Utah State is in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-straight season and the sixth time since 2019, but the Aggies own just one win in the Big Dance during that span.
The Aggies beat TCU in the first round in 2024 before falling to Purdue in the second. Utah State has won seven NCAA Tournament games in program history, but it hasn’t made it out of the second round since 1970.
No. 9 Utah State has a chance to pick up another first-round win Friday against No. 8 Villanova at Viejas Arena, which is home to the Aggies’ future Pac-12 rival San Diego State. Both teams are leaving the Mountain West to join the new Pac-12 later this year.
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The Aggies (28-6) swept the Mountain West’s regular-season and tournament championships this season. They’ve won four straight games, including victories over NCAA Tournament bubble teams New Mexico and San Diego State.
Utah State leads the Mountain West with 82.5 points a game, a .498 team field goal percentage, and a +3.62 turnover margin.
Mountain West Player of the Year Mason Falslev is the Aggies’ leader on the court. He’s No. 2 on the team with 16.1 points a night and leads the Aggies with 5.8 rebounds a game and 67 steals. Falslev leads the conference with 1.971 steals per game. Teammate Drake Allen is No. 2 in the league with 1.970 a game.
Vanderbilt transfer MJ Collins Jr. leads the Aggies and ranks No. 4 in the Mountain West with 17.6 points a game. Part-time starter Karson Templin averages 9.1 points and 4.2 rebounds a game.
Villanova (24-8) is no stranger to the NCAA Tournament, but it has missed the cut the past few years. The Wildcats have been to the Big Dance 42 times in program history. They’ve made the Final Four seven times and won three national championships (1985, 2016, and 2018), but Villanova is back in the tournament for the first time since 2022.
The Wildcats won nine of their final 11 regular-season games, but they got bounced by Georgetown in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.
Villanova averages just 77.2 points a game, but the Wildcats have five players scoring at least 10 points a game. Six-foot-4 guard Tyler Perkins leads the way with 13.7 points a night, while 6-foot-10, 250-pound forward Duke Brennan is putting up 12.4 points and 10.3 rebounds a game. Six-foot-2 freshman Acaden Lewis is scoring 12.3 points a night and leads the team with 168 assists and 62 steals.
Villanova vs. Utah State Odds
Utah State is a 1.5-point college basketball betting odds favorite on BetMGM as of this writing, and the Over/Under is at 146.5 points.
The Moneyline is at -125 for the Aggies and +105 for Villanova.
Villanova vs. Utah State On TV
The first-round NCAA Tournament game featuring No. 9 Utah State and No. 8 Villanova will be televised on TNT.
Tip-off is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET.
Villanova vs. Utah State Prediction
I predict Utah State wins 70-68.
Brennan is going to pose a problem for the Aggies. He has 14 double-doubles on his resume this season, which means Templin and 6-foot-9 freshman Adlan Elamin are going to have their hands full.
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But even if Brennan controls the paint, Utah State has too much experience and depth not to find a way to win.
Falslev, Collins, and Allen have played in a combined 424 games in their careers. That experience gives the Aggies the option to speed teams up in transition or slow things down and outshoot the opposition. Kolby King, Elijah Perryman, and Garry Clark have all been crucial off the bench.
