Aggies aim for auto-bid to NCAA tournament
LAS VEGAS — Today Utah State looks to do something it’s never done before: Bring a Mountain West Tournament championship back to Logan.
Among the growing list of milestones the team has already accomplished this season, being able to call themselves undisputed Mountain West champions would be near the very top of that list.
But to get there, Utah State will have to take down a San Diego State team that its only beaten once since joining the conference — that win coming just a few weeks ago.
The Aztecs are the league leaders in conference titles, with 11 already to its name, including having raised the banner in last year’s tournament. But this year’s squad isn’t quite the powerhouse that Mountain West fans would recognize.
Photo by Savy Knapp
SDSU finished the season with the fourth seed in the tournament and a 21-12 record, leaving most people to believe the only chance the team has of making the NCAA tournament is by winning this game. But despite some ups and downs over the season, San Diego State is still very much loaded with the talent to be dangerous in a game of this magnitude.
The Aztecs have the fourth and sixth highest scorers in the conference on its team in sophomore forward Jalen McDaniels and senior guard Devin Watson. Combined, the two averaged 32.1 points per game throughout the season and were the two highest scorers in the semifinal match with Nevada. Between the two of them, they hit their season average of 32 points perfectly and accounted for nearly half of the Aztecs’ 65 points.
Utah State leads the conference in a high number of defensive categories, but San Diego State might be the second best defense in the Mountain West. The Aztecs fall just one spot below Utah State in points allowed and defensive field goal percentage. Being able to get stops on that end of the court was a big factor in how the Aztecs were able to take down a good Nevada team last night, holding them to just 37 percent from the field and 25 percent from deep.
These two elite defenses made it hard for either team to score in the first two meetings, with one exception. Utah State junior guard Sam Merrill went for a near career-high 35 points in the first matchup, although it wasn’t enough for the Aggies to pull away with a win. Merrill wasn’t nearly as prolific scoring the ball in the second meeting, putting up 19 points, but the Aggies played cohesively and were able to pull out the 70-54 win. But with how well the conference player of the year has been performing over his past six games, having Merrill lead this Aggie team once again could be the difference between cutting down nets or traveling back to Logan empty handed.
Twitter: @dren_sports