USU looking to lock up the WAC
After taking a week off of conference play, the Aggies (25-3, 12-1) will look to lock up their first outright regular season WAC championship Thursday night when they host Hawaii (13-13, 5-8).
The Aggies won their first 12 conference games of the season before falling at Boise State on Valentine’s Day. That loss thwarted USU’s first attempt to lock up the regular season crown.
During their break in conference action, the Aggies kept the nation’s second-longest home winning streak alive by running away from Cal State Bakersfield, but lost their first BracketBuster game ever, falling on the road to Saint Mary’s.
In the closest thing the Ags have had to a slump this season, they’ve lost two out of three, and have fallen out of the national rankings for the first time in three weeks.
“I don’t think we’ve been overly concerned about all those thoughts, I really don’t. I think we’ve lost three road games to three good teams,” said USU head coach Stew Morrill. “I don’t think it’s a matter of us not trying to win or us being focused on all these other things, I just think we’ve played good teams on the road.”
Despite the recent road woes, USU has had plenty of success on the road this season, including a breakthrough win at Hawaii back on Jan. 24. The Aggies jumped on the Warriors early and never backed off, beating Hawaii 67-51 – the win was USU’s and Morrill’s first on the island.
After such an embarrassing loss at home, the Warriors are excited for another shot at the Aggies.
“It will be a great measuring stick for us because they obviously handed it to us at our place, so obviously we want to return the favor,” said Hawaii head coach Bob Nash. “We know that’s going to be an uphill challenge, but we embrace that challenge and we’ve got to go in and do the very best we can.”
However, the Aggies – as well as locking up their first outright conference championship since the 1999-2000 season – will be looking to protect their home court and get back on the winning track.
“I think anytime you can put wins together, it’s positive, but as far as relevancy towards the conference tournament I’ve never seen any,” Morrill said of building momentum for the tournament. “Certainly confidence wise, you always want to win games, though.”
Two players who will be instrumental to building that confidence and getting back on the winning track are Tai Wesley and Tyler Newbold. Despite only being sophomores, Morrill knows what a big role they play in the success of the team.
“In terms of their feel and understanding of our system and their smartness in the game of basketball,” Morrill said of their importance. “Even if they’re not getting stats, we’ve got to have them out there to function.”
Wesley especially should be excited to play the Warriors. In the teams’ first meeting this season he led the Aggies with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and the last time Hawaii visited the Spectrum, Wesley recorded a career-high 27 points.
After Hawaii, the Aggies will hit the road for the third consecutive weekend as they travel to Reno to take on Nevada. The Wolf Pack are 16-10 (8-4) on the season and are trying to lock up the No. 2 seed for the upcoming conference tournament.
USU will then conclude at home with its final game of the regular season against San Jose State Saturday, March 7.
First, however, the Aggies must take care of business against the Warriors.
“We’re playing much better basketball right now and we’ve just got to go in and do what we do, and hopefully on Thursday night it will be good enough,” Nash said. “We’re not going in there just to be their celebration, we’re going in there to fight and try to get the win. Utah State is a very good basketball team, but it’s been proven in this league that on any given night anybody can win, and we’re going in there with that mentality that we can win.”
–t.olsen@aggiemail.usu.edu