Utah State men’s basketball season ends, grateful for what it brought them
INDIANAPOLIS – Utah State University lost to Purdue University Sunday afternoon 106-67. The Aggies came into an arena filled with Purdue fans. West Lafayette is just over an away from Indianapolis, so the Boilermakers had the home court advantage. On top of this were some questionable foul calls. The Aggies have made history by winning this year. They have an incredible team that was predicted to be 9th in the Mountain West and became the outright champions.
“Couldn’t be more proud of our guys,” head coach Danny Sprinkle said.
Purdue won the tip-off and neither team seemed to be able to make a shot. Isaac Johnson and Ian Martinez got some good looks, but couldn’t get anything to drop.
The whistles were not on the side of the Aggies Sunday afternoon as both Khalifa Sakho and Johnson had two fouls a piece just four minutes into the game. This led to head coach Danny Sprinkle to sub them out and put Karson Templin on the giant Zach Edey.
“You have to guard completely different than you have all year,” Sprinkle said talking about players guarding Edey. “I mean, it’s kind of a pick your poison. And you have to hope they miss shots, and then you got to be able to rebound.”
This didn’t stop the Aggies from scoring as Ian Martinez dropped two threes back to back to take the lead on the Boilermakers.
Edey had a great game in the low post and was able to draw a lot of fouls on the Aggies. He went to the line eight times.
“You have elite teams, and you have special teams,” Sprinkle said. “When you have a player like Zach Edey who’s special, like there hasn’t been many guys like that in college basketball.”
The game was physical where Braden Smith received a charging foul on Darius Brown II after the return from the 8-minute media timeout. This put him at two, and he was subbed out.
Sprinkle made no mistake by showering Brown II with accolades for his skill not only as a player but as a leader as well.
“When you have a leader like Darius who literally can just put guys on his shoulders, and show them the way,” Sprinkle said. “As a point guard he was an extension of the coaching staff from the summer on. He deserves more credit than anybody because he did it with this pretty young group.”
Purdue went on a 13-0 run and Sprinkle had to call a timeout with about five minutes left in the half. It was at this point there was no return for the Aggies to this game.
“I thought that’s when the game started breaking open,” Sprinkle said. “They started getting some second chance points.”
It wasn’t just Edey who scored a lot for the Boilermakers. Players like Smith and Fletcher Loyer also played well in the game with a total of 23 points for both of them combined.
“They got other really really good players, and, you know, they can’t go unnoticed,” Sprinkle said.
The halftime score was 49-33 for the Boilermakers.
Aggies didn’t score about the first minute of the second half, and Mason Falslev breaks it with a layup.
After the half, something seemed to have changed for the Boilermakers where they took their game to another level, and they dominated the entire second half.
The Aggies defense fell apart from inability to play defense from tight foul-calling by the referees.
Something worth noting is Great Osobor and Trey Kaufman-Renn both went for a rebound and fell to the ground. The Boilermakers got possession and went down the court, but this didn’t stop Osobor from helping up Kaufman-Renn.
Darius Brown II hit two threes in a row at 4:50 left in the game.
At about a minute left Sprinkle subbed in his second-string to give them experience in playing in a NCAA tournament game.
The final score was 106-67 which was a devastating end to an incredible season.
The Aggies had one of the best seasons in school history. They played in a powerhouse conference with a team returning zero points last year.
“I don’t know if it will be done again at the power five, power six level. You know when you’re playing Mountain West, Big 10, like it’s hard to do with a completely brand new roster,” Sprinkle said.
Sprinkle and the team met each other for the first time last June. They practiced all summer to get ready for their first game on Nov. 6, 2023.
“Yeah, it was special, and very essential, you know, these past two years with coach Sprinkle have been special and very essential to my future,” Brown II said about his two years with Danny Sprinkle. “I can’t thank him and the staff enough for what they’ve done for me.”
Martinez is from Costa Rica, and he is one of a few international players for the team. He spoke about the hospitality his teammates and coaching staff gave him over the season.
“I just looked for a place to call home,” Martinez said. “The players, they just made it really special for me. They took me in, you know, they were there for me the whole time. They believed in me. [I] never really had people who actually believed in me.”
The team truly came together last summer and culminated into the team that played Sunday afternoon. It consisted of the local boys like Johnson and Falslev showing the other players around places in Cache Valley and Bear Lake. Also bringing them to their houses for barbeques. Sprinkle said this comradery translated to the court.
“It was in the Cayman Islands when I saw how close this team was,” Sprinkle said. “Whether it was walking in the hotel or pregame meals, you could see there was something special there.”