Aggies to face Louisiana Tech
The USU men’s basketball team is in the midst of a three-game winning streak and with a 61-60 win over Hawaii, the Aggies clinched fourth seed heading into the Western Athletic Conference tournament.
“I think we’re excited about the tournament, we hopefully have some momentum,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “Although, as I’ve always said, it’s not about how yaou played last week or the last two weeks, its about how you play this week. As far as going in excited and in a good frame of mind, I think that we will do that.”
The fourth seed will pit the Aggies against the fifth-seeded Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.
“You still have to go play, and the four-versus-five game is probably the most evenly matched game that there is,” Morrill said. “Louisiana Tech has been on a real roll. You watch them play last weekend and, boy, they played really well. They won at Fresno (State) and almost won at Nevada — they were ahead at halftime and ahead in the second half.”
The Bulldog defense may still prove problematic for USU.
“Their press is at times a full-court-on-the-ball-when-you-take-it-out-of-bounds press,” Morrill said. “And at other times it is kind of three-quarter court, faster press, where they will trap you and see if you will turn it over. They will also run and double you at times in the half court, so they present a variety of looks that we have to prepare for in the next two days of practice. Our scout squad has a full plate.”
USU swept the season series with Louisiana Tech, winning 69-65 in Ruston, La., and 77-63 in Logan. Overall, USU is 14-2 all time against LTU, including a 2-0 record in the WAC Tournament.
“When you play Louisiana Tech, you are looking at a different type of game than you often see. There is a lot of pressure going on, there is a lot of overplay going on,” Morrill said. “They’re smaller at times out there, but they’re very, very quick, and they use that quickness to their advantage by their style of play. We can’t go into the game and turn it over 25 times and expect to win. We’ve got to take care of the ball against those type of quick athletes and that kind of pressure.”
This is the first time in five years USU (17-14, 8-6) will not be the top seed in the WAC tournament. The last time USU was the fourth seed in a conference tournament was in 2007 when it defeated Hawaii (73-70) and No. 9 Nevada (79-77), before losing at New Mexico State (72-70) in the WAC championship game.
The Aggies are 5-6 all time as the No. 4 seed in conference tournaments and have advanced to the championship game twice. They lost both championship games — in 1996 and in 2007. Overall, this is the seventh time in school history that USU has entered postseason play as the No. 4 seed.
“We won it one year when we were third,” Morrill said. “This is year seven for us in the WAC, and I don’t remember the lowest seed that has won the tournament. It may only be as low as third, there may have been a four, but the further down the order you are in terms of your seed and how you finished the regular season over the long haul, it has been proven to be harder for those teams to win it.
“It can happen, you just have to believe it can happen, and what we will stress is the fact that we’ve played every team in our league — for the most part tough — and had chances to win every night out, maybe with the exception of at New Mexico State. That means that you can play with people, you just got to string some good games together. Hopefully we can do that.”
Utah State is 12-4 all time in the WAC Tournament and has advanced to the championship game five times in its first six years in the league, including winning the tournament championships in 2009 and 2011.
Under Morrill, USU is 25-7 in postseason conference tournaments and has won six tournament championships. During the past 12 years, USU has played in its conference’s postseason tournament championship game 10 times.
USU is also 16-14 (.533) all time in quarterfinal games, including a 5-0 record since joining the WAC.
In other quarterfinal matchups Thursday, third-seeded Idaho (18-12, 9-5) will play sixth-seeded Hawaii (15-15, 6-8) in the first game of the day, at 1 p.m., followed by second-seeded New Mexico State (23-9, 10-4) playing seventh-seeded Fresno State (13-19, 3-11) at 3:30 p.m.
The third quarterfinal game will feature top-seeded Nevada (25-5, 13-1) against eighth-seeded San Jose State (9-21, 1-13), at 7 p.m., followed by the Aggie game against LTU at 9:30 p.m.
The semifinals will be played Friday, at 7 p.m., with the winner of the Idaho vs. Hawaii game facing the winner of the New Mexico State vs. Fresno State game. The other semifinal game, at 9:30 p.m., will have the winner of the Nevada vs. San Jose State game playing the winner of the Utah State vs. Louisiana Tech game.
The championship game of the WAC Tournament will be played Saturday, at 10 p.m., and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu