Big West Conference member Utah State proved it could play with the big boys two years ago by shocking Big Ten power Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
As an unheralded No. 12 seed, the Aggies pounded the No. 5-seeded Buckeyes, 77-68, in Greensboro, N.C.
Fifth-year coach Stew Morrill remembers the game like it was yesterday.
“As a 12 seed we drew a good Ohio State team and won our first NCAA game in 31 years,” said Morrill, whose squad fell to UCLA in the second round, 75-50. “Ohio State was third in the Big Ten that year and had a great year.”
Not as great a year as upcoming West Regional foe Kansas is having, however.
“We’re playing the first-place team out of the Big 12 this year,” Morrill said. “Ohio State was not ranked that year — they were just about ranked — one of the teams receiving votes out of the top 25.
“This year we’re facing a team that won the Big 12, could have been a No. 1 seed, is fourth in the country, and we know the magnitude of the challenge we have.”
The challenge, he says, is monumental.
“They have big-time talent at every spot, but those two guys are All-Americans, almost impossible to guard,” Morrill said of senior guard Kirk Hinrich and senior forward Nick Collison. “You’ve got one guy draining threes and a big guy inside who’s pretty dang hard to deal with.”
Analysts are calling Hinrich and Collison the top senior duo in the 65-team field.
“We know that to beat them we need to stop those two guys,” said Utah State senior forward Desmond Penigar, a two-time first-team All-Big West player who averages 15.2 points a game. “And we know that they have a great coach and a lot of history.”
Under coach Roy Williams, the Jayhawks annually have one of the country’s high-powered offenses, this year churning out 82.8 points a game.
“Most teams can’t play at the same speed as Kansas,” Morrill said. “Kansas has always played very fast and is among the leaders in the country — if not the leader — in points scored. Kansas utilizes its personnel exceptionally well by playing that style.
“We like to think we’ll run, given the opportunity. We’re in a lot of situations where we feel that to have a chance to win we have to play at a speed that makes sense for our team and makes sense against the opponent.”
Utah State prefers a slower tempo, however, as evidenced by the Aggies’ 66.8 scoring average. The Ags have just two double-digit scorers in the 6-foot-7 Penigar, who averages 15.4 points a game off 46.7 percent shooting, plus 6-8 Spencer Nelson, who averages 10.2 ppg.
The other starters are Mark Brown, a 5-10 junior (8.7 ppg. 4.4 assists); Cardell Butler, a 6-4 junior (8.0 ppg); and Toriano Johnson, a 6-4 senior (7.7 ppg).
“It’s a tremendous challenge for us to go up against their quickness, their athleticism and certainly, their system,” Morrill said. “Their system is renowned, in terms of being a system a lot of people have copied, because it is very, very solid and utilizes a lot of different things within the system.
“We understand the system because a lot of people in our league play the Kansas/North Carolina system. And we’ll have a chance to look at what they’re doing out of that system on film. The biggest challenge is that the talent level they have is fabulous and we’re going to have to deal with it.”
Despite the monumental task ahead, Utah State remains hopeful.
“I’m just so excited,” said senior guard Ronnie Ross, who has come off the bench to average 5.8 points a game. “It’s a new experience and I just want to go out here and compete and upset Kansas. I watch them all the time. They’re a well-known team. When you think about college basketball, Kansas is one of the teams you think about. It’s going to be exciting just to play against a team of this caliber.”
