Utah State to play Villanova in NCAA Tournament first round

Utah State men’s basketball will take on the Villanova Wildcats on Friday in San Diego, as revealed during the selection show on Sunday afternoon. The Aggies earned a nine seed after winning the Mountain West regular season and tournament championships.

“Really excited about the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. Our guys earned it,” head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “Villanova’s a storied program, they’re a national brand, so it’s a great opportunity to play these guys.”

Utah State finished the year 28-6 in the second year under Calhoun, including a 15-5 conference record. It is now the fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance for Utah State, marking a program record, and is USU’s 26th tournament appearance overall.

“It’s huge. This is what every kid dreams of on the college level. So, us being able to take advantage over the course of the season, and be able to put ourself in this type of position is great,” MJ Collins Jr. said. “It’s just time to go out there and show the world who Utah State is.”

The Aggies will face Villanova out of the Big East conference. The Wildcats finished the year 24-8 overall and 15-5 in conference play, good enough for a third-place finish in the Big East.

“We’ve got to have an edge. We have to have an edge. We can’t lose that,” Calhoun said. “We’ve got to implement the scouting report, just like we did for the conference tournament.”

Utah State finished the season on a four-game winning streak, defeating New Mexico on the final day of the regular season before winning three conference tournament games this week. Villanova, conversely, is 3-3 over its last six games and was upset by Georgetown in the first round of the Big East Tournament on Thursday.

“We know how it feels when you lose a couple of games. We’re hot right now. There’s no better time to be hot than in March,” Collins Jr. said. So we’ve got to continue to carry that momentum, and hopefully we have our fans behind us like we did in Vegas.”

Utah State dropped to a nine seed as the only NCAA Tournament team from the Mountain West, making the conference a one-bid conference for the first time in nearly a decade. Nonetheless, the Aggies will represent the conference in its final year as a member against a program that’s won three national championships.

“Belief and momentum are really powerful. We’re playing as good as anybody in the country,” Calhoun said. “I forget how many teams won the regular season and the tournament. We should feel really confident with whoever we’re playing.”