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LOGAN — Utah State opens up the Mountain West Conference Tournament as the seventh seed after finishing the regular season at 15-16 overall and 8-10 in conference play.
The Aggies will face a familiar foe in No. 10 Colorado State on Wednesday in a first-round matchup at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. MST and can be seen on Facebook.
"It's obviously an exciting time of year for our guys," USU head coach Tim Duryea said. "I think if your team is in the right mental state, they look at it as another opportunity, a new opportunity, a fresh opportunity. Our guys, yesterday, were excited to get back."
The Aggies and Rams met one time in the regular season. Colorado State came into the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum and forced 17 turnovers and blocked four shots, leading to an 84-75 win over the Aggies on Jan. 10.
Aggie-killer Prentiss Nixon hit four 3-pointers despite leaving the game early with a knee injury and finished with 26 points. Nico Carvacho had a 10-point, 15-rebound double-double while Che Bob finished with 19 points and seven rebounds.
However, following the resignation of head coach Larry Eustachy, the Rams have lost four of their final five games, including a 108-87 setback to New Mexico in the final game of the regular season.
Utah State is coming off a 79-67 win over UNLV, which gave the Aggies the season sweep over the Rebels. And USU is playing in an arena that it has had success in.
"I think our guys enjoy going to Vegas, and I think they enjoy playing there," Duryea said. "Obviously, Thomas & Mack is a great venue. For the most part, since we’ve been in the league, we have played well there and been very competitive. I think it’s a neat venue and a neat place to play.
"The whole Vegas scene this time of year, this week, just really reeks of basketball. I think it’s really hard to go there and not get those juices flowing when you have tournaments all over town, fans from a lot of schools, and you kind of get that fever when you get into town. Our guys have really responded well to that. Hopefully, we’ll do the same thing."
In its opening game of the 2016-17 Mountain West Conference tournament, eighth-seeded USU dominated ninth-seeded San Jose State by 26 points in a 90-64 win. Koby McEwen scored a game-high 27 points in the win.
However, USU lost the next day to eventual champion Nevada.
On Wednesday, the Aggies will lean on Third-Team All-Mountain West selections McEwen and Sam Merrill. Merrill leads the Aggies in scoring at 16.1 points per game while McEwen chips in 15.3 points per game and a team-leading 5.2 rebounds per game. McEwen is the first USU guard to lead the Aggies in rebounding since the 2006-07 season, when Jaycee Carroll logged 6.3 rebounds per game.
Both McEwen and Merrill are a little banged up, however, and won't have much practice time heading into Wednesday.
“We’re battling," Duryea said. "Koby (McEwen) strained his groin in the last game. Will not practice until Wednesday just as a precaution. It’s a strained groin, and anytime you have a muscle strain, any movement, one wrong step can aggravate it. So, we’re trying to be really cautious, hoping we have multiple games on back-to-back days with him, so we’re taking a cautious approach.
"Sam Merrill is still battling his nagging leg injuries. Other than that, that’s just our starting backcourt, but other than that, we’re actually healthier in the other spots than maybe we’ve been most of the year. Most of the year, those guys have carried the load and the injuries have been in other spots, but right now we’re kind of walking on egg shells with those two.”
The winner between Colorado State and Utah State gets to face No. 2, Boise State, in a Friday night quarterfinal. For USU, Wednesday is about getting some redemption. For Colorado State, a win would potentially give a strange season some meaning. Kyle McDonald is sports fan who loves the Chicago Cubs. Follow him on Twitter at @kylesportsbias
