State of the Program: USU Men’s Basketball
2021 marked the end of an era for the Utah State University men’s basketball program, with head coach Craig Smith taking the head coaching job at the University of Utah and three-time Mountain West Defensive player of the year Neemias Queta declaring for the NBA draft.
The player and coach duo made quite the impact throughout their three years in Cache Valley, and the 2020-21 season was no exception. After replacing the second-leading scorer in USU history, Sam Merrill, who graduated in 2020, the Aggies persevered through a season hindered by COVID-19 to win 20 games, finish second in the Mountain West and earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
Several Aggies won all-conference accolades throughout the season. Queta was All Mountain West first-team and the All Mountain West defensive player of the year. Junior Justin Bean was second-team All Mountain West, junior Marco Anthony was on the All Mountain West defensive first team and junior Brock Miller earned an All Mountain West honorable mention.
After USU fell to Texas Tech 65 to 53 in the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 19, the program began to change rapidly. Smith left for Utah on March 27. Two days later, Queta declared for the draft.
Before the end of the 2021 spring semester, six Aggies entered the transfer portal, most notably Rollie Worster and Marco Anthony. Both players followed Smith to Utah.
The basketball team is facing an overhaul of a team and coaching staff that helped establish consistent winning in Logan once again. Utah State Athletic Director John Hartwell was quick to recognize Smith for his achievements.
“Obviously the last three years have been a tremendous ride and hats off to Craig Smith and his staff,” Hartwell said. “I would never begrudge anybody for pursuing another opportunity that makes sense for them from a family perspective, from a career perspective and quite frankly that’s what Craig did. I know some of our fan base may be a little upset that he did it 80 miles down the road as opposed to somewhere else.”
Now the question is how to keep the program going forwards in an upward trajectory. And it starts with the new Aggie head coach, Ryan Odom.
Odom was hired on April 5 and in the months since, he’s compiled a new staff and filled in the vacant roster spots.
Beginning the 2021-22 calendar year on Thursday, Odom seems settled into his new gig and is pleased with where the basketball program stands.
“(We’re) coming off of three straight NCAA tournaments and an opportunity to build upon that and challenge ourselves to continue to be a factor and compete for championships in the Mountain West, and I feel like it’s a positive time,” Odom said. “COVID is ending all of the sudden, so our fans can come back into the Spectrum and create that Spectrum magic and get back to who we are.”
Also pleased with the current state of things is Hartwell. The six-year USU athletic director caused a stir when he told the media following Smith’s departure that he would rather be great and repeat the coaching search process every three to four years than keep the same coach for ten years and be mediocre. Whether or not Odom fits that in-and-out profile, Hartwell thinks the coach can take the Aggies to greater heights.
“What I’m excited about from Ryan’s perspective and, you know, we talked about this from our very first interview several weeks ago, was his ability to come in and help us achieve even higher goals,” Hartwell said.
Odom laid out some of his expectations during his introductory press conference, putting an emphasis on not just making the NCAA tournament, but winning when he gets there.
USU’s drought in the tournament has been an elephant in the room for two decades. Despite having massive success under former coach Stew Morrill and then Smith, USU is currently on an eight-game losing streak in March Madness. Their last victory was over No. 5 seeded Ohio State in 2001.
“People are like, well gosh, we’ve only won one time during that 21-year stretch. We need to take it to another level, and, you know, I think Ryan embraces that,” said Hartwell. “Obviously it’s well-publicized. He’s got something on his resume that no other coach can say— he took a 16 seed and beat a one seed when UMBC beat Virginia a couple of years ago.”
Odom added seven players to revamp the roster, including three transfers expected to make an immediate impact in the winter.
Seniors RJ Etyle-Rock and Brandon Horvath were both first-team All-American East players at University of Maryland, Baltimore County while junior guard Rylan Jones is a Logan native that started multiple games at Utah.
“(Rylan) can shoot, dribble and pass,” Odom said. “He’s a competitor on defense, he’s going to bring a lot to our team… Brandon’s going to fit well with our team. He’s got a shooting ability beyond the arch, a rebounding ability, and he’s committed to doing both… RJ provides us size, shooting and defense at the guard position.”
With the three transfers joining returning starters Brock Miller and Justin Bean, the Aggies are poised to be competitive in the Mountain West once again.
But despite the high aspirations, Hartwell warned fans to temper their immediate expectations.
“You gotta be really good to get to the NCAA tournament in consecutive years, much less three years, but you gotta have a little bit of luck on your side too,” Hartwell said. “So I don’t want our people to say, oh gosh, we didn’t make the tournament or we didn’t do this. That doesn’t mean it’s been a failure. That just means we have a high level of expectation now for success.”