USU Hoops: Men’s and women’s conference schedules released

The 2021-22 Mountain West conference schedule was released Friday for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Utah State. 

Led by new coach Ryan Odom, the men’s team will begin their conference slate at Air Force on Dec. 28. They close out conference play on March 5 at San José State. The Mountain West tournament will be in Las Vegas from March 9-12. 

During the 18-game conference slate, the Aggies will play the majority of the teams in the conference twice, once at home and once on the road during the 18-game conference slate. The expectation is UNLV and Fresno State. They take on UNLV just once, at home on Saturday, Feb. 5, and Fresno State once, on the road on Tuesday, Jan. 18. 

Home games against conference rivals that are expected to compete for a MW championship include Boise State on Tuesday, Jan. 4, San Diego State on Tuesday, Jan. 25, Nevada on Saturday, Feb. 12, and Colorado State on Sat, Feb 26. 

Notable road games include a visit to “The Pit” to face New Mexico on Saturday, January 8, at Colorado State on Tuesday, Jan. 11, at Nevada on Saturday, Jan. 29, and at San Diego State on Tuesday, Feb. 15. 

Utah State’s non-conference schedule is also coming together as well. 

Notable non-conference games include UC Irvine at home on Tuesday, Nov. 9, Richmond on Friday, Nov. 12 in Maryland, and the Myrtle Beach Tournament from Nov. 18-20, where the Aggies start to play against Pennsylvania. They also play Iowa on Saturday, Dec. 18 in South Dakota, and visit BYU on a date yet to be announced. 

The Aggies, who return seniors Justin Bean and Brock Miller from last season’s second-place MW team and add transfer seniors R.J. Etyle-Rock and Brandon Horvath from UMBC, will look to compete for the top spot in what should once again be a competitive conference. 

The Lady Aggies have an 18-game conference slate, which begins Friday, Dec. 31 at home against Air Force. Their final game is Wednesday, March 2 at home against Nevada. The women’s Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas goes from March 6-9.

Kayla Ard’s squad will play each conference team twice besides Wyoming, which they play just once, at home on Saturday, Jan. 22, and San José State, who they play once, on the road on Thursday, Jan. 27. Utah State, which went 2-16 in conference games last season, and will look to improve year two of Ard’s tenure. The Aggies return four starters while adding six transfer players. 

Here is a glance at both the men’s and women’s conference schedules: