LOGAN — If you like college basketball and the color blue, you have to appreciate that the Aggies — and their mascot, Big Blue — will be taking on one of college basketball’s vaunted blue bloods on the homecourt of another blue blood in the “Bluegrass State” Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
No. 7 seed Utah State (26-7) and No. 10 UCLA (22-10) are both heading east to Lexington, Kentucky, this week to play each other at 7:25 MDT Thursday at Rupp Arena, the hallowed home of the Kentucky Wildcats.
Coached by Mick Cronin, the Bruins bounced back from a very disappointing 16-17 season in 2023-24 to finish in a tie for fourth in their first season in the Big Ten.
“I know they’re big,” USU guard Mason Falslev replied when asked about his knowledge of USU’s first-round opponent. “I know they’ve got some big guys; we’ve watched a few of their games, but I’m excited to get in the film room, and see what we can do, and see what matchups we want. I’m just excited.”
Which is understandable, considering that not only have the Aggies qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in seven years (counting the canceled COVID-19 tourney in 2020), but Utah State is going to face one of the most iconic programs in all of college basketball.
The Bruins have won an NCAA-record 11 national championships, 10 of them in 12 years under legendary head coach John Wooden in the 1960s and ‘70s. The 11th came in 1995 during the tenure of Jim Harrick, who served as an assistant coach at USU under Dutch Belnap from 1973-77.
Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun referred to UCLA as “probably the most storied basketball program in the history of college basketball” on selection Sunday, and he made it clear that he has a great deal of respect for the current group of Bruins due to his long-term association with Cronin.
Both Ohio natives, the 43-year-old Calhoun is 10 years younger than Cronin, but his first job as a college coach came as a student assistant on Bob Huggins’ staff at Cincinnati in 2003, just two years after Cronin left the Bearcats to serve as Rick Pitino’s associate head coach at Louisville.
Calhoun, who grew up in Cleveland and spent seven seasons as the head coach at Youngstown State before being hired by Utah State last spring, said he’s been the beneficiary of a lot of advice from Cronin throughout his career.
And Sunday evening in L.A., Cronin confirmed that during the Bruins’ post-NCAA Tournament announcement.
“Jerrod Calhoun is a close friend of mine, who I was actually counseling two weeks ago on his contract extension,” Cronin noted. “And we laughed about this being a possibility. So, we’ve already been texting today, can you believe this?
“He’s a great, great young coach. He won at Youngstown State, which is maybe the hardest job of the 13 Division I’s in Ohio. And worked under Coach Huggins as well as I did. So, just he’s a tremendous young coach.”
Cronin, who grew up 80 miles north of Lexington in Cincinnati, says he’s watched the Aggies play “five, six, seven times at least.”
“I definitely watched them play against (New Mexico head coach) Richard Pitino, who is like a younger brother to me,” Cronin said. “And I saw him play Iowa, so I’m well aware of their team.
“And look, I probably root for the guys that I know well in the business, and they were on an absolute roll to start the season. So yeah, I’m pretty familiar with them. … I did scout the Iowa film preparation for Iowa, so I watched them closely on that one.”
Utah State beat the Hawkeyes 77-69 on Nov. 22, at the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, while the Bruins blasted Iowa, 94-70, on Jan. 17, at Pauley Pavilion. Those 94 points were the most scored by UCLA in a game this season other than a 111-75 battering of Prairie View A&M.
The only other common opponent this season between the Aggies and Bruins is Richard Pitino’s Lobos, who swept the Aggies during Mountain West play, and also beat UCLA, 74-62, on Nov. 8 at a neutral site event in Las Vegas.
But UCLA went on to win nine straight after the loss to New Mexico to start the season 10-1 before suffering a 76-74 setback to North Carolina at Madison Square Garden. The Bruins went 13-7 in Big Ten play, finishing in a three-way tie for fourth with Purdue and Wisconsin.
“It’s good to be back in March Madness,” declared Cronin, who is 502-234 in 22 seasons as a head coach. “Last year was a tough year for us, so we’re extremely excited to be here. It was a long, long process getting back here. … I’d say, about 40 days of no sleep for me last spring putting this team together.”
Cronin hit the transfer portal hard after suffering through his first losing season as a head coach since his second year at Cincinnati in 2007-08.
Junior forward Tyler Bilodeau (Oregon State), junior guard Skyy Clark (Louisville), sophomore swingman Eric Dailey Jr. (Oklahoma State), senior guard Kobe Johnson (USC), senior guard Dominick Harris (Loyola Marymount) and junior forward William Kyle III (South Dakota State) all made their way to Westwood from other programs, joining a handful of returnees and some new recruits.
Bilodeau, who played alongside Utah State guard Dexter Akanno in Corvallis, is UCLA’s leading scorer this season, followed by Dailey (11.6 ppg), sophomore guard Mark Sebastian (10.0 ppg), Johnson (8.1 ppg) and Clark (8.0). The 6-foot-6 Johnson leads the Bruins in rebounds (5.9 rpg), while junior guard Dylan Andrews (3.3 apg) and Johnson (3.0 apg) are pacing the team in assists.
“It was lot of work by the staff to get us back to where we had a team that could be back in the NCAA Tournament, and playing in the Big Ten for the first time with a team where most of our leading scorers are first-year players,” Cronin said. “It was a huge challenge for us. And not the travel, but just the Big Ten. There are a lot of good teams. Great coaches, but also a lot of really good players, and a lot of really good teams.
“But as you guys know, everything we do, everything we talk about with our team is to get to this point, to get to this moment. So, we’re fired up.”
Cronin was very “fired up” earlier this season when talking the Bruins’ brutal travel due to the move to UCLA’s move to the Big Ten, so it’s hard to imagine he’s thrilled about going back to the Eastern Time Zone once again. The Bruins are just 2-8 in games played outside of the Pacific Time Zone, but they also haven’t played since losing to Wisconsin, 86-70, last Friday in the Big Ten Tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
That was the site of Utah State’s last trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2024, where the No. 8 Aggies beat No. 9 TCU, 88-72, behind 21 points from this year’s leading scorer, graduate guard Ian Martinez. Purdue, who beat UCLA this year, 76-66, in West Lafayette, crushed the Aggies in the second round, 106-67, and days later, Utah State was looking for a new head coach when Danny Sprinkle left for Washington.
Calhoun came to Utah State looking to outscore some people, and the Aggies are currently 30th in the country in scoring offense (80.9 ppg) and ninth in team assists (17.4 apg). Conversely, the Bruins are 16th in turnovers forced per game (15.2) and 27th in scoring defense (65.7 ppg), so Thursday night’s game is certainly shaping up as a contrast in styles — most notably, can the Aggies speed up the game in transition and/or knock down enough 3-pointers to get their offense back on track after losing three of their last five games?
“I think in this tournament, a lot of times, 90% of the games, you can shake them up and play them again, and there will be a different result,” Cronin said. “So, you’ve got to get hot at the right time, and defense travels.
“Your guys have got to want to continue to practice and play. I think that’s a big, big part of it.”
Thursday night’s game will be the 11th all-time matchup between the Aggies and Bruins, with UCLA holding a 7-3 advantage. The last meeting came in the 2001 NCAA Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina, when Utah State, fresh off a 77-68 overtime upset of Ohio State in the first round, was clobbered by the Bruins in the second round, 75-50.
UCLA also beat the Aggies in the 1970 West Regional Finals, 101-79, in Seattle, and in the 1962 West Regional Semifinals, 73-62, in Provo.
