Mountain West Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season
547. . . . Aggies . 7. team
Utah State is usually closer to the top of the Mountain West standings. In the offseason, however, the program lost everything – the head coach, virtually every contributor who played the previous season, and perhaps, its swagger.
The first departure from a team that earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament was Ryan Odom, who decided to return closer to the place where he made a name for himself, taking the head coaching job at Virginia Commonwealth after only two years at Utah State.
From a player standpoint, everyone is gone. Sean Bairstow and Max Shulga followed Odom to the Rams. Steven Ashworth went to Creighton. Trevin Dorius transferred in-state to Utah Valley. Taylor Funk exhausted his eligibility and is trying to crack an NBA roster.
New coach Danny Sprinkle worked wonders for his alma mater at Montana State and could really be a good fit for the long haul. Growing pains are coming quick, though.
Darius Brown II followed Sprinkle from the Bobcats and should be an instant leader for the Aggies. He’ll also bring a defensive strength to the squad, earning Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year honors last year while averaging 9.1 points, 4.9 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game.
Ian Martinez, who has had stops at Maryland and Utah, is also a key addition to the program. The former four-star recruit never fully got off the ground at either of his previous schools, but he could form a nice one-two punch with Brown, though their games are similar.
Compared to other tandems in the conference, however, they just don’t appear to stack up. This year should be geared towards Sprinkle creating a culture in his image as the program hits the reset the button.
In four of the last five seasons, the Aggies finished in either first or second place in the Mountain West. That doesn’t seem likely in 2023-24.