History of the Tournament: How Utah State men’s basketball has fared in the Mountain West Tournament

Following a 2015-16 season which only saw one Mountain West men’s basketball team make the NCAA tournament, the importance of the conference tournament and the coveted automatic NCAA tournament berth given to its victor is at an all-time high.

The Utah State basketball team will enter this year’s tournament in a familiar position, holding the 8th/9th seed after recording a 7-11 Mountain West regular season record. In its three years since joining the conference, USU has entered the tournament as the 8th seed in 2014, the 5th seed in 2015, and the 9th seed in 2016.

For the Aggies, victories during those four days in Las Vegas at the beginning of March have been hard to come by. After enormous conference tournament success during their time in the Big West and Western Athletics Conferences, appearing in 10 championship games between 2000 and 2013, success at the Mountain West tournament has been elusive.

In its three years attending the Mountain West tournament, Utah State has advanced to the semifinal round every time, but never any further.

In 2016 USU defeated eighth-seed Wyoming 88-70 before losing in the semifinal round to rival San Diego State 71-65

Mountain West Tournament history:

2014

First Round: #8 Utah State 73 – #9 Colorado State 69

Quarterfinals: #1 San Diego State 73 – #8 Utah State 39

2015

Quarterfinals: #4 Wyoming 67 – #5 Utah State 65

2016

First Round: #9 Utah State 88 – #8 Wyoming 70

Quarterfinals: #1 San Diego State 71 – #9 Utah State 65