Even after winning a Mountain West title on Saturday, Utah State still has work to do on the defensive end.
LOGAN — Utah State started its season with a 15-1 record to land the team inside the Associated Press Top 25 and set itself up for what could be its best NCAA Tournament seed in program history.Suffering back-to-back losses to Grand Canyon and UNLV after that hot start, the Aggies ripped off another eight wins in a row and won 23 of its first 26 games.
In those 26 games, the Aggies allowed over 80 points in regulation just three times. But in the final five games, of which they lost three, the Aggies gave up 80 or more points in four of the five.The lone win in those four was Saturday night's 94-90 win over New Mexico, a result that crowned Utah State the Mountain West outright regular season champion."With this group of guys, coaching staff, I'm fortunate to say that I'm a champion; that's something that nobody will ever forget," senior guard MJ Collins Jr. said. "It's just an unbelievable achievement to be able to carry it out."The Aggies' win on Saturday came down to the final seconds, as New Mexico, led by freshman Jake Hall and his 32 points, gave Utah State about all it could handle on the defensive end. The Lobos finished the game shooting 48% from the floor and 45% from 3-point range.Utah State saved itself by shooting 50% from the floor, and getting 27 points from Collins — 21 of which came in the second half. The Lobos' scoring outburst nonetheless continues a concerning defensive trend for Utah State as the season comes to a close and the page turns to postseason play."I thought, defensively, we just really missed up a lot of switches. Our switching was terrible — really, really bad," Calhoun said. "It was more about the defense. … In the conference tournament, NCAA Tournament, giving up 90, you would usually lose."Under Calhoun, Utah State has been known for playing a tricky matchup zone defense that causes confusion and forces errors from opposing offenses. That style of defense is designed to get the Aggies more steals and deflections, which lead to easy transition buckets.As the season has gone on and conference opponents take on the Aggies for a second time, the matchup zone proves less effective. During conference play, Utah State conference opponents averaged 68.3 points per game in the first contest. In the second matchup of the year, conference opponents averaged 77.5 points per game.Boise State and Grand Canyon were the only two teams in nine repeat opponents to score less against Utah State the s
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