...and it ends in a loss

Hats off to these guys for never giving up!

The opportunity was rare, but the opportunity was there. Utah State could have capped off an impressive finish to an otherwise frustrating season with a win at home Wednesday night against a Mercer team tasked with winning a long way from home in a venue where almost nobody wins. But when the final buzzer sounded, and the final prayer of a shot clanked off the rim, Utah State found itself in a place that has been far too familiar this season... Just short.

The Spectrum tonight was everything that makes that building so special. The place was buzzing before doors even opened, and anyone that just passively came to the game found themselves fully engaged in everything by the second half when USU started battling back from an early deficit.

Mercer was probably as opposite of a playing style in a team that you could possibly get for USU compared to the game against Oakland. Mercer plays in a very controlled system that shares the ball well, relies on high-percentage shots, and above all else, tough defense. All of those factors undoubtedly frustrated the Aggies early on in a big way, and moderately throughout the entire game.

Still, USU battled, ramped up its defensive pressure and knocked down a handful of big shots from deep. Danny Berger and Preston Medlin were responsible for all five second-half 3-pointers for USU, and every one of them came at a time when USU either needed a big bucket to cool a Mercer run or to widen the lead for the short time USU had it. They were a combined 5-of-11 from deep in the second half. Had they gone 6-of-11, that game would have gone at least five more minutes.

It ends tonight... Let's end it right!!!

Hold nothing back tonight. The Spectrum should be full, rocking off the hook,
and ruthless as can be!! (thanks to TrueAggies.com for the greatest photo ever)

As of Wednesday morning, there are only 10 teams left in the nation still playing college basketball. Regardless of where you're playing, that is something to be proud of, and at the very least is something the shouldn't be written off as an insignificance.

Sure, the CIT has its fair share of haters, and to a point, that is understandable. It's the bottom rung of college basketball postseason tournaments, gets little to no fanfare or publicity, and is comprised entirely of teams who, at some point, fell short of their more lofty goals they'd aimed for this basketball season. Just like I said two weeks ago when I issued the Man Challenge to this Aggie team, it would be easy for any team to just kill over and die when landing in a second, third, or ever fourth-rate postseason tournament. A handful of past Aggie teams have done just that, even in the NIT, which usually features its fair share of ESPN games.

Screw it though! Screw everyone who says winning this tournament doesn't mean a thing! The CIT is where Utah State has landed this season, and Wednesday, the Aggies have the chance to prove that they were the best among the field where they landed. Utah State has the chance to at least say we dominated the CIT when we ended up there to finish off what was supposed to be our worst season in nearly 20 years.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday!!!! Aggies light it up for 105-81 win.

Pane was straight KILLIN IT on Sunday

The game plan for this one should have been pretty basic. Oakland is a team who scores a ton because they take quick shots and get lots of possessions. They also are right there with the nation's worst teams defensively.

With that in mind, USU needed to pretty much just control the tempo of this game and execute offensively to carry them to victory. Doing things like shooting 63.8 percent from the field, hitting on 75 percent of 3-point attempts and dishing a season-high 26 assists would be just extra credit.

So for a final grade on this game, the Aggies get an A+++ (which for you non-education majors, would be classified as "pretty damn good").

Utah State came out in the game pretty much the same way they have this whole tournament. They were executing early, hitting shots from all over, and playing team basketball better than they have at any point over the rest of the this season. Even after opening up a huge lead early on behind some stellar team-play and great outside shooting, Oakland eventually got hot from deep, which is kinda their bread and butter, but even throughout that streak, they were still giving up seemingly at least two points on every Aggie possession, only really bringing the game as close as 11 points.

The Aggies never let up either. 60 points in the first half, 45 in the second; both of those are generally high scoring totals for one half of Aggie basketball. Compared to most teams, Oakland still filled it up. Their scoring prowess is really pretty freaking good, and if they could defend at all, that would be one hell of a basketball team.

Final Four!!! Final Four!!! Aggies win, 77-69

This ad was fitting to be gracing the front page of the USU Athletics website!

Before saying anything else, let me just say, "free throws!"

In a season where missed free throws have haunted the Aggies in close games, and when the team is shooting worse from the charity stripe as any other USU team since 2005, USU kicked that trend to the curb tonight in the best of ways. The Aggies made 32-of-35 free throws tonight, which was nearly 20 percent better than the team's season average, and eventually the difference in the game.

USU was also solid on the boards, grabbing 43 rebounds in the game. When all was said and done, they needed every one of them. The Aggies gave up a season-high 22 turnovers, while having just 14 assists,  but luckily LMU turned the ball over 19 times.

Pack The Spectrum Wednesday!!!

Quick question... What would you do if you had $20,000?

For at least one private donor to USU athletics, they chose to dedicate $20,000 to make sure Utah State students can fill up all 4,000 of their seats in The Spectrum for Wednesday night's game against Loyola Marymount. Because of this generosity, USU students will get in FOR FREE!!!

With the Aggies fighting their way to be among the final eight teams of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, the stakes are that much higher and the need for a great home-court advantage are that much greater.

Normally, in postseason tournaments where teams play home games, USU students have had to pay money in order to attend. In the case of each of the first two games of this tournament, USU student tickets were $5 each. Couple that with spring break still going on, and attendance was sparse.

Now, with everyone back, The Spectrum needs to be, THE SPECTRUM on Wednesday. Students will get in for free, as is tradition, so it's time to bring the noise off the hook, as is tradition!

Somebody has ponied up $20,000 on behalf of USU students. Make it worth their while!

Tip off is at 7 p.m. Wednesday

Still alive!! Aggies dominate way to Elite Eight

Sure, it's only the Elite Eight of the CIT, but dammit I'll take it. In all these years in-between the NCAA Tournament letdowns, it has seemed like USU has not taken the NIT seriously. It's not the Big Dance, and with that being the dream destination of every team and every player, still playing after falling short of that goal doesn't seem to inspire and fire in a team.

So far though, it seems like this USU team is busting that trend. Maybe they didn't completely bring their A-game against Bakersfield, but they won. If that winning is contagious, it showed Saturday, along with that A-game against Idaho.

This game was never really in question. From the start, Idaho could not get a shot to fall to save its life and USU was clicking on every level. After getting down huge early on, the Vandals just looked like a team with the life sucked out of them. The shots never fell with much frequency and the Aggies never really slowed down.

It was just kind of a beatdown. It was also possibly the best USU has looked as a team both offensively and defensively in quite some time.

Who we play from here? That is the great mystery when it comes to this tournament.

One down, four to go!

Spring break definitely put a major dent into Wednesday's attendance for USU's opening game of the CIT, but despite that lackluster support and a stellar game from CSUB's Zach Lamb, the Man Challenge is one-fifth of the way completed!!

The game didn't exactly start out horrible for USU, but it wasn't overly pretty either. Granted the first half was all I got to see, so I'm stuck basing my takes on the second half around the following of ESPN's gamecast on a cell phone.

The first half though seemed to basically be the kind of basketball that Stew Morrill would normally murder a team for playing, but in this case, it was working. Things just didn't seem very in control at all, but because Preston Medlin was a man possessed and both Morgan Grim and Kyisean Reed were holding things down in the post better than just ok, the Aggies put together a nice little lead.

Then in the second half, the dramatics came into the picture with the Roadrunners - mostly Zach Lamb - making a thriller out of this one. They fought back from a 12-point halftime deficit to take a 48-46 lead at one point before the Aggies put together another run to grab the lead back. From there, USU had a small lead the rest of the time which they didn't go blowing.

They made it interesting by having NINE second-half turnovers, including four during the final four minutes of the game, as is tradition. But still they held on for a 75-69 victory.

Man Challenge: Win the CIT

This is an official issue of a man challenge to the 2011-12 Utah State Aggies basketball team: Win the CollegeInsider.com Tournament!!!

In the past we've seen a handful of very talented teams find themselves in the NIT after falling short of an NCAA Tournament bid and go into the consolation bracket only to kill over and die. We've seen great seasons where the team fell short of an NCAA auto-bid turn into disappointing home losses, and in turn, taken away any credibility to any claim that Utah State should have been an NCAA Tournament team in the first place.

Even in the season where the Aggies became the first ever top 25 team to be excluded from The Big Dance, they left any passion for winning in the regular season and went from overall No. 1 seed in the NIT to an opening round loss at home. It's a difficult to see a team get their hearts ripped out. It's even more difficult to watch as a fan when they don't even try to put their heart back into things to make the best of a tough situation.

The first post of the post-apocalyptic era

The world as we know it since Mar. 8

"Because of the shame associated with vulnerability, I am numbing myself completely..."                                         
                                            - Against Me!


Raise your hand if you predicted a first-round exit by Utah State last weekend after how the Aggies finished the regular season? And don't try saying some La Tech fans predicted that one, because we all know full-well that La Tech has no basketball fans.

Sure enough though, La Tech just completely owned USU in the face, handing the Aggies their first ever first round exit since joining the WAC. It was also only the second time that the WAC Tournament championship game has not included Utah State in that same span.

Medlin makes the first team (as he damn well should have!)

All-WAC honors were announced Sunday, and for the most part, they got it right.

The all-WAC first team consisted of Deonte Burton, Wendell McKines, Vander Joaquim, Olek Czyz aaaaand.... Preston Freaking Medlin!!

Earning this honor is nothing short of totally deserved for a player who has been the heart and soul of Utah State basketball this season. If you call yourself an Aggie fan and don't love pretty much everything about Medlin's game, I can only wonder if there's any lead pipe big enough that could knock some sense into you. He plays hard, he plays team ball, he's a very good defender, a phenomenal scorer and above all, you can just tell he loves Aggie basketball like the rest of us.

He is only the second Aggie sophomore ever to earn first-team all-conference honors, joining Nate Harris, who was named to the Big West's first team in 2004. Harris went on the be first-team all-Big West in 2005 and first-team all-WAC in 2006 to become the only Aggie to be three-time first-teamer. Medlin now has the chance to be the second should he keep up the momentum of his game over the next two seasons.

As for the rest of the all-WAC team, everyone knew that Burton and McKines were locks for the first team, with Medlin essentially in that conversation too after USU's strong finish to climb back up to at least the top-half of the league.

From there, things were largely up in the air for the other two spots. Hawaii had a couple guys worthy of consideration, Kevin Olekaibe is a superstar deserving of first team honors, and for how thoroughly Nevada dominated the conference, you couldn't count out them getting two guys on the first team.

Hello Sweep Dance my old friend... It seems the Aggies win again, 61-60

Pane won this final battle between these two

At the start of this season, there were three games which I thought Utah State would absolutely not win. Based on both my knowledge of USU's team as well as the opposing teams, I thought at Wichita State, at Mississippi State and at Hawaii were the three games that would just be too tough. Each of the teams had the edge in experience, talent and athleticism that would have just been too much for this young USU team.

What happened was a breakout performance against Wichita State, a near earth-shattering upset at Miss. State and a win on the islands. All three went above and beyond what I thought the team had in them.

Saturday's game started off close before the Aggies built a small lead that lasted them for the bulk of the first half before Hawaii came back to grab a two-point lead at the half.

In the second half, Hawaii was like a bigger, faster older brother who dangled a victory in front of lil' bro Utah State's face saying, "Bet you can't catch me," and kept gaining ground, then letting up just to tease the Aggies a bit before gaining separation again. This went on for more than 18 minutes, with Utah State never getting within as close as two points to the Warriors.

On the road FTW!!! Aggies win 71-61

Utah State trailed for a grand total of 16 seconds during Thursday night's game. For the rest of the time, the Aggies were pretty solidly in control, which is something that can rarely be said about this year's team in home games, let alone on the road.

At this point now, it's three straight halves of solid basketball between the second half against Idaho and the two halves against San Jose State. If the Aggies can make this five straight halves, there's gonna be one writer from this website who will be happy as all hell!!! (hint: it's me)

Preston Medlin basically continued his reign of terror on the WAC, scoring 26 points against the Spartans. He is now tied with Wendell McKines as the leading scorer in WAC play this season. And even though Pre-Med took it easy on the rebounding and assists tonight (five boards, two dimes), he shot 5-of-8 from behind the 3-point line and pretty much got hot any time the game got close.

As a team, this was the fourth straight game in which USU had double-digit assists and single-digit turnovers. The Aggies had just better than a 2-to-1 A/TO ratio, while San Jose rocked an even 1-to-1. Winning those small battles is encouraging, and if they can avoid getting crushed in rebounding too, chances are the win percentage would skyrocket. Still, it's very encouraging to see those assist numbers rising and turnovers dropping. It makes this team feel that much more like a Stew Morrill basketball team.

The kid from Carrollton vs. Carroll

Remember how awesome TrueAggies.com was? 

MEDLIN VS. CARROLL
The season was maybe only one third of the way through when I started noticing how Preston Medlin's numbers were looking awfully comparable to a certain shooting guard who played for the Aggies a few years back.

Medlin's numbers across the board are nothing short of spectacular for any sophomore, but what really impresses is when you stack them up to the player who scored more points than any other Aggie ever. I don't want to make this sound like I'm dogging on Jaycee Carroll at all, because I'm stoked I had the chance to see him play. He was an unbelievable talent, played with a motor that never ran out of gas, and I believe that he is as good at shooting a basketball as anyone who has ever lived. If Medlin can churn out junior and senior seasons like Carroll had, that would be a whole other phenomenal feat of its own.