Utah State basketball hosts ‘Aggie Madness’ to kick off 2026-2027 season

To kick off the season of Aggie basketball, Utah State University held the third annual Aggie Madness at the Wayne Estes Center on Thursday evening. Aggie Madness was a free event held by Utah State University Athletics where members of the community were invited to attend, participate in games and meet the 2026 -2027 men’s and women’s basketball teams.  

“Aggie Madness is one of the first opportunities to see all of our teams for the year all together,” HURD Committee President Natalie Baker said. This was Baker’s third year attending Aggie Madness, and she expressed her joy in seeing community participation grow throughout the years. Baker expressed hope for future game attendance, “especially to Women’s Basketball because it’s so fun.” 

At the event, there were many opportunities for the students of USU to get engaged and win prizes, including a scholarship of $1,000 provided by Coca-Cola, which was awarded to Braeden Snapp, an electrical engineering student at USU. The competition was a game of knockout containing 10 contestants chosen from a raffle. Braeden explained his love for Aggie basketball as well as his gratitude for the scholarship.

“When I got picked, it was nerve-wracking. I mean, a $1,000 scholarship is a lot of money, especially for a college student,” Snapp said.

Additionally, Snapp explained that he arrived directly from his job at Schreiber Foods as an engineering intern. “I got off of work, got chosen, so I’m in my Crocs, in my work outfit, and we just do it,” Snapp said. 

Aggie Madness allowed the audience a chance to hear from the head coaches of the men’s and women’s basketball teams about their thoughts for the season. 

“We are excited to be starting our journey in the Pac-12. We are really looking forward to it,” said Wesley Brooks, head Women’s Basketball coach.

Brooks also urged Aggie fans to “come out to support our girls,” and stated fans are “welcome to come out Saturday morning” and watch the team practice.  

Head coach of the men’s team, Ben Jacobson, also gave open season remarks stating the importance of three things for their upcoming season.

“One is the locker room. You got to have a great locker room. … The other: you got to be pulling to compete. When you’re at practice, you got to go at it so you can get better … and the third one is you got to have some good players,” Jacobson said. “These guys have demonstrated that over the course of their careers.”

Coach Jacobson also stated his excitement to start the season on Oct. 10.

“The last thing we got to have, I know it’s here, is the Spectrum Magic,” Jacobson said. 

Aggie basketball wasn’t the only one in attendance — other teams attended the evening, including Women’s Gymnastics and Women’s Soccer tossing out T-shirts to the crowd. In addition to singing “The Scotsman,” fans got involved by watching the men’s and women’s teams collaborate on relay teams and in a 3-point competition.

One attendee, Maddie Widman, mentioned how she enjoyed the layup contest, the 3-pointer and then the half-court shot.

“It was really cool seeing both teams collaborate with people from the crowd. … I love that,” Widman said. “[Aggie Madness] gets you a good idea of what we’re going to be seeing this season. It prepares you for the excitement because, if you were here, you know everyone was getting excited.”

She explained her experience at Aggie Madness was more personal.

“It was a cool experience because … normally when you see the team it’s in a packed Spectrum,” Widman said, “but in here, we didn’t have as many people, so it felt like we got to kind of hear a little bit more.”

One fan, Logan Webber, expressed his excitement for both teams’ upcoming seasons.

“As soon as the season starts, I’ll be there. I’m really optimistic about the women’s team. I think there’s going to be a lot of improvement this year. In the past, they had some hard seasons, but I think they did well in the transfer portal this year,” Webber said. “I really like coach Jacobson. He earned a lot of my trust tonight.”

At the conclusion of the evening, the crowd had the opportunity to get signed posters from both the men’s and women’s teams.