Cinderella’s first dance in nearly a decade
“I was really confident heading into the season. I know not a lot of people were, but I was telling as many people as I could that I thought we were going to be pretty good,” junior guard Sam Merrill said. “Maybe not this good, but just I was telling everyone that our culture is a winning culture. I don’t think people knew a lot about us.”
Would you blame someone before the season if they said they didn’t think Utah State would be able to make it to the NCAA tournament? I mean this was a Utah State team that hadn’t even sniffed the tournament since 2011 when they were playing in the WAC. Coming into the season the team only returned four players who played any significant minutes last season, and for a different coach nonetheless. I mean, hell, the Mountain West media picked them to finish third from last in the preseason polls. Why would anyone expect this team to exceed expectations?
Well, the conference player of the year had some thoughts on why.
“Eleven months ago, almost a year ago, Coach Smith was hired, and we felt right away that we were going to have an opportunity to be pretty good,” Merrill said. “As someone who grew up a Utah State fan and grew up watching Utah State go to the tournament and win conference championships, it means the world to me. And it means the world to us as a team.”
USU guard Sam Merrill goes up for a layup against Fresno State on March 15 in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. Merrill had 22 points on the night. (Savy Knapp)
The Aggies were one of the most inexperienced teams in the conference coming into the season, part of the reason they were so overlooked. USU returned just four players who played at least 20 games and seven minutes per contest. And as well as some of its freshmen have played, you can’t ignore how much youth is on the roster. 10 of 15 players on the roster are underclassmen and out of the 10, half played ten or more minutes per game.
So what have people learned over the past few months about this Aggie basketball team? If you’re not familiar by now, this team is one of the best teams in the nation defensively and on the glass. This coming just a year after it ranked near the bottom in almost every defensive category. But this season, Utah State is the ninth-ranked team in the nation in field goal percentage allowed and eighth in defensive rebounds per game. The way the team plays defensively is not just about formations, it’s an attitude, one that was brought over by head coach Craig Smith.
“It’s just an amazing group,” Smith said. “When you look at the growth that these guys had and we’ve talked about our youth and all that kind of stuff. You really think back to the year and not one time did we lose back-to-back games this year. Not one.”
That attitude— or mindset— isn’t just about what’s on the court. What separates this team from a lot of others is how its culture is centered around doing the hard things best. And not just doing the hard things, but being a team that never celebrates and is always ready to work. Doing these things at such a high level all season has created an extremely tight-knit group of men, a family as Smith would like to think.
“You just, as a coach, everyone operates their program differently. We truly operate like being a family. And these guys have been unbelievable,” he said. “And I think that just tells you like just the mantra, the toughness, the togetherness, because if you’re not connected from day one — how are you going to handle it?”
Savy Knapp The Aggies hoist the Mountain West Conference Tournament trophy after defeating San Diego State on March 16. (Savy Knapp)
From being picked ninth in the preseason to being the undisputed, outright conference champions is an achievement that can’t be overstated. And the players bought in and made it their mission to complete this turnaround season in a way no one could have expected it would go.
“From the start of the year our guys really wanted to bring the spectrum magic back,” Smith said. “No doubt we did that. And to get to this point is really, I mean it’s almost a Cinderella story. And certainly it’s been beyond the magical ride for this year. And our journey is not done yet.”
Winning the Mountain West regular season title is not enough for this team. Winning the Mountain West Tournament isn’t enough either. If this team wants to complete it’s magical season— climbing from the bottom to the top— there’s one thing this Aggie team has yet to do.
“My goal is to win an NCAA Tournament game,” Merrill said. “It’s been, what, 2002, 2001, something like that, almost 17 years since Utah State’s won a tournament game. So this was obviously — this is incredible. But I feel like we have a lot more left in the tank and we’re going to definitely try and show that wherever we end up this next weekend.”
Utah State will look to win its first tournament game since the 2000-01 season when the 12th seeded Aggies upset fifth seeded Ohio State in an overtime thriller. This time, Utah State is no longer the underdog, the Aggies will be playing the unfamiliar role of favorite. This year’s squad heads to Columbus, Ohio as the eighth seed and a three-point favorite over the Pac-12 regular season champion Washington Huskies. Tip-off is Friday at 4:50 PM (Mountain Time) on TNT.