For the fourth straight year the Aggies are going dancing.
While there was no drama whether the Utah State men's basketball team would be announced Sunday afternoon as one of 68 teams going to the NCAA Tournament, there was still some nerves as to where, what seed and the opponent. The team gathered at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum with family and fans to watch the Selection Show on CBS.
The Aggies quickly found out they will stay in the West Region and play in San Diego, California, at a familiar arena. They are a nine seed and will face eighth-seeded Villanova of the Big East Conference at Viejas Arena, home of San Diego State on Friday. Game times and broadcast information will be announced later Sunday night.
"I'm excited, especially being in San Diego," said USU guard MJ Collins Jr., who was named MVP of the Mountain West Conference Tournament on Saturday. "I feel like the HURD will be able to travel again and everybody outside of the HURD to give us the extra motivation and advantage. I feel good about it."
The Aggies (28-6) punched their ticket to the Big Dance by winning the automatic berth with a 73-62 win over San Diego State Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.
This will be the 26th NCAA Tournament appearance for USU, including 14 in the past 27 years.
"I'm really happy with the location for our fans and our players," USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "San Diego is close. I thin the seed was absolutely atrocious."
Many prognosticators had the Aggies as a eight seed and some even came out with them as a seven Sunday morning. Slipping to a nine and being the only team from the MW did not sit well with the USU coach. The MW has been a multi-bid league for some time, sending six schools in 2024 and four a year ago.
"We have great metrics on both sides of the ball," Calhoun said. "We are top 30 on offense, top 50 in defense. I thought for sure a six or a seven. I was really hoping for one of those.
"But we need to look at it as, hey, we're in the west and that's a huge positive for us and our fans. I just don't think it was very deserving and we should have been at least a seven. … There are a lot of great teams that got left home. New Mexico is a great team. San Diego State was a great team. … I think it's a shame, the first time in a long time that we (MW) got one bid. I thought those two teams (New Mexico and San Diego State) were NCAA Tournament teams, but I don't get a vote, unfortunately."
Playing on Friday will be beneficial to USU, having just played three games in three days. The Aggies also had a flight delay coming back to Utah from Las Vegas. Villanova (24-8) lost to Georgetown last Thursday in the first round of the Big East Tournament, 91-78.
"We have a lot of tired bodies," Calhoun said. "… We will dive into this tonight and have a lite practice on Monday. We are really excited for this opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. Our guys earned it."
Does Collins know anything about the Wildcats, who finished third in the Big East behind No. 6 Connecticut and No. 13 St. John's?
"I do not," Collins said. "I know the head coach is from Maryland. I watched Maryland a lot last year because my home boy played for them, Rodney Rice. I know they have a talented freshman point guard (Acaden Lewis). We watched a game earlier in the season when we were preparing for VCU."
And what about coach Calhoun?
"I haven't seen them (Wildcats) at all," Calhoun said. "… I have great respect for (Villanova head) coach (Kevin) Willard, he's a great coach and Villanova is a storied program. They are a national brand, so it's a great opportunity to play these guys."
The winner of the USU-Villanova will then face the winner of top-seeded Arizona and 16-seeded Long Island on Sunday in San Diego.
"This is huge and what every kid dreams of on the college level," Collins said. "… It's time to go out there and show the world who Utah State is. … It's go time on Friday. We need to take it one game at a time."
The Aggies certainly have some momentum going to the NCAA Tournament, having won four straight, including the regular season title in the MW and the league tournament. They won all three games in Las Vegas by double digits against teams that had beat them near the end of the regular season.
"We're hot right now," Collins said. "There is no better time to be hot than in March. We need to continue to carry that momentum and hopefully we have our fans behind us like we did in Vegas. If we have them, I feel we are unbeatable."
"We have to have an edge; we can't lose that," Calhoun said. "Once we get off this rest, we've got to be ready to go. We need to implement the scouting report just like we did for the conference tournament and have belief. I think belief and momentum are really powerful. We're playing as good as anybody in the country. We should feel really confident with whoever we are playing."
Collins, who is from Clover, South Carolina, had hoped the Aggies would be sent to Greenville, South Carolina, one of the first-round sites. But a second pick would San Diego. He and the rest of the Aggies were genuinely happy to be back in the Big Dance.
Last year the Aggies were a 10-seed and lost to seventh-seeded UCLA in Lexington, Kentucky, 72-47
"We just fell apart; we were in the game and then they (Bruins) went on that run at the end of the first half and we were down 13," Collins said. "It was like, 'wow, what just happened.' I think we have older guys that understand every possession is critical."
USU and Villanova have played once, meeting in the 1960 NIT at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Aggies won that game, 73-72.
