LOGAN — Like any good basketball coach, Jerrod Calhoun anticipated the moment.
After the Utah State Aggies’ name wasn’t revealed during the first two regionals while his team watched the NCAA Tournament Selection Show Sunday afternoon, Calhoun quietly told guard Mason Falslev and forward Karson Templin to watch the 7-10 matchup Thursday in Lexington, Kentucky.
And Calhoun became even more adamant that USU was coming up next once UCLA emerged as the No. 7 seed in the Midwest Regional.
“It’s kind of funny, (UCLA head coach) Mick (Cronin) told his assistant, Darren Savino — who I know well, I go way back with those guys — that he actually thought we would play each other,” Calhoun said.
“I thought there was a possibility, but I also thought it would be more like an SEC team. But hey, it’s the Bruins.”
Utah State (26-7) will face UCLA (22-10) at 7:25 MT Thursday at the 20,545-seat Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington. The winner of Thursday’s game between the Aggies and Bruins will then face the winner of the 4:50 p.m. MT matchup between No. 2 Tennessee (27-7) and No. 15 Wofford (19-15) on Saturday.
Although the Aggies were confident that they’d be included in the Field of 68 for the third straight year under a third different head coach, it doesn’t mean there weren’t still some nervous moments following the team’s loss to Colorado State Friday night at the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas.
So, getting a 10 seed came as a great relief.
“I haven’t been able to sleep in a while; I can’t lie,” USU guard Mason Falslev said. “You know, this time of year, it’s always nerve wracking, and there’s a lot of stress.
“I don’t know what my problem is, but I’ve had issues sleeping the last couple days, so hopefully I can get some good sleep tonight, and I’ll be ready for this next game.”
Cronin, who is in his sixth season at UCLA, just missed crossing over with Calhoun on Bob Huggins’ staff at Cincinnati in the early 2000s.
Cronin won 296 games for the Bearcats from 2006 to 2019 before being hired by UCLA in 2019. In six seasons in Westwood, Cronin has won 137 games, advanced to the Sweet Sixteen twice and took the Bruins to the Final Four in 2021.
“We’re playing one of the most — well, probably the most storied basketball program in the history of college basketball — in one of the most historic venues in Rupp Arena, so that’s a pretty neat experience for our group, and we’re excited,” Calhoun said.
“Coach Cronin is a guy that has given me advice throughout a lot of my career. He worked with coach Huggins. You know, I never worked with him, but he’s been very good to me, and it’s kind of strange, UCLA is one of my favorite teams, outside of a couple others, that I like to watch, so it’s a pretty surreal moment for me.”
The Bruins, who went 13-7 and tied for fourth in the Big Ten this season — their first since leaving the Pac-12 Conference — lost to Wisconsin, 86-70, Friday in the Big Ten tournament.
Six-foot-9 junior forward Tyler Bilodeau, a former teammate of USU guard Dexter Akanno at Oregon State, leads UCLA in scoring this season with 13.6 points per game.
Sophomore swingman Eric Dailey Jr. (11.6 ppg) and sophomore guard Mark Sebastian (10.0 ppg) are also averaging double figures. But defensively, the Bruins are a serious handful. Cronin’s crew currently leads the Big Ten in scoring defense at 65.7 points per game.
“They turn you over,” Calhoun said of UCLA, which forces an average of 15.2 turnovers per contest. “… Mick does a great job. His teams are really, really physical. They’re tough.
“The tenacity they play on both sides of the ball is very real, so ball security will be critical, and we’re going to need to try to speed them up as well and force tempo. We need to get this game, you know, in the high 70s, 80s (is) how we’ll try to play it.”
Utah State won a game in the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time in 23 years. A No. 8 seed, the Aggies beat No. 9 TCU, 88-72, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
They then lost to Purdue, 106-67, in the second round under former USU head coach Danny Sprinkle.
Ian Martinez led USU with 21 points in the win over the Horned Frogs, while Isaac Johnson had 19 and Falslev added eight. All three of those players, along with sophomore forward Karson Templin, saw action for the Aggies in last season’s tournament.
“I try not to think about the games of the past,” Martinez said when asked about his performance against TCU a year ago. “These are the times that we all play for, ever since coming together in May and June, and there are some of these guys who have had dreams of going to the tournament, but they haven’t yet.
“But I feel like you should always be confident, you know? And we’ve just got to go out there have fun. It’s teams that we haven’t played before, but we just got to go out there and be us. I think people have seen what we can do when we’re just us, and we’re locked into the game.”
The Aggies, who finished third in the Mountain West Conference in the regular season, have lost three of their last five games, including Friday’s 83-72 setback to Colorado State, though the Rams (25-9) did go on to defeat Boise State, 69-56, in the MW championship game on Saturday, and will battle No. 5 Memphis (29-5) Friday in Seattle.
Mountain West regular-season champion New Mexico (26-7) also got a berth in the Big Dance. The Lobos got a 10 seed and will face No. 7 Marquette (23-10) Friday in Cleveland.
San Diego State (21-9) was an awarded an 11 seed, but the Aztecs will have to travel to Dayton, Ohio, to face North Carolina (22-13) Tuesday in the First Four.
Boise State (24-10), which was one of a record six Mountain West teams to make it to the Big Dance last season, was left out of this year’s field.
“You know they’re going to debate, but that’s what makes this tournament a beautiful thing,” Calhoun replied when asked about the Mountain West’s representation in this year’s Big Dance.
“I mean, it’s the greatest tournament on Earth, and the next three weeks, players, coaches and fans are all going to go on this journey together. … But I thought Boise State deserved to get in.
“… This is a monster league, and there should have been five.”