The Mountain West has been one of the premier conferences in college basketball for a while now. The league consistently gets multiple teams in the NCAA Tournament, well, until this year. The league was down, with very few good teams. In previous years, you could always pencil in New Mexico and San Diego State as two teams who would always make the NCAA Tournament. This year, they were bubble teams who didn’t do nearly enough to force the committee's hand.Â
The one constant in the Mountain West was Utah State Aggies dominating the league and winning the auto-bid. Strangely, Utah State is the only representative of the Mountain West, but that was the state of the game this year. The Aggies are making their fourth straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament, second straight for head coach Jerrod Calhoun, and their 26th overall appearance. Utah State is a 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament. What should you know about the boys from Logan, Utah?
Efficiency
Utah State is extremely efficient on both sides of the ball. What do I mean by that? Offensive Efficiency means what percentage of shots the team makes on offense, versus the number of shots they take. The Aggies are one of the most efficient teams on the offensive end of the floor in the tournament. Utah State has a lot of guards who can get to the rim and pass. That allows the guards to score in the paint or dump it off to the forwards who finish in the paint. Collectively, the Aggies shoot 60% from the two-point range. Â
They do shoot 36% from deep on about 24 attempts per night, but it's the two-point field goals that will lead Utah State to the victory. On the defensive end, you don’t want to allow teams to shoot at a high percentage from the field. The Aggies do prevent teams from getting good shots and looks at the rim. Teams shoot well under 50% from the field against Utah State. Couple that with their ability to prevent teams from moving the ball against them, forcing them to go more one-on-one, which in turn leads to more turnovers. The Aggies are elite at forcing turnovers and only allow about 12 assists per night. It's not all part of preventing teams from getting good looks at the basket. Â
Efficiency will be extremely important in this game. The one thing to watch for with the Aggies is that they do foul quite a bit. Sending teams to the line, especially towards the end of the shot clock, can be back-breaking, especially at the end of the game—just something to watch for.
Motivation
It was no secret after the selection show how head coach Calhoun felt about receiving the 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament and about the Mountain West receiving only one bid. He felt slighted; he believes Utah State was much better than a 9 seed and should have been rewarded as such.
There really isn’t a point to break down the metrics at this point because we can’t change it but I look at the Calhoun comments two ways. Does the coach actually believe that, or is he just trying to get his guys ready to play? I can promise you that the Aggies are going to come out motivated to show that they should have been a better seed.
If Coach Calhoun believes they should have received a higher seed, then that is something he needs to take up with the committee, and hopefully, his team doesn’t get too motivated or upset by something out of their control. They need to control what they can control, stay motivated to show the committee they made a mistake, and stay level-headed and play well, or they are going to lose.
Jarrod Calhoun
Coach Calhoun has done a fantastic job at Utah State and is now 2 for 2 in getting the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament. Last season, the Aggies were given a 10 seed after finishing third in the Mountain West. That is all great for a first year, but Utah State didn’t win its NCAA Tournament game, which is the most important part.
This season, the Aggies improved and won the league regular season and the conference championship. The league record of 15-5 was the same each year, but with the Mountain West being down this year, 15-5 was good enough to win the league. Either way, that was already an improvement over last year. That is why coach Calhoun and Utah State earned a 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament this year.Â
The Aggies have momentum and are on an upward trend, but Utah State fans have seen their head coach’s name in the middle of a ton of rumors for bigger jobs. Could this be the last ride for Coach Calhoun in Logan? That would make it the 4th coach in 5 years for Utah State if Calhoun did leave. Either way, the longer the Aggies stay in the tournament, the longer Utah State fans can enjoy their coach.