Pressure is a “privilege” USU basketball will have to overcome
“Pressure is a privilege”
It’s not a new phrase in the vernacular of the second-year Utah State basketball head coach, Craig Smith, but it has become ever-applicable since it became obvious the Aggies weren’t going to finish ninth in the Mountain West last year, like they were picked to do in the MW preseason polls.
Utah State won 17 of the last 18 games of its season prior to a bid in the NCAA Tournament, powering an undisputed claim to the MW basketball crown by taking a share of the regular season title and outright conference tournament trophy.
From that team, the Aggies return four starters, including the reigning conference Player of the Year (Sam Merrill) and the winner of both the Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year awards (Neemias Queta). Smith also returns as last year’s conference Coach of the Year.
Queta explored the possibility of departing to the NBA to fulfill his dreams of playing professionally, but his decision to return placed USU in a heavy favorite position now deep in the offseason.
Being the odds-on favorite to take the conference crown is not new to the Utah State basketball program. For the nearly two decades of Stew Morrill’s tenure, the Aggies often held the Big West and WAC hostage and consistently won conference titles. But this kind of favoritism and attention is somewhat new to this Aggie squad.
Photo by Megan Beth Media
“A lot of people have (said) ‘well now this year you’re the hunted and last year you were the hunter.’” Smith told the hosts of The Statesman Sports Desk podcast in a recent episode. “I get it, and everybody goes by that and I understand that and we’ll have more of a target on our back. But pressure is a privilege, it’s what you make of it. We dealt with that last year, we won the league in the regular season we won with a target on our back in the conference tournament. You have all that stuff but at the end of the day none of that stuff matters and you’ve got to eliminate the noise.”
USU’s handling of pressure in the period of the season Smith mentioned was hit-and-miss, though ultimately successful in most rights. When the MW, bracketologists, and a decent chunk of the country finally turned their collective heads to Logan, the Aggies had a few hiccups and near-misses. Close games against Boise State and Colorado State — below-average MW teams it took USU overtime to beat — and a near disastrous flirting with a one-and-done exit in the conference tournament weren’t exactly a display of true Aggie basketball. To the team’s everlasting credit, however, they won all three of those games, grinding it out when it mattered most. And it isn’t as though there were no good performances by USU when under the spotlight. A conference tournament win on national television, dominating wins over San Diego State (the second regular season matchup), Fresno State (in the conference tournament) and a quality win over then 12th-ranked Nevada proved that Utah State could play their best when the lights were bright.
Still, it remains to be seen — and will be until the start of the season — if this team will handle the pressure appropriately for the duration of an approximately 35-game campaign. Success is never a guarantee and the one team that should be fully aware of that is Utah State. After all, they toppled the heavy, heavy 2018 MW favorites in Nevada who entered the season as a top-10 team but wound up falling well short of its preseason goals.