Game Preview: Utah State vs. Purdue
INDIANAPOLIS – Utah State University will play Purdue University tomorrow at 2:40 p.m. ET, 12:40 p.m. MT. The Aggies come into this game after their first NCAA win since 2001 where they beat Ohio State 77-68.
This will be the twelfth time in school history the Aggies have played an AP top 25 team in the NCAA tournament, and the previous 11 times the school has lost.
Both coaches understand the skill that each team has. Matt Painter talked about the matchup in tomorrow afternoon’s game.
“Everybody in the NCAA Tournament is really good. Now, when you go to that 32 everybody is that much better,” Painter said.
The Aggies look to play around Zach Edey, the 7’4” 300 Lb. center for Purdue, and they were asked what they will do to stop him from scoring.
“Sometimes you can’t. But I think what we can do is stop the rest of the team,” Isaac Johnson said.
The team knows what their opponent looks like for tomorrow’s game. Edey is number one in the country for fouls drawn, and in yesterday’s game, he went to the line 17 times to make up 11 of his 30 points. Johnson talked about how he will play defense to not get him to go to the line.
“Just wall up as best you can,” Johnson said. “We just have to be as physical as we can, chest out, and do what we can without fouling.”
Another big matchup to lookout for is between Darius Brown II and Braden Smith, both have similar styles of play.
“He’s a really good player, so I guess switch up my styles whether it’s aggressive then a little fallback,” Brown II said.
Painter understands the capabilities of Danny Sprinkle from what he has built at Utah State in just one year.
“How the hell do they get it? They’ve been working since June like that. It’s because they got a great coach,” Painter said.
Sprinkle has respect for Painter as well when he sees the skill in the team he has built up contains.
“We steal a lot of sets from coach Painter, you know, and we did at Montana State too,” Sprinkle said.
If the Aggies win tomorrow, it will be the first time since 1970 the school has gone to the sweet sixteen.