Mountain West Basketball: Way-too-early power rankings for 2022-23 season

8. Utah State

Former UMBC coach Ryan Odom had an okay start at Utah State last season, finishing 18-16, but below .500 in conference play. The previous three years had all ended with trips or projected trips to the NCAA Tournament under former coach Craig Smith. Odom’s rebuilding the roster quite a bit and next year’s team will certainly look very dissimilar from some of these Aggies teams from the Big Dance.

First and foremost, Odom has the unenviable task of replacing the contributions of forwards Justin Bean (17.4 ppg, 9.9 rpg last year) and Brandon Horvath (13.9 ppg, 6.6 rpg). They’ll start with a slew of returning guards, led by Steven Ashworth and Sean Bairstow, the two leading returning scorers from last season. They’ll get a nice boost at forward with the transfer of Taylor Funk from Saint Joseph’s and can also plug former Oregon State big man Isaac Johnson into the starting lineup at center.

A great defensive team in recent years, the Aggies will have to lean ever more on that defense as they figure out how to replace Bean and Horvath’s offense in this system. The positive is that a lot of the lineup aside from those two does return for next season, meaning with some growth and steps forward from these young players, we could see a much better Utah State team than expected. It’s all going to depend on this roster gels and if that defense can continue to be impressive, especially with a new frontcourt.