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LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- One day after losing the Western Athletic Conference championship, the Utah State Aggies received an at-large bid to play in the NCAA tournament.
The 12th-seeded Aggies (23-8) will play fifth-seeded Washington (24-6) in the first round of the Washington Regional Thursday at Cox Arena in San Diego.
"After (Saturday's) tough loss, this is just such a great deal," USU coach Stew Morrill said Sunday. "We are excited and we are anxious. We know we have an unbelievable opponent (Washington). We will know more about them when we dive into preparation. Right now we are just kind of soaking it all in."
Utah State was left out of the 2004 tournament despite finishing in the Top 25.
"The thing that is ironic to me is that two years ago sitting in the room, all the experts had us in," Morrill said. "Today, we weren't even on the board this week. Then all of the sudden we at least started to make the board and that we should be considered, but they still had us left out....
"The real experts are the committee," he said. "It is nice that the committee is going to do what they think is right and not what everybody else tells them."
He said Washington is athletic and fast-paced.
"They are going to probably press you.... Lorenzo Romar has done an unbelievable job in turning that thing around so quickly. We know what we are in for with Washington. We don't know the particulars yet, but we know what a challenge that will be," he said.
Guard Jaycee Carroll said it was more exciting watching the announcements this year than last year, when they knew they were in.
When they saidfrom the Western Athletic Conference' we just all kind of jumped up and went crazy," he said. "About 10 seconds after they announced our name, David Pak was yelling, `Let's go practice, let's go practice right now." Everyone was ready to leave behind."
Utah State finished second in the WAC to 21st-ranked Nevada and lost 70-63 in overtime to the host Wolf Pack on Saturday night. USU split the regular season series with Nevada.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
