LOGAN – For the first time since Craig Smith’s arrival in Logan, Utah has not experienced the exaltation of an automatic bid for March Madness and instead sweated through the Sunday Selection, wondering if they will see their name drawn in the corner of the 68 of teams.
Until the final group of the first dial.
11th grade Aggies are scheduled to open the tournament on Friday against sixth-grade Texas Tech at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana (11:45 AM MDT TNT). From the ballroom of a Las Vegas hotel just hours before his team flew to Indianapolis, Justin Bean even admits that tears were shed – if not the selection, when Smith addressed the team before they jumped on the bandwagon. a Zoom call with local media.
“I shed a few tears,” Bean said. “The coach knows how to give a good speech, so he received some of us.”
Smith likes to talk about how he doesn’t “bubble” or pay attention to media projections about the tournament; read his first tweet from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi today.
But Bean does. It cannot get enough “bubble content” and “parenthesis”. And the former enthusiast admits that he was worried – based on everything he read.
“When I saw Wichita State sneak in, I was a little worried,” Bean said. “But we know it’s out of our hands and fortunately the committee has seen that we are a tournament-caliber team. We deserve to be there and we know we have the tools to run.”
mood ⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/dRhPOIyiE4
– Utah State Athletics (@USUAthletics) March 14, 2021
Regardless of whether he’s watching the ball, Smith hasn’t slept much this week as he prepares for back-to-back games in the Mountain West Tournament. He admits he slept better on Saturday night than all week. A night owl by tradition, Smith fell asleep shortly after 20:30 PT and woke up with a completely calm feeling.
Others doubted. He felt like they were coming in. When third-year coach Aggie, who recently signed an extension until 2026, sat down in front of reporters – most of whom covered her team all year – she said clearly, “It’s so good to see guys.” that the state of Utah has set aside a Zoom call if Aggies did the NCAA tournament.
But Smith never doubted, he insisted.
“We finished second in the regular season, we got to the championship game and we knew our values were very good,” Smith said. “I knew we were playing a good non-conference program and we knew we had to overcome a lot.
“We want to play and this has been our motto all year. Then obviously when it appears on the screen and you see Wichita State as an 11. But then we thought that helped us as an 11 and seeing UC Santa Barbara as a 12; he showed that he did not only value BCS schools. This was appreciated when we saw our 11. “
Utah (20-8) returned from a 1-3 start to the season to finish 2nd in the Mountain West Conference with a 15-4 league record – the second best at No. 19 in the state of San Diego.
Aggies got a pair of victories over the Aztecs through a two-game home run on January 14-16, but losses to Colorado, UNLV and Boise State prevented them from winning the regular season title. The state of San Diego (23-4) will open as number 6 on Friday against Syracuse (16-9) in the Midwest region.
After the dominant victories over the Las Vegas rebels and rams, Utah’s bid for the Mountain West tournament title ended in a 68-57 loss Saturday to San Diego. Aggies were pushed to the edge of the bubble, and the winners of the auction were won by the state of Oregon in the Pac-12 tournament, Georgetown in the Big East, Georgia Tech in the ACC.
The best way to fight the fears of Sunday‼ ️
🕺🕺🕺#AggiesAllTheWaypic.twitter.com/U4CDsScPP1
– USU Men’s Circles (@USUBasketball) March 14, 2021
However, when Cincinnati failed to put another ticket to the American with a shot from Houston, the state of Utah easily survived the bubble to beat its ticket to Madness for the third consecutive season.
The balloon opened wide enough to allow seed no. 2 of West Mountain – and Aggies hopes to take advantage of it.
“We’re all fulfilled,” said Neemias Queta, Utah’s star center, shortly before leaving a Zoom call to finish packing. “It’s all I’ve worked for all year. When I saw our name, I felt a sense of joy and fulfillment. At the same time, I want to make sure we get in and do what we want to do.
“We want to get in there to win, not just be there. We’re happy, but we’re not happy.”