COLUMN: Even sans Ags, tourney has been good for USU
First of all, Stew Morrill should be congratulated for his raise. There isn’t any other coach in the country that deserves it more than Stew. Only a handful of coaches can match Stew’s record of 143-46 in his seven years at Utah State.
And that is why this basketball offseason could have been much worse for the Aggies.
When all was said and done on Selection Sunday, no school in the country felt as snubbed as USU. What more did the committee want than a 25-3 record, especially after letting in other suspect teams such as UTEP (24-7), Air Force (22-6), BYU (21-8, one of those losses coming against USU) and Richmond (20-12). That event could have been the start to a very long summer for the basketball program.
All the warning signs were in place. The USU athletic director was arrested on a DUI, the Ute nation was summoning Morrill, and the team not only got snubbed from the NCAA tournament, but lost its first round NIT game to Hawaii.
But then the NCAA tournament started. The first round saw the four teams who got in just in front of the Aggies all lose and two teams very similar to USU, Pacific and Manhattan, pull off big upsets. Manhattan beat Florida and Pacific, USU’s archrival in conference play this season, beat Providence.
Then along came Nevada. Not only did they surprise Michigan State in the first round, they shocked the world by routing heavily favored Gonzaga to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. And then they pushed Georgia Tech to the final seconds in the next round.
Currently, there is almost no direct connection between the Wolfpack and the Aggies, but there will be in two years. Nevada is in the Western Athletic Conference and will be joined by USU the season after next. Nevada’s unprecedented run in the tournament gives the WAC more credibility.
But here’s what could have very likely happened. Pacific could have been routed in its first round game and Air Force, BYU and Richmond, teams that got in just in front of USU, could have won, giving the tournament committee a nice “we-told-you-so” that they could give to Aggie fans everywhere.
Then the two WAC teams in the tournament, UTEP and Nevada, could have also been slaughtered in their first round games, making that conference appear weaker and giving USU less to look forward to.
Then Morrill, sensing that the USU athletic department was in disarray without an athletic director, could have gone to Utah. Such a chain of events could have set the basketball program back 10 years.
But instead, there is plenty of hope on the horizon. And speaking of Horizon, that is the name of the conference that last had a team snubbed from the NCAA tournament like USU. That team was Butler with a 23-5 record. They came back the next year with a 25-5 record and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
So, luckily, there is still plenty to look forward to at USU.
Bryan Hinton is a junior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc.usu.edu.