Utah State Preps For Pivotal Home Matchups Vs UNLV And New Mexico

Jan 27, 2025, 4:46 PM

Ian Martinez vs the Air Force Falcons. Photo courtesy of Utah State Athletics.

KSL Sports

LOGAN, Utah- The Utah State Aggies went undefeated in their two games last week against the Nevada Wolf Pack and the Air Force Falcons, stacking on to their impressive record of 1-2 overall and 8-1 in the Mountain West Conference.

The Aggies are entering the home stretch of the regular season with only 11 games remaining before the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas, with huge seeding implications coming from Utah State’s performance in their two critical matchups this week. The Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is sure to be rocking, giving the Aggies a huge advantage in two of their most important remaining home games.

Road Trip ✅ … BACK HOME WEDNESDAY

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— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) January 27, 2025

Utah State vs UNLV

The Aggies and Runnin’ Rebels will play in a rematch of a thriller in Las Vegas just two weeks ago. On January 15, it appeared that Uth State had taken control of the game late against UNLV and were on their way to another win until the Rebels fired of seven unanswered points to steal the game.

It has been a bit of a bumpy road for UNLV since their upset win over the ranked Aggies. The Runnin’ Rebels continued their assent, immediately following up their win against the Aggies with a road victory over San Diego State. However, their bid at being one of this year’s Mountain West regular season contenders took a sudden turn with a home loss to Wyoming, their worst of the year. UNLV continued their tumble with a loss to New Mexico just a few days later.

The Runnin’ Rebels now find themselves right in the middle of the Mountain West Standings at 5-4

Wednesday’s matchup with UNLV is an important one for Utah State as it is imperative that they maintain their perfect record in Quadrant 3/Quadrant 4 games. The Aggies are currently 10-0 in such contests, and any loss in this category is detrimental come Selection Sunday. Wednesday’s game will fall in Q3 for Utah State and the Aggies will need to execute better down the stretch to not fall again to UNLV.

Utah State vs New Mexico

We could see a potential preview of the Mountain West Tournament Championship Game on Saturday with the first-place New Mexico Lobos coming to Logan. The Lobos currently have one more conference win than the Aggies, edging them out in the standings.

New Mexico actually matches Utah State’s record against Quadrant 1/Quadrant 2 opponents at 7-2, but the Lobos also have two crippling losses to San Jose State in Quadrant 3 and New Mexico State in Quadrant 4, making every game for New Mexico extremely important in the last third of the season. Considering this, Utah State can expect a highly motivated New Mexico squad as a Quadrant 1 win over the Aggies would be significant on their tournament resume.

The Aggies and Lobos will meet twice in Utah State’s last 10 games, first on Saturday and then again two weeks later on February 16.

New Mexico Guard Donovan Dent is making a run for Mountain West Player of the Year, leading the league in scoring at 19.6 points per game. He had a monstrous outing last Saturday against UNLV with 34 points on 61.9% shooting as well as 6-6 from the free throw line.

The matchup between the Aggies and Lobos is getting attention from College Basketball experts, coming in at No. 3 Katz’s Top 10 Games of the Week.

Must-see TV 📺@TheAndyKatz lists the best games to watch this week, headlined by a rivalry renewed between North Carolina and Duke ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/spvSdiPoYP

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) January 27, 2025

ESPN Analytics is giving the Aggies a 74.1% chance to win the game, but don’t be fooled, New Mexico is going to give Utah State everything they can handle.

Utah State In The AP Top 25 Poll

Despite their 2-0 record this week, the Aggies simply didn’t have enough firepower with their quality of opponent to break back into the Top 25. As a matter of fact, their Quad 3 and Quad 4 games caused them to drop a spot. Last week the Aggies came in at No. 27 with 38 AP Poll votes, but big weeks from Michigan and Maryland pushed Utah State to the No. 28 spot, despite receiving more votes with 99.

Utah State certainly has the resume to be a Top 25 team, and considering their two opponents this upcoming week, a couple of wins would put them in prime position to make an AP Poll appearance next Monday.