MBB Preview: Aggies dancing with Missouri
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Utah State Men’s Basketball has a date with Missouri in the big dance. The No. 10 seed Aggies take on No. 7 Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament today.
USU head coach Ryan Odom praised Missouri during a press conference on Wednesday.
“They’ve earned their way here,” Odom said about Missouri. “I love the way they play. They’re fearless. They play loose, they play confident. They have big-time individual players. Obviously, (Kobe) Brown is a tremendous player and will be fun to watch in the NCAA tournament.”
Brown, a senior from Huntsville, Alabama, leads the Tigers in scoring with 15.8 points per game.
“He’s a really good player,” USU forward Taylor Funk said. “He’s a versatile guy. He has the ability to shoot the three, shooting over 40%. He can put that thing on the ground and get to the rim.”
Utah State’s Taylor Funk at the shootaround Wednesday in Sacramento for the first round of March Madness. (Photo by Phil Weber.)
Funk compared him to San Diego State’s Matt Bradley.
“He can definitely score that thing,” Funk said. “Our defense is going to have to be set for us to stop him.”
Right behind him is graduate guard D’Moi Hodge. He puts up 14.8 points per game and is especially dangerous on defense forcing 2.6 steals per game. Hodge leads the Tigers’ defense that averages 10.3 steals per game, good enough for second in the country.
“I think they definitely statistically turn their opponents over quite regularly,” USU guard Steven Ashworth said. “They take pride in that. I think that their defense is built on that. That fuels their offense, that fuels their up-pace tempo they like to play with.”
But Utah State has dealt with defenses like that this season in Mountain West foes New Mexico and UNLV — both teams Ashworth compared Missouri to.
“Preparing for that, we know we have to take care of the ball and we have to make sure we meet our passes, catch with two hands, a lot of the primary things you learn growing up with basketball are going to be applicable,” Ashworth said.
Beyond that, Missouri has depth with 11 guys averaging 10 minutes or more per game and not one Tiger averaging more than 30 minutes per game. That was an issue for Utah State when they played San Diego State in the Mountain West Championship Game, but the Aggies had played two games in less than 48 hours before tipoff.
As for the Tigers’ prep, they said they respect the Aggies and the conference slate they had to get through to play in the tourney.
“We have nothing but respect for our opponent,” Missouri head coach Dennis Gates said. “May the best team win. They’ll have a scouting report, we’ll have a scouting report. It will be a great environment that both institutions are excited to represent their school, their conference, and also build memories for young people.”
Graduate guard Tre Gomillion compared Utah State’s offense to the No. 1 team in the country, Alabama, to who Missouri lost last week.
“I think they have an offensive type of system like Alabama,” Gomillion said. “They want to space the floor with shooters, want you to gamble, overhelp, get fast in transition. Nothing we haven’t seen before. A little bit of what we do. We’ll be prepared.”
Tipoff is slated for 11:40 a.m. MDT in the Golden 1 Center. The game will be broadcast on Aggie Radio 92.3 FM.
Featured image by Phil Weber from Utah State’s shootaround Wednesday.