LAS VEGAS — Following Utah State’s convincing win over Air Force in the opening round of the 2022 Mountain West Tournament, Colorado State will play the Aggies for a third time this season in the quarterfinals on Thursday night.
So far this year CSU is 2-0 against USU with the most recent victory coming over the Aggies in Logan, UT., back on Feb. 26. That said, while the Aggies may have finished seventh in the regular season standings and gotten swept by the Green & Gold in the regular season, it’s certainly not a matchup that the Rams can take lightly.
For one thing, USU is built with a roster full of veterans that have played in high-level basketball games for quite some time now. Whether part of the Craig Smith era at USU or the Ryan Odom era at Maryland Baltimore County, you can never discount the value of having already experienced the intensity of conference championships, NCAA Tournaments, etc.
Plus, while the Aggies may have been inconsistent as a whole this season, they easily have a top 3 front court in the Mountain West with Justin Bean and Brandon Horvath. The former averaged 17.9 points per game, 9.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists, while the latter averaged 13.8 PPG, 6.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists as well. With the talent that the Aggies have on their roster and the experience they have under their belt, you know that they aren’t going into the game with any fear in their eyes. If anything they will be fired up to play spoilers and get revenge after falling to CSU on Senior Night.
These guys are locked in & ready 👀 pic.twitter.com/tR10xQn13a
— DNVR Rams (@DNVR_Rams) March 10, 2022
Now, before Ram Nation starts hyperventilating and looking for the Tums in the bathroom,what should be encouraging for CSU fans in a potentially tricky matchup is the fact that CSU also has plenty of natural motivation.
The Rams may be safely in the NCAA Tournament field, at least according to the leading bracketologists across the country, but the players have zero interest in leaving anything up for debate. After experiencing the heartbreak of being left out of March Madness in 2021, the Rams want to secure the automatic bid by becoming just the second team in school history to win the Mountain West Tournament. And in order to do so, the team they must first knock out of their way is the same one that arguably prevented them from dancing last spring, the Utah State Aggies.
“It’s something that we think about for sure,” David Roddy said. “The guys that returned from last year remember the feeling, everybody remembers the feeling of not reaching our goal twice. It’s a lot of motivation.”
“I think it’s one of those things that you definitely remember,” Isaiah Stevens added. “We were so close last year to getting one of our biggest dreams and goals accomplished. But a few things just didn’t bounce our way.”
Stevens continued, explaining that it’s all just part of being a competitor. The losses always stick with you and they should be fuel for a team’s competitive fire. The important thing to remember is that if you get too swept up in revenge it can take you out of your own game though. “Just go out there and try to execute our game plan and compete to the highest level and I think everything will take care of itself.”
CSU and USU are scheduled to tip off at 7:00 p.m. MT. The game is televised via CBS Sports Network.
