Aggies on fire
Utah State has all but clinched a first-round bye in the Mountain West tournament.
The MW tournament, which will be played in the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, home court for UVLV, is set to begin on March 11, and the championship game will be on March 14. The teams ranked one through six at the end of the regular season won’t play until day two of the tournament.
Utah State
The Aggies currently sit in fifth place, three games firmly ahead of Fresno State, and after defeating UNLV by 18 points Tuesday, USU is riding a five-game winning streak.
Utah State has three more games on the season, the first game coming on the road against Air Force.
The first time Utah State played Air Force, USU won by 12. Chris Smith scored 20 points for the Aggies, and they rolled on to the win behind a 56 percent, 3-point shooting percentage.
“It was one of those nights where I was feeling it,” Smith said after the game. “Everybody had the touch. Everybody was sharing the ball. Everybody was scoring, so it was good.”
Max Yon leads the team, averaging 13 points per game and shooting nearly 50 percent from the field.
Yon missed the first game with an injury, and sharpshooter Zach Kocur stepped up for the Falcons. He scored 20 points on 4-6 shooting from behind the 3-point arc. He shoots almost 50 percent on 92 attempted shots from the 3-point line on the season.
This time around Air Force has some momentum. The Falcons have won three of the last five games, including one over second-place Wyoming by 23 points.
“I’ve always greatly admired Air Force,” said USU coach Stew Morrill before the two teams met the first time. “I love the way they play. I love how hard they play. They are so disciplined. They are tough. You better know what you are in for when you play them because they run the Princeton system, and there are cuts, back doors set up for 3-point shooting, all of those things that system gives you.”
A big part of the recent Air Force success has been its defense. Wyoming only scored 50 points, and the Falcons held UNLV to 49.
“Half the time it looks like zone and half the time it is switching man-to-man,” Morrill said. “There are possessions when it looks like a combination of the two, and if you don’t make plays and don’t execute offensively and stand around trying to figure out what they are doing, that could be a real problem.”
Utah State will stay on the road after the Air Force game to take on Wyoming before returning home for the final game of the season against Colorado State.
The final two games will be huge for conference standings. CSU is currently a half game ahead of USU, while the Aggies and Wyoming Cowboys both have a 10-5 record in conference play.
The Rams have one more game against Nevada, which they are expected to win, before playing the Aggies.
If USU wins out the rest of its games, it can jump Colorado State and Wyoming to make it into third place. If the Aggies are in third place, they would likely take on Fresno State in the tournament.
The fourth and fifth-place teams play each other in the tournament, so if USU and Wyoming were in their current positions, they would square off in the first tournament game.
“One of my assistants overheard the kids talking about our exhibitions when we barely won,” Morrill said. “They were wondering if we were going to be able to win any games. I think it’s been rewarding for them. I think they’re a little proud of themselves, and you need to be. You don’t need to always be thinking you’re not doing good enough. You need to feel good about yourself.”
Utah State was originally picked to finish No. 10 in the MW preseason poll, but this team has surpassed those expectations and proven many wrong as the season progressed.
“It’s been just a great group that way,” Morrill said. “Trying to trust in what we’re telling them, do what we’re telling them and getting better as we go. That was kind of our thing: Let’s just try to keep getting better. Let’s get better as we go.”
Freshman forward David Collette has helped lead the young Aggie squad chipping in 13 points per game and shooting 58 percent from the floor. He expects his team to continue on the hot streak the rest of the season.
“Three more games,” Collette said. “Three more wins.”
The rest of the Mountain West top teams
If the tournament were to start today, here’s what the standings would look like:
San Diego State is the first-ranked team in the conference, two games ahead of Wyoming. In my eyes San Diego State is the class of the MW. However, it has shown some inconstancies in conference play, losing to Fresno State by two, Colorado State by six and Boise State by 15. All away games. San Diego State is good, but if the Aztecs aren’t playing at home, they are beatable.
Boise State is holding onto second place at an 11-4 mark in the MW. After losing the first three conference games, Boise won eight straight and has only one loss since. The Broncos will travel to take on San Diego State and San Jose State before finishing with Fresno State at home. The key player for the Broncos is Derrick Marks, who scores more than 20 points per game. Boise State will likely stay where they are for the tournament, probably losing to SDSU and beating the other two California teams.
The third-place ranking belongs to Colorado State. CSU has been almost exactly as advertised — very talented and pretty inconsistent. When things are clicking, they can put up lots of points and take away opponents’ scoring. The problem is that in the five losses, they averaged less than 60 points per game and scored less than 50 in one. The Rams’ final game is against the Aggies, a team they currently have a half-game lead on.
The Wyoming Cowboys have been a bit of a surprise this season. After being picked to finish sixth, the Cowboys went on a tear at the beginning of the year. Larry Nance Jr. emerged as a true scoring threat and dominant post player. Nance has missed the last four games with mononucleosis, and Wyoming lost three of the five games. Nance returned to the lineup Wednesday, but Wyoming suffered a costly conference loss to Fresno State. The Cowboys dropped from second to fourth place after the game.
Next up in the MW, Utah State. You already know.
Sitting at sixth place is Fresno State. FSU picked up a big win over Wyoming Wednesday to move to 8-7 in conference play and put them two games ahead of UNLV. The Bulldogs rely heavily on guard Marvelle Harris. He scores more than 17 points per game to go along with five rebounds and nearly four assists. Barring a complete meltdown by the top five teams, Fresno won’t move up.
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor