COLUMN: Ags have chance for bragging rights
Utah State athletics has an opportunity to make a statement to the rest of the state this week.
The men’s basketball team will face in-state opponents BYU and Utah on Wednesday and Saturday and the USU hockey club will play BYU on Friday and Saturday.
All this coming a week after the women’s basketball team beat UVSC and Southern Utah. But they didn’t just beat them. The Lady Aggies finished 16 points ahead of UVSC and slaughtered SUU by 21 points. To put that into perspective, that same SUU team handed USU its first loss of last year by 19 points – a 30 point turnaround.
The women’s only blemish against inter-Utah foes came Nov. 19 when Weber State’s women’s basketball beat the USU Lady Ags 69-53. The men’s team has yet to play anyone local.
The hockey team is a different story. Officially, it is 5-3 against Utah schools. However, all three of those losses came against WSU’s upper-division squad. So USU hockey has not lost to anyone its own size from Utah.
Those the standings so far, but what does it mean? Well, nothing really, except for bragging rights. But it is interesting that the only in-state school to have beaten any of the current USU sports is WSU. Not BYU, not Utah, but our neighbors in Ogden.
This goes to show that once the snow hits, BYU and Utah have nothing on us except their reputation. USU and WSU are sort of the “little brothers” of Utah universities. We’re just as good as they are, but they get all the recognition.
Which is what makes this week all that more exciting. This will be the first time since the 1991-92 season that both the Cougars and Utes will come to Logan. Neither team has escaped with a victory here since 2000, when BYU escaped with an 82-73 victory. Utah has not won in Logan since 1996.
While the basketball games are expected to be close, the hockey team is definitely looking down at BYU. The IceCats have only beaten USU twice in their entire history and have never won a game in Logan.
Now that the football season is over, a four-game sweep by the men’s basketball team and the hockey club would give Salt Lake City and Provo absolutely nothing to brag about. The women have represented. It’s the men’s turn now.
Bryan Hinton is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc.usu.edu.