Utah State Aggies men's basketball

Utah State Aggies
2024–25 Utah State Aggies men's basketball team
University	Utah State University
First season	1903–04
All-time record	1,714–1,156 (.597)
Head coach	Jerrod Calhoun (1st season)
Conference	Mountain West (Pac-12 in 2026–27)
Location	Logan, Utah
Arena	Smith Spectrum (capacity: 10,270)
Nickname	Aggies
Student section	The Hurd
Colors	Navy blue, white, and pewter gray
Uniforms
Home Away Alternate
NCAA tournament Elite Eight
1939, 1970
NCAA tournament Sweet Sixteen
1962, 1964, 1970
NCAA tournament round of 32
1962, 1964, 1970, 2001, 2024
NCAA tournament appearances
1939, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1988, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024
Conference tournament champions
1988, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2019, 2020
Conference regular season champions
1918, 1926, 1930, 1935, 1936, 1980, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2019, 2024

The Utah State Aggies men’s basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Mountain West Conference, that represents Utah State University. Home games are played at the Smith Spectrum, located on the Utah State University campus in Logan. In the 17 years that former coach Stew Morrill was at the helm, Utah State had the 4th highest winning percentage in the nation at home, behind only Duke, Kansas, and Gonzaga. As of the end of the 2023–24 regular season, the Aggies have an all-time record of 1,714 wins and 1,156 losses.

History

The first basketball team on Utah State's campus was organized in 1902 and consisted of only women. A men's team was organized in 1904, at which point the women's club fell into obscurity.

The Aggies enjoyed mixed success early in their history, notching sporadic NCAA tournament appearances and alternating winning in the then-smaller postseason bracket with not winning much at all. Perhaps the most notable event in Utah State basketball history occurred on February 8, 1965, with the tragic death of Wayne Estes. Estes was a 6'6" forward for the Aggies, and was the nation's second leading scorer in 1965, behind only Rick Barry, at 33.7 ppg. He had just amassed 2,000 career points with a 48-point showing in a home victory over the University of Denver, when he stopped at the scene of a car accident in Logan. While crossing the street, Estes accidentally clipped a downed power line with his head and was electrocuted. The Los Angeles Lakers had planned on drafting him in the 1st round of the NBA draft, where he likely would have gone on to win several championships with the team. Following Estes's death, he was posthumously awarded 1st team All-American honors.

The men's basketball team wasn't adversely affected by the constant shuffling of conference affiliations and independent status that blighted the USU football program throughout the mid-to-late 20th century. The program, however, did endure a lengthy stint as an independent program, from 1937 to 1978—although in that period, basketball independence was not the financial and competitive obstacle that it would become in the ESPN era. All the while, it remained the most resilient and popular sport at USU, enjoying steady success for decades. During the 1960s and '70s, the Aggies spent a great deal of time in both major national polls, finishing the season in the AP Top 25 three times and in the Coaches' Poll Top 25 seven times during those two decades. USU reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1962, and the Elite 8 in 1970. In 2024 the Aggies ranked 19th on the Coaches' Poll.

The Aggies enjoy a particularly strong home-court advantage at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, where they were 193–13 in the Morrill era.

During the 2008–09 season, USU led the nation in field goal percentage with 49.8%. In addition, they were 2nd in win/loss percentage and 5th in assist-to-turnover ratio. In 2009–10, the Aggies led the nation in 3-point percentage with an incredible 42.5%. The Aggies have spent time in the national rankings, reaching as high as #19 in the Coaches' Poll in 2003–04, and #17 in 2008–09. During the 2009–2010, the Aggies reached as high as #26, one spot out of the actual rankings, before falling back to #31 for the postseason poll. The Aggies finished the season in 2011 ranked #19 in the AP poll. In 2019, although not ranked in the preseason poll, the Aggies finished the season again ranked in the AP poll, coming in at #25. 2020, saw the Aggies ranked #17 in the preseason poll.

Utah State has also won the Old Oquirrh Bucket nine times, including both of the last two seasons. The Bucket is the award given each year to the best college basketball team in Utah, based on records against in-state opponents.

Post season history

NCAA tournament

Utah State is 7–26 (.212) in its NCAA tournament history. In recent years, the team has won invitations to the tournament in 1998 (under coach Larry Eustachy), 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010 (all under Morrill). From 1978 to 2005, Utah State was a member of the Big West Conference. In both 2006 and 2010, the Aggies received at-large bids to the tournament after losing in the WAC tournament championship game. Despite a stellar season in 2003–04 and a national top-25 ranking toward the end of the season, the Aggies did not receive an at-large tournament bid after being upset in the conference tournament, making them the last top-25 team in college basketball to be snubbed from the tournament. This decision earned the derision of coach Morrill, as the Aggies held a 25–3 record along with their ranking.

In 2009, USU won the WAC tournament championship game, defeating Nevada in Reno. The team went on to lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Marquette, 58–57. The most notable NCAA tournament success was a first-round upset over fifth-seeded Ohio State University in 2001.

The 2010 team received an at-large bid from the selection committee after losing in the WAC tournament final to New Mexico State. The 12th-seeded Aggies then lost their opening round game to Texas A&M.

The Aggies would have appeared in the 2020 NCAA tournament after being champions of the 2020 Mountain West tournament, however, the NCAA tournament was cancelled amid the 2020 coronavirus outbreak.

In 2024, Utah State won their first NCAA Tournament game in 23 years, when they beat the TCU Horned Frogs, 88-72, in the First Round.

Year	Seed	Round	Opponent	Result
1939		Elite Eight Regional 3rd Place	Oklahoma Texas	L 39–50 W 51–49
1962		Round of 25 Sweet Sixteen Regional 3rd Place	Arizona State UCLA Pepperdine	W 78–73 L 62–73 L 78–88
1963		Round of 25	Arizona State	L 75–79OT
1964		Round of 25 Sweet Sixteen Regional 3rd Place	Arizona State San Francisco Seattle	W 92–90 L 58–64 L 71–75
1970		Round of 25 Sweet Sixteen Elite Eight	UTEP Santa Clara #2 UCLA	W 91–81 W 69–68 L 79–101
1971		Round of 25	BYU	L 82–91
1975		Round of 32	Montana	L 63–68
1979	10 W	Round of 40	(7) USC	L 67–86
1980	11 W	Round of 48	(6) Clemson	L 73–76
1983	10 MW	Round of 48	(7) Iowa	L 59–64
1988	10 MW	Round of 64	(7) Vanderbilt	L 77–80
1998	13 W	Round of 64	(4) #20 Maryland	L 68–82
2000	12 S	First Round	(5) #20 Connecticut	L 67–75
2001	12 E	First Round Second Round	(5) Ohio State (4) #15 UCLA	W 77–68OT L 50–75
2003	15 W	First Round	(2) #6 Kansas	L 61–64
2005	14 MW	First Round	(3) #9 Arizona	L 53–66
2006	12 E	First Round	(5) #17 Washington	L 61–75
2009	11 W	First Round	(6) #23 Marquette	L 57–58
2010	12 S	First Round	(5) #23 Texas A&M	L 53–69
2011	12 S	First Round	(5) #21 Kansas State	L 68–73
2019	8 MW	First Round	(9) Washington	L 61–78
2020	Tournament Canceled
2021	11 S	First Round	(6) Texas Tech	L 53–65
2023	10 S	First Round	(7) Missouri	L 65–76
2024	8 MW	First Round Second Round	(9) TCU (1) Purdue	W 88–72 L 67–106

NIT

The Aggies have appeared in 10 National Invitation Tournaments, with a combined record of 2–10.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
1960	Quarterfinals Semifinals 3rd Place Game	Villanova Providence St. Bonaventure	W 73–72 L 62–68 W 94–81
1967	First Round	Rutgers	L 76–78
1978	First Round	Nebraska	L 66–67
1984	First Round	Southwestern Louisiana	L 92–94
1995	First Round	Illinois State	L 87–93
2002	Opening Round	Montana State	L 69–77
2004	First Round	Hawaiʻi	L 74–85
2007	First Round	Michigan	L 58–68
2008	First Round	Illinois State	L 57–61
2022	First Round	Oregon	L 72–83

CIT

The Aggies appeared in one CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Their record was 4–1.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result
2012	First Round Second Round Quarterfinals Semifinals Championship	CSU Bakersfield Idaho Loyola Marymount Oakland Mercer	W 75–69 W 76–56 W 77–69 W 105–81 L 67–70

Home-court advantage

Aggies cheering on their basketball team at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

Utah State plays its home games at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, a 10,270-seat arena on the Utah State campus. The Aggies are 453–105 (.812) at the Smith Spectrum, which has housed basketball since 1970. Previous to the building of the Spectrum, Utah State's basketball teams played at the George Nelson Fieldhouse on campus. Under head coach Craig Smith, USU was 39–4 (.910) at home. Until a surprising early-season loss in 2009, USU boasted the second-longest home win streak in the nation, behind Kansas.

The Smith Spectrum features seats at court level, extremely-close to the players. The university also reserves an unusually-high percentage of seats, including at court level, for its students. This has aided the USU student section in becoming one of the most notoriously loud and raucous (and clever) in the nation, with major publicity in recent years. Various sources have called the Smith Spectrum among the hardest places in the nation for opposing teams to play. In the '90s, when his teams were reaching the Final Four and competing at the highest echelons of college basketball, University of Utah coach Rick Majerus called the Smith Spectrum the toughest place in the country for his teams to play. After a February 2010 game at the Smith Spectrum, Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall said "Utah State has 4000 student tickets and they make some type of impression on the visiting team and it's just a party. It is one heck of a party. It's the best I've ever seen. In many, many years I've been at Duke and Kentucky and UConn and Syracuse and it's clearly the best I've ever seen in terms of atmosphere."

An unofficial newsletter entitled "The Refraction" was published before each game day until it was discontinued in 2011. One student fan, known as "Wild Bill", has also gained much renown as of late for his unique techniques to distract opposing free throw shooters. Other Utah State traditions are their "I believe that we will win!" chant and "Winning team, losing team" chant that mocks the away losing team in the last seconds of a game.

Retired jerseys

The following players have their jerseys retired, but numbers are still active.

Utah State Aggies retired numbers
No.	Player	Position	Career	Ref.
5	Greg Grant	F	1983–1986
6	Bert Cook	SG	1950–1952
20	Jaycee Carroll	SG	2004-2008
24	Cornell Green	F	1960–1962
31	Marv Roberts	F / C	1969–1971
33	Wayne Estes	F	1963–1965

Awards

Consensus Second Team All-Americans

• Wayne Estes - 1965

Third Team All-Americans

• Cornell Green - 1962
• Wayne Estes - 1964

AP Honorable Mention All-Americans

• Shaler Halimon - 1968
• Marv Roberts - 1969, 1971
• Greg Grant - 1983, 1985, 1986
• Jaycee Carroll - 2007, 2008
• Gary Wilkinson - 2009
• Tai Wesley - 2011
• Sam Merrill - 2019
• Neemias Queta - 2021
• Great Osobor - 2024

Perry Wallace Most Courageous Award (USBWA)

• Connor Odom – 2023

Conference Player of the Year

• Dean Hunger - 1980
• Greg Grant - 1986
• Eric Franson - 1995
• Jaycee Carroll - 2008
• Gary Wilkinson - 2009
• Tai Wesley - 2011
• Sam Merrill - 2019
• Great Osobor - 2024

First Team All-Conference

• Dean Hunger - 1979, 1980
• Brian Jackson - 1981
• Greg Grant - 1985, 1986
• Kevin Nixon - 1988
• Reid Newey - 1989
• Kendall Youngblood - 1992
• Eric Franson - 1995, 1996
• Marcus Saxon - 1997, 1998
• Troy Rolle - 2000
• Shawn Daniels - 2000, 2001
• Bernard Rock - 2001
• Tony Brown - 2002
• Desmond Penigar - 2002, 2003
• Cardell Butler - 2004
• Mark Brown - 2004
• Spencer Nelson - 2005
• Nate Harris - 2004, 2005, 2006
• Jaycee Carroll - 2007, 2008
• Gary Wilkinson - 2009
• Jared Quayle - 2010
• Tai Wesley - 2010, 2011
• Brockeith Pane - 2011
• Preston Medlin - 2012
• Sam Merrill - 2019, 2020
• Neemias Queta - 2021
• Steven Ashworth - 2023
• Darius Brown II - 2024
• Great Osobor - 2024

Season-by-season results

2023–24 Mountain West Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 22 Utah State	14	–	4		.778			28	–	7		.800
Nevada	13	–	5		.722			26	–	8		.765
Boise State	13	–	5		.722			22	–	11		.667
UNLV	12	–	6		.667			21	–	13		.618
No. 17 San Diego State	11	–	7		.611			26	–	11		.703
New Mexico †	10	–	8		.556			26	–	10		.722
Colorado State	10	–	8		.556			25	–	11		.694
Wyoming	8	–	10		.444			15	–	17		.469
Fresno State	4	–	14		.222			12	–	21		.364
San Jose State	2	–	16		.111			9	–	23		.281
Air Force	2	–	16		.111			9	–	22		.290
† 2024 Mountain West tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

Season	Head coach	Conference	Overall	Conference Tournament	Postseason
Pacific Coast Athletic Association
1979-80	Rod Tueller	11-2 (1st)	18-9	Semifinals	NCAA, First Round
1980-81	Rod Tueller	5-9 (5th)	12-16	Semifinals
1981-82	Rod Tueller	2-12 (8th)	4-23	First round
1982-83	Rod Tueller	10-6 (3rd)	20-9	First round	NCAA, First Round
1983-84	Rod Tueller	12-6 (4th)	19-11	Semifinals	NIT, First Round
1984-85	Rod Tueller	10-8 (T-4th)	17-11	First round
1985-86	Rod Tueller	8-10 (T-6th)	12-16	First round
1986-87	Rod Tueller	8-10 (7th)	15-16	First round
1987-88	Rod Tueller	13-5 (T-2nd)	21-10	First round	NCAA, First Round
Big West Conference
1988-89	Kohn Smith	10-8 (T-4th)	12-16	Quarterfinals
1989-90	Kohn Smith	8-19 (5th)	14-16	Quarterfinals
1990-91	Kohn Smith	8-10 (T-4th)	11-17	Quarterfinals
1991-92	Kohn Smith	10-8 (5th)	16-12	Quarterfinals
1992-93	Kohn Smith	7-10 (7th)	10-17	Quarterfinals
1993–94	Larry Eustachy	11–7 (T-2nd)	14–13	Quarterfinals
1994–95	Larry Eustachy	14–4 (1st)	21–8	Quarterfinals	NIT, First Round
1995–96	Larry Eustachy	10–8 (4th)	18–15	Finals
1996–97	Larry Eustachy	12–4 (T-1st)	20–9	Semifinals
1997–98	Larry Eustachy	13–3 (1st)	25–8	Champion	NCAA, First Round
1998–99	Stew Morrill	8–8 (4th)	15–13	Quarterfinals
1999–00	Stew Morrill	16–0 (1st)	28–6	Champion	NCAA, First Round
2000–01	Stew Morrill	13–3 (2nd)	28–6	Champion	NCAA, Second Round
2001–02	Stew Morrill	13–5 (T-1st)	23–8	Finals	NIT, Opening Round
2002–03	Stew Morrill	12–6 (3rd)	24–9	Champion	NCAA, First Round
2003–04	Stew Morrill	17–1 (T-1st)	25–4	Semifinals	NIT, First Round
2004–05	Stew Morrill	13–5 (2nd)	24–8	Champion	NCAA, First Round
Western Athletic Conference
2005–06	Stew Morrill	11–5 (T-2nd)	23–9	Finals	NCAA, First Round
2006–07	Stew Morrill	9–7 (4th)	23–12	Finals	NIT, First Round
2007–08	Stew Morrill	12–4 (T-1st)	24–11	semifinals	NIT, First Round
2008–09	Stew Morrill	14–2 (1st)	30–5	Champion	NCAA, First Round
2009–10	Stew Morrill	14–2 (1st)	27–8	Finals	NCAA, First Round
2010–11	Stew Morrill	15–1 (1st)	30–3	Champion	NCAA, First Round
2011–12	Stew Morrill	8–6 (4th)	21–16	Quarterfinals	CollegeInsider.com finalists
2012–13	Stew Morrill	8–6 (T-4th)	21–10	Quarterfinals
Mountain West Conference
2013–14	Stew Morrill	7–11 (T-8th)	18–14	Quarterfinals
2014–15	Stew Morrill	11–7 (T-4th)	18–13	Quarterfinals
2015–16	Tim Duryea	7–11 (T-8th)	16–15	Quarterfinals
2016–17	Tim Duryea	7–11 (T-8th)	14–17	Quarterfinals
2017–18	Tim Duryea	8–10 (T-7th)	17–17	semifinals
2018–19	Craig Smith	15–3 (T-1st)	28–6	Champion	NCAA, First Round
2019–20	Craig Smith	12–6 (T-2nd)	26–8	Champion	NCAA (tournament cancelled)
2020–21	Craig Smith	15–4 (2nd)	20–9	Finals	NCAA, First Round
2021–22	Ryan Odom	8-10 (7th)	18-16	Quarterfinal	NIT, First Round
2022–23	Ryan Odom	13-5 (T-2nd)	26-9	Finals	NCAA, First Round
2023–24	Danny Sprinkle	14-4 (1st)	27-5	Semifinals	NCAA, Second Round

Aggies in the NBA/ABA

Name	Years	Draft Year	Overall Selection
Ariel Maughan	1946-1951	1946	Undrafted
Bert Cook	1952-1955	1952	17
Pat Dunn	1956-1958	1956	44
Lary Bunce	1967-1969	1967	43
Hal Hale	1967-1968	1967	Undrafted
Shaler Halimon	1968-1973	1968	14
Marv Roberts	1971-1976	1971	45
Nate Williams	1971-1979	1971	1 (Hardship Draft)
Desmond Penigar	2003-2004	2003	Undrafted
Sam Merrill	2020-Present	2020	60
Neemias Queta	2021-Present	2021	39

See also

• Utah State Aggies men's basketball statistical leaders

External links

• Official website