The Utah State men’s basketball team looked like it was going to run away with the Mountain West championship during an eight-game winning streak that began in early December, but the conference title race is wide open after the Aggies lost back-to-back games by double digits.
Utah State (15-3, 6-2 MWC) is now a game behind conference-leading San Diego State (13-5, 7-1), and the Aggies are one of five teams with two conference losses. They’re joined in that group by the teams that just beat them — UNLV and Grand Canyon.
The Aggies will try to right the ship on the road tonight at Colorado State (12-7, 3-5), but they’re going to have to figure out how to defend the paint if they’re going to get back to their winning ways.
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Utah State has been outmanned around the rim in each of the past two games. It gave up 32 points in the paint in an 84-74 loss at Grand Canyon on Saturday. The Aggies surrendered 40 points in the paint in a rare 86-76 home loss to UNLV on Tuesday. They’re 7-1 at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum this season.
UNLV’s 6-foot-9 freshman Tyrin Jones finished with 20 points, and he did most of his damage by driving to the rim. Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun said his team has to play better team defense if it’s going to pull out of this tailspin.
“It’s dealing with long, athletic 6-9 or 6-10 guys that have the ability to take one or two dribbles and shoot over the top of you,” Calhoun said on Wednesday. “We have to do a much better job of ‘chesting’ drives and really helping each other and supporting drives in our gaps.”
The Aggies head into Colorado State’s Moby Arena to face a team with a pair of talented big men who are finally getting healthy.
Six-foot-9 sophomore Kyle Jorgensen suffered a knee injury in early December. He recently returned to the court and played 24 minutes in the Rams’ 81-52 win over Air Force on Tuesday. Six-foot-7 junior Rashaan Mbemba is also back on the court after playing sparingly early in the season because of an injury.
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Utah State at Colorado State Odds
Utah State is a 4.5-point college basketball betting odds favorite on BetMGM as of this writing, and the Over/Under is at 147.5 points.
The Moneyline is at -210 for Utah State and +170 for Colorado State.
Utah State at Colorado State on TV
The Mountain West game featuring Utah State and Colorado State will be televised on FS1.
Tip-off is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET.
Utah State at Colorado State Prediction
I predict Colorado State wins 76-72.
Utah State’s Mason Falslev isn’t having any trouble lighting up the scoreboard. He has scored more than 20 points in each of the past three games, including a season-high 26 against Nevada last Wednesday.
The problem is the Aggies just don’t have an answer for athletic big men that know how to score, and that’s exactly what Jorgensen is. He’s going to give Utah State all kinds of trouble tonight, especially when he and Mbemba are on the floor together.
Utah State does everything else well. They can score at all three levels, they don’t turn the ball over, and they have two talented point guards to direct the offense. They just need to figure out how to defend the paint, and that may begin with getting 6-foot-9 transfer Garry Clark back in rhythm. He’s averaging 8.2 points and 5.7 rebounds a game, but he has played less than 10 minutes in the past two games.
