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Press ReleaseLOGAN, Utah -¬ For the third straight week Utah State's men's basketball team is ranked among the top 25 in the nation as it checked in at No. 23 in the latest ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll released Monday. USU is also ranked 27th in the nation in the latest Associated Press top 25 poll.
Utah State is 24-2 on the season and 12-1 in the Western Athletic Conference following a 62-53 win at Idaho and a 66-56 loss at Boise State last weekend. The Aggies have already claimed a share of its second-straight WAC regular season title with three league games remaining.
Utah State was ranked 17th in last week's ESPN/USA Today poll and 21st in the AP poll, before its loss at Boise State last weekend, snapping its 19-game winning streak. USU also had its 16-game WAC winning streak and 10-game road winning streak snapped last weekend.
Despite its loss last week, Utah State is tied with Connecticut (24-1) and trails Oklahoma (25-1) for the most wins in the nation this year and is one of just five teams in the nation with two or fewer losses joining Oklahoma, Connecticut, Pittsburgh (23-2) and North Carolina (22-2).
Utah State is ranked in the top 25 for just the second time in the last 31 years as the last time a USU team was ranked was during the 2003-04 season when it was ranked for six straight weeks. Prior to that, USU's last national ranking was during the 1977-78 season when it finished the year ranked 17th in the United Press International poll.
With its 24-2 record, Utah State is the only team in the nation to win at least 23 games in each of the last 10 seasons. Gonzaga (19-5) and Kansas (20-5) entered the 2008-09 campaign with nine straight 23-win seasons. During the last 10 seasons, USU has averaged 24.6 wins and its 76.6 winning percentage since 2000 is the fourth-best in the nation.
After leading the nation in field goal shooting for much of the year, Utah State ranks third this week as it is shooting 49.7 percent from the field. USU finished the 2007-08 season as just the fourth team in NCAA history to lead the nation in both field goal (.514) and free throw (.792) shooting.
Senior forward Gary Wilkinson, who has been named the WAC Player of the Week three times this year, leads Utah State in both scoring and rebounding as he is averaging 17.1 points and 7.4 boards per game, while shooting 60.1 percent from the field and 84.4 percent from the free throw line. He currently ranks second in the WAC in scoring, and is third in field goal shooting, free throw shooting and rebounding.
Utah State returns to action this Wednesday, Feb. 18 when it hosts Cal State Bakersfield (6-18) at 7 p.m. USU has the second-longest home winning streak in the nation at 31 straight games, trailing Kansas who has won 37 straight at home.
(Courtesy Utah State University)
