There is only one men’s basketball team from Utah heading to the NCAA tournament this year, and that would be Utah State.
The Aggies are returning to the Big Dance for the first time since 2021, back when Craig Smith was in Logan. New USU head coach Ryan Odom has the program back in the tournament in his second season.
USU will play Missouri on Thursday in Denver as a No. 10-seed. It landed in the same region as No. 1 overall-seed Alabama, along with Baylor and Virginia.
For Odom personally, he is returning to March Madness for the first time since he led No. 16-seed Maryland-Baltimore County over Virginia in 2018. That was the biggest upset in tournament history.
Outside of the Aggies, Utah was shut out.
Utah Valley has never made the tournament, and that trend will continue. The Wolverines missed the NCAA tournament after going 25-8 and winning the Western Athletic Conference’s regular-season title in addition to beating Oregon on the road and BYU in Provo. They were undone by an 89-88 loss to Southern Utah in the WAC conference tournament semifinals. The Wolverines lost that game after giving up a 23-point lead and losing on a four-point play.
Still, UVU will get an automatic bid to the NIT after winning the regular season.
SUU did not reach the NCAA Tournament after losing to Grand Canyon University in the WAC tournament championship Saturday.
This story is developing and will be updated.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/Xkp2IzO
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