selvig, drawing a technical. As it turned out, that was all she wrote for the Hornets. Montana made the free throws and drained a three, and the lead was never lower than eight the rest of the day. Sacramento State fans are not happy with the refs, but I can't comment too much on that since I did not see enough of the early second half where many of the complaints come from. But it seems to me that Sac State was undone more by lack of composure, both with the Grizzlies press and with frustration by the refs.

Sac State did a nice job on Will Cherry (who still had 17 points) and Kareem Jamar, but it was the seniors that led Montana. Derek Selvig had 14 and 14, and Art Steward had 16 and 8.

The Griz improve to 19-6, and will finish out the regular season at home. The Hornets drop to 4-9 in the Big Sky, and every game is must-win from here on out. Even one more loss could end their chances of making the Big Sky tournament.

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Weber State, Northern Arizona Start 1-0

I didn't have a chance to write about the games, but wanted to quickly talk about the two Thursday night games.

In the first game, Northern Arizona held off Sacramento State in an entertaining contest, with a final of 73-64. It was an interesting battle of contrasting styles, as NAU has no real post game, while Sac State tried to pound it down low.

For NAU, the star was freshman guard James Douglas, who had 22 points, including 4 treys. He seems to benefit from the addition of Gabe Rogers, who is a guy that defenses must account for at all times. Rogers had an inefficient 17 points (5/16 shooting), but you can bet he is a big help to the offense just by his presence out there.

Stallon Saldivar had 2 points and 5 assists, but it is apparent to me that he is clearly the best passer in the Big Sky. I know Dylan Garrity is leading the conference in assists, but I would take Saldivar over him at this point. Finally, even though he is 6'4'', Durrell Norman is the de facto big man for NAU a lot of the time, and I love watching him play. He is a definite scrapper, finishing with 15 points and 9 boards. He uses his body well.

For the Hornets, they might have been undone by their FT shooting, where they were an abysmal 8/21 from the stripe. Konnor Veteto had a nice 17 and 8 game, but was just 1/6 from the line. With a little better shooting, this would have been a different game. It is a tough road loss for the Hornets in a game that was very tight throughout the second half, but in the end they are in the familiar position of being on the wrong side of .500.

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In the other game, I expected Weber State to blow out Idaho State, and it kind of played out that way. The game was never really in doubt, with a 78-64 final, but ISU kept it competitive thanks to the great game by Chase Grabau.

Grabau was 9/13 from the field and 10/11 from the line, scoring a career-high 31 points to go with 7 rebounds. He has been their best all-around player this year, but this was certainly the best performance we have seen from him. He single-handedly kept them close, and hopefully they can build on that.

For Weber State, there were two stars. One was Damian Lillard, who was right at about his average, scoring 26 points in this game to go along with 3 assists. As usual, it was a very efficient night, as he was 8/13 from the field and 8/8 from the line. He makes great decisions and runs the offense very well. The big key for them was Scott Bamforth's play. He has been struggling a little bit at different times this year, but he got open and knocked down some shots, scoring 21 points. If he can become a reliable #2 scorer, Weber State is the best team in the Big Sky.

For Weber State and Northern Arizosna, 1-0 is a beautiful thing.

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Sacramento State Beats UC Davis In The Causeway Classic

Sacramento State's impressive start to the season continued with a victory over UC Davis in the Causeway Classic on Tuesday. The Hornets trailed by as many as 17 in the first half, and outscored the Aggies 47-29 in the second half en route to a 69-61 victory.

Different guys stepped up for the Hornets, which is one reason Brian Katz is so excited about this group. Last week's Big Sky POW Joe Eberhard contributed 16 points and 8 rebounds, also getting to the line 9 times. Walter Jackson was a bit more efficient with his 14 points and 6 rebounds, most of which came in the second half. Konnor Veteto had an extremely productive day, scoring 14 points and pulling down 9 rebounds in only 19 minutes. He was a terror inside, going 8/9 from the line.

One of my favorite storylines so far this year is the A:TO ratio of Dylan Garrity. He had 6 assists and 2 turnovers in this one, bringing his season totals to 31 assists vs 6 turnovers. Before the game he was ranked in the top 5 nationally in assists, now he sits just outside the top 5.

For the Hornets, who have not had a winning season in over 20 years, the fact that they now sit at 3-1 is extremely positive. That they won a rivalry game on the road by coming back from a big deficit has to make it even sweeter. Up next for Sac State is a home date with McNeese State on Saturday and a chance to move to 4-1.

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Sacramento State Starts 2-0

Sacramento State kept their non-conference schedule light this year for obvious reasons. They wanted to get off to a good start in the win column, and get some momentum heading into conference play. After 18 wins in the past three seasons, I like this strategy.

So far, things are going as planned.

They opened their season with an unimpressive 70-56 win over Menlo College, but then had a nice 75-54 home victory over Central Arkansas. They may not have played the toughest competition, but 2-0 is still 2-0, and they have to be pleased with the start and the way they have taken care of business.

Against Central Arkansas, a lot of guys stepped up. John Dickson (16), Konnor Veteto (16), and Joe Eberhard (12) were all in double figures, and as a team the Hornets shot about 57%. The biggest star might have been Dylan Garrity. The true freshman PG doled out 9 assists compared to 0 turnovers (and chipped in 5 points and 4 rebounds). For the season he has 13 assists to 1 turnover, a great rate even if he wasn't a freshman. I had him on my preseason Third-Team All Big Sky, and he is showing why so far.

Sacramento State's next 4 games are - @ Washington State, @ UC Davis, McNeese State, and @ Cal Poly. Winning at least 3 of these 4 games is not out of the question, and would put the Hornets in a very nice position early in the season in their quest for their first .500 season in 20+ years.

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