Cover Story: Aggies Stand Alone Atop The Mountain West

LOGAN – The first outright Mountain West champions at Utah State had a flair for the dramatic that carried through the season's decisive contest, when frequent late-game hero Darius Brown II buried one more game-winning triple against New Mexico to seal the title.

Utah State's second outright Mountain West championship squad does things a little differently. These Aggies don't have a go-to scorer for crunch time moments. When Jerrod Calhoun's team needs clutch plays, it puts out an open call to its rotation and rolls with whoever answers the bell.

Of course, the Aggies haven't faced all that many do-or-die situations this season, playing only four one-score games, and they've seen no reason to designate one man for those spots when just about every man on the roster is capable. More often, this bunch likes to do its work early.

That's how it worked out on the larger scale, where Utah State ran up a cushion in the standings just large enough to withstand three late-season losses, and how it unfolded in miniature on Saturday afternoon in a 94-90 thriller against New Mexico.

There was no grand sequence of coronation; no single moment of jubilation, save for the final buzzer and the court-storming that ensued. Utah State secured a moderate, practical lead early in the second half, protected it against relatively few viable threats, and maintained it through a final minute that seemed to wear on forever. The Aggies made it more stressful at the end than they needed to, but even in that closing sequence they never gave New Mexico possession with the chance to tie or lead. They didn't need chicanery or heroism to grab the crown. This was the league's best team, and eventually, they outlasted their challengers on Saturday as they have all conference season.

Rather than relying on late-game magic or a single superstar performance, Utah State separated itself from the pack for good with one more characteristic display. The Aggies did it as a team – from the Mountain West Player of the Year and five superlative seniors to the redshirts on the scout team, Calhoun and his staff, a stellar collection of team parents, and of course, the HURD (plus some old friends filling in for spring break) in the stands. Each had a role to play, and each hit all the right notes when called upon.

"There are a lot of people to thank," Calhoun said. "Our donor base has just been incredible. It's been two years in a row that the university has not shared a single dollar with us, and I'll continue to say that. This is a remarkable story. We're fourth or fifth in the league in rev share/NIL. These kids just stayed together, and really, the community stepped up. There are a lot of people in this city, in Salt Lake and around the country who have stepped up to make Aggie basketball what it is.

"The buy-in and the parents were unbelievable. We had great communication all year long with the parents. The unsung heroes are the assistant coaches. We did an incredible job of identifying not only great basketball players, but great people. The HURD, I can't thank them enough. What they did this year, the community, it was as loud as I've heard it. We had spring break and that's the type of atmosphere we had. It was a total team effort on a lot of fronts, and you have to credit our players. They just stayed the course. There were a lot of ups and downs, but to win it outright for the second time ever and third in 13 years, these guys went down in Aggie history. That's for sure."

Drake Allen got it started. Playing his final game in the Spectrum with a trophy on the line, Allen hardly needed more motivation but got it all the same in the form of his matchup. Utah State didn't necessarily choose Allen over Deyton Albury, now the lead guard for the Lobos. It had intended to keep both and deploy a rotation similar to last year's room, but when that proved untenable, Calhoun had to make the call. Saturday's bout doubled as a referendum on his decision, and the veteran guards battled it out accordingly.

Picked up with smothering coverage at mid-court, Allen narrowly survived Albury's opening salvo, finding an outlet in Adlan Elamin just before disaster struck. He took the ball back almost immediately and dribbled left toward a Zach Keller screen that separated Albury from Allen's hip, giving the ball-handler a matchup with center Tomislav Buljan that he gladly took, beating him to the rim for the game's first basket.

Though Albury's defensive intensity would not dip, it didn't inflict the damage he had hoped for. On this day, and indeed for much of the season, Calhoun was vindicated for his point guard pick. Albury fouled out in 19 minutes, finishing with four points on 2-of-5 shooting, two turnovers, two steals, one rebound and an assist. Meanwhile, his counterpart was superb. With his extended family and newborn son in the stands, Allen enjoyed one of his best performances as an Aggie, pitching in 14 points (3-of-7 shooting, 6 of 8 at the line), seven assists, five rebounds, two steals and a block while suffering only one foul and one turnover in 37 minutes.

"I thought Drake Allen was unbelievable," Calhoun said. "He had 14 points, seven assists and five boards. One of the best acquisitions we had this past offseason was getting him back. We had some tough decisions at that point guard spot. Typically, the head coach and the point guard take all the grief from the media and the fans, and Drake was a warrior all year long.

"The kid was incredible tonight, and he won a championship. To be a starting point guard and win a championship, that's hard to do. He was awesome. At the end of the day, Deyton is a really good player. We know how to guard him. We had to get him in the half-court, make him make decisions and keep him out of transition. I think Drake was the better player there tonight."

New Mexico punched back with a Buljan second-chance bucket, but the next two minutes belonged to Utah State, which added eight points from MJ Collins, Mason Falslev and Keller to stake out a 10-2 lead, ignite the home crowd, and force an Eric Olen timeout. The respite settled the visitors down a bit, but Utah State's barrage persisted largely unchallenged through the under-12 TV timeout.

Collins answered a Jake Hall layup with three free throws, Karson Templin and Elijah Perryman chipped in four quick points to blunt a Hall triple, and Falslev and Garry Clark tallied three more points after a Tajavis Miller three. Utah State's lead was 12 after a Falslev-assisted Clark dunk, 22-10, as the first-half clock approached the 10-minute mark. Then, as Calhoun said, Hall happened.

"When we started the game, I thought our defense was incredible," Calhoun said. "It was 20-10, we were really guarding, deflecting passes, shrinking the floor and getting to shooters, and then Jake Hall happened. He just went off. I thought his teammates did an incredible job of finding him, and they did a good job of driving. We got lost a few times on brushes with our coverages. He just went off. To come in and make seven threes as a freshman in this environment, he's the real deal."

New Mexico's offensive savior for much of the afternoon, Hall got himself onto the board for the third time in the opening frame with a nifty layup about a minute after Albury scored on a second-chance layup, cutting the 12-point gap to eight. It stayed there for the under-8 break after a dazzling exchange of four consecutive triples – one each for Allen, Keller, Hall and Uriah Tenette – set a 29-21 balance.

It was big JT Rock who got the ball rolling for the Lobos, rebutting a Falslev layup with a dunk, securing a Collins miss at the other end and striking again at the rim. Sharpshooters have stretched this Aggie defense too thin for the better part of a month, and Hall's hot start triggered more of the same discombobulation. Concerned more with the three-point line, Utah State's defensive passing and driving lanes widened, giving Rock plenty of room to work without actually blunting the long ball damage, as Hall would prove on his third triple of the frame, bringing New Mexico within three, 31-28.

The scoreboard difference oscillated between one and two possessions for the next four minutes, but Olen's bunch enjoyed the last laugh of the period. Hall buried his fourth try from distance, Rock found another layup, and Luke Haupt gave New Mexico its first lead on a pair of free throws. Utah State's last effort, a Kolby King three, went begging, and the Lobos took a fairly miraculous 43-42 edge into the break. Collins and Falslev, who combined for 12 points (3-of-8 shooting), two rebounds, two assists and a steal in the first 20 minutes, were the first to hear about it.

"I was very determined," Collins said. "Coach cussed me and Mason out going up the tunnel. It kind of lit a fire up inside of me, especially because it's do-or-die time, knowing that I'm a senior and you only get one shot at it. This was our shot, and there's no better way to finish it out at home. I didn't want my teammates to go down with another L and I told them that last week at UNLV. I addressed the team and told them, 'It starts with me. I have to play better.' I told them they could take my word that I wouldn't let them down come Saturday, and I kept my word for those guys."

Calhoun's recounting of the intermission was a bit more stately, as usual. The head coach can hand out wake-up calls with the best of them when he needs to, but he prefers not to advertise the more profane portion of his job. That stays between him and the team, unless a player decides to share – and Collins is just about the only Aggie with enough job security and comfort behind the microphone to do so.

"I lit him up going into the locker room," Calhoun said. "I thought he made a couple of bad reads, and he responded. Sometimes, you have to get guys going a little bit."

Instead, Calhoun's chief focus during the break was Utah State's defense, which had soured after surrendering just 10 points in the first 10 minutes, letting through 32 on 11-of-16 shooting in the last 10. The Aggies were scoring well, knocking down 13 of 26 field goals and 12 of 15 free throws, but couldn't expect that to carry them without at least some defensive improvement.

"Honestly, the biggest thing for me (at halftime) is to watch film. I don't do a ton of talking. I'll go into the coach's locker room and come back with about six minutes and I'll have three or four things on each side of the ball. I have to get there and watch the tape. I thought defensively we just really messed up a lot of switches, our switching was terrible.

"Offensively, we got whatever we wanted. I think we scored 42 at halftime, so I didn't really watch the offense, it was more about the defense and what kind of adjustments we could make. We didn't switch on the guard-to-guard pick-and-roll up top, that was really good, and then it was just having some awareness."

Utah State didn't exactly rediscover the defensive quality it could depend upon at early points of the campaign, before the regular season's grueling final stretch took its toll on the Aggies physically. New Mexico scored 90 points, after all. But, Utah State found success in stretches. The Lobos scored only once, on a Hall two-pointer, across the first four minutes of the second half, missing their other three field goal attempts and twice turning the ball over. All Utah State really needed was a nice window to reclaim and bolster its lead, and that would do just fine.

As would become apparent, Calhoun may well have done his best halftime work at the start, when he got after his sluggish stars. Allen opened the second half scoring, stationed in the corner and left open while New Mexico strained to accommodate a Collins drive and bounce pass to Keller in the paint. The Lobos had four players in the vicinity when Keller took possession, two of them completely fooled by his pump fake, and no one quick enough to close out on Allen when Keller pivoted and kicked the ball out. Allen drilled the trey to put Utah State back in front by two.

Then came the long-awaited return of the Collins show, Logan's most popular program before its multi-week hiatus. The senior from Clover promised his teammates in Las Vegas after their blowout loss to UNLV that he wouldn't let them down, and roared to life when he saw his first shot fall in the second half. Working from a sideline-inbound play, Collins set up shop in the corner, just a few inches from his teammates on the bench. Allen probed the lane with help from a Keller screen, attracted New Mexico's attention, and gave Collins enough room to hit from the corner when he fired the ball out to him.

Collins nearly made Albury pay for a behind-the-back pass at the other end with what would have been a steal and a run-out dunk, but didn't need to wait long for another fast-break opportunity to materialize. This time it was Elamin's heads-up post defense that got the Aggies running, punching the ball away from Buljan after he recovered an Albury miss. Collins grabbed the loose ball and forwarded it to Falslev, who collapsed the defense with a left-handed drive and launched a pass against his momentum back out to the wing.

Albury contested it, but defenders might as well be vestigial when Collins gets rolling. The shot was gorgeous, the lead was six, and the sharpshooter was himself once more, pointing toward his coach before letting the Lobos hear about it. Those in the building, likely none more excited than Collins' parents, sisters and girlfriend, could see a month of frustration melting away in real time.

He was far from done, but the next block was earmarked for Karson Templin. One of two Aggies partaking in his second senior day de facto title fight with New Mexico, Templin recalled the first fondly after the game. He had been then where most of Utah State's freshmen, Perryman included save for three minutes, found themselves now – supporting his team from the bench, a casualty of the traditional late-season rotation constriction.

"It's funny that this scenario happened my freshman year and this year," Templin said. "It was kind of written like a storybook and it was definitely fun to win it outright. I don't like sharing.

"It was emotional, honestly. Before the game I'm looking around at a packed Spectrum and it's my last time playing in here with a lot of these guys. We have five seniors this year who are all really good players. But, I wouldn't have it any other way, winning the Mountain West championship on our court in the last game of the season. It's like a movie."

Templin, now a key contributor and trusted team leader, could take more of a hands-on approach this time around. He battled hard for eight first-half points, adding three points the old way, three points the new way, and two more at the line along with three boards. In the second half, Templin did what he does better than just about anyone in the Mountain West and infused instant energy into an already invigorated lineup off the bench.

He checked in at the 16:52 mark with his team nursing a six-point lead, 51-45, and New Mexico set to inbound from under the basket. Within his first 15 seconds on the floor, Templin switched onto Hall and kept him out of the play, rotated into the paint as the low man for a Buljan screen-and-roll, contested the ensuing layup perfectly and grabbed the rebound away from New Mexico's big man. At the other end, he used a Collins screen to create a post mismatch with Hall and an easy entry pass for Falslev, corraled his own miss and put the ball back up and in through an Antonio Chol foul, cashing in the free throw to push Utah State's edge to nine points.

About a minute later, Templin set the difference at nine again, answering a Hall three-pointer with his own long ball from the corner. All three of Clark, Keller and Templin stepped up for key plays in the post, but the incumbent led the charge with 15 points (4-of-7 shooting), five rebounds and an assist in 23 minutes.

"(The bigs) were really battling," Calhoun said. "Zach was good tonight. When he went down, I thought we were in trouble. Brett asked him if (his shoulder) went out of socket and he said no, so I thought that was good. KT gives it his all and Garry gives it his all. We've done it by committee all year and those kids have stepped up in big games. KT once again tonight, 15 points and five boards, Zach gets eight and Garry gets six. We just have to keep doing it by committee."

Utah State held on to its multi-possession advantage for a few more minutes, matching another Hall three with a Collins three-point play and a Miller triple with a Falslev layup, but the Lobos kept pushing and found their opportunity in a three-minute Aggie scoring drought. Picking up six quick points from Hall's seventh three-pointer, a Miller free throw and a Rock layup, New Mexico drew within two points of the Aggie lead, 64-62, just ahead of the 11-minute mark.

Collins had seen enough. Elamin and Keller kept Utah State's next offensive possession alive after a pair of misses (the first from King, the second from Elamin), and Calhoun drew up a lovely baseline inbound play to get his star free in the corner. Keller's screen to set Collins up was on the money, Collins' pump fake sent Miller flying out of position, and Albury was far too late on his close-out.

About a minute later, split by two Hall free throws, Collins collected a Falslev pass in transition and fooled another overly eager defender before draining his fourth three of the half. He ran up 27 points on the afternoon, his best scoring performance since the 40-point outburst against Davidson, and played perhaps his best floor game of the season with six boards, a steal and an assist in 29 minutes.

"If you asked me would I have been in this position last year coming into today, I'd have told myself no," Collins said. "I've done a lot of things throughout the years that through my first three years I didn't think I was capable of. Being able to trust in the work you've put in over the years and having a great coaching staff and great teammates, it'll make you do things you didn't think you were capable of. I love the HURD, I love the community around here, and being able to close it out in the biggest game of the year so far, it felt amazing.

"My family has sacrificed a lot for me to be in this position. My dad, we would be up at 4 in the morning working out. We had some heartache and pain conversations, but he always stuck with me. Same with my mom and my little sisters, they've been with me every step of the way. Being able to do it for them and in front of them meant the world to me. I won a state championship in high school, my dad stormed the court and he was the first person to get to me. It was the same thing here. When I looked around, he was right there, gave me a big hug and told me, 'We did it.' I'm really nothing without my family. That's my heart."

The final nine minutes were a war of attrition, and with the deeper bench and the home-court advantage, that was just fine by Utah State. Spearheaded by Falslev and aided by just about every other Aggie on the floor, Calhoun's group finally managed to cool Hall down, holding him scoreless in the final 10 minutes while forcing seven consecutive misses from beyond the arc. Other Lobos stepped up, chiefly Buljan, Miller and Tenette, but a team game favored Utah State.

First up was Falslev in his element, splitting three Lobos to snag an offensive rebound, and banking in a layup in essentially one movement, all while falling backward after getting his feet tangled with Albury's – the fourth foul on the New Mexico guard. Those are the plays his MWC POY candidacy is built around, and this one gave Utah State a nice seven-point cushion, 73-66. He would score once more in the last eight minutes, capping his regular season with an entirely on-brand stat line of 15 points (5-of-9 shooting, 4 for 5 on free throws), four assists and three boards in 35 minutes of action.

"It has to be Falslev," Calhoun said. "I hope coaches value winning. I hope they value not just scoring. It's scoring, rebounding and assisting. He's on the best team and he does everything the best, in my opinion. His shooting percentages are good. It'll be interesting how the votes go, but we're putting him down as player of the year. He's got a bad tailbone, a messed-up knee, and he just goes 100 miles an hour at all times. That's just the mayor, he's going to give it his all. He steals the ball, he passes and he scores.

"To me, you can't put a price tag on the leadership, too. His voice has been really loud in the locker room. I've seen him totally out of his comfort zone with leadership, and sometimes that's what it takes with a group. He knows what the team needs at certain times. He's our hardest worker. In the greatest organizations, the coach and the best player can't have bad days. I think Kelvin Sampson said that years ago. You have to bring it every day as a coach and bring it every day as a leader and the best player."

The other Aggies created their own showcase moments as the contest approached its final leg. Collins knocked down a second-chance jumper, dished out an assist, grabbed a key rebound and hit all four of his crunch-time free throws in the final minute.

Templin lobbed a picture-perfect alley-oop to King with about six minutes on the clock, which King slammed through to give the Aggies another nine-point edge, 77-68. Both would have issues with fouls in the waning minutes, the former fouling out and the latter prolonging the game on a pair of bafflers in the last 60 seconds, but they did far more good than bad. King redeemed himself with a 5-of-6 shooting performance at the stripe in the last 1:28 to keep the Lobos at an arm's length.

"If he would have missed them, it would have been awful because of the number of fouls he committed in the final three minutes," Calhoun said. "It would have been bad. But, Kolby has no conscience at the line. He's a very confident player. I felt really good every time he went to the line."

Allen didn't do much scoring in the last stanza, but he hit a pair at the line to halt a four-point skid following King's dunk and pitched in everywhere else with steady playmaking and stifling defense – including one of the game's sneakiest athletic feats when he broke from a dead stop into a sprint and swatted aside a Hall three-point try.

New Mexico did all it could think of to carve out one last run, and found a new Aggie blocking each conceivable path. Tenette cut the gap to five; Templin hit a free throw and Falslev added a layup. Buljan brought it back within five; Keller took advantage of a defense with its eyes elsewhere for an easy layup.

Even at the free-throw line, a place for refuge from Calhoun's swarm in theory, New Mexico had to reckon with 4,000 more Aggies. Buljan, New Mexico's best bet for drawing fouls, made just one of six free throws in the final 4:02. Utah State hit 18 of 21 second-half free throws and all but two of its 12 tries across the last 88 seconds.

Olen's side never stopped battling, drawing within two points of the lead on their penultimate possession, but there were simply too many Aggies. When the buzzer finally sounded, hundreds more flooded onto the floor to bask in the championship glow with their triumphant peers.

"This is what we dreamed of," Collins said. "Once we had the chance to get an outright title at home, I knew we had every shot in the world to get it because our fans are just so amazing, our student section and community. It's an amazing accomplishment for all the guys. I'm very proud of Kolby King, Garry Clark and the guys who really hadn't won anything. Now we're able to take them to the tournament. That's what it's all about. There's a first for everything. This is my first ring in college and I'm very thankful. Utah State, that's my school. I've been to Virginia Tech and Vanderbilt, but this is the school that I'll claim."

The senior day festivities, trophy presentation and net-cutting ceremony to follow brought it all together. These were celebrations of this team and their accomplishments, of five exhausted, fulfilled seniors and their families, and even of a college basketball world thought by some to be extinct or nearing it. In pockets of the sport where conference titles mean little, where teams flirting with losing records demand NCAA tournament bids and where cash rules all around it, that might be true.

Tucked away in Cache Valley on Saturday, and on all other days for that matter, college basketball is alive and well. In the sights and sounds and emotions of the moment it was unmistakable. The spirit of the game smiled upon the Spectrum for its decades of service as a safe haven, and upon the Aggies for walking the tightrope, embracing new rules of engagement without compromising on what matters. They earned their place among the greats at Utah State, and they did it as a team.

"I was asked at the radio show about how it would feel," said Collins. "I told them that you can score 40 and that comes and goes, a lot of people do that. Winning a championship, it goes down in the books forever. It'll be something that's talked about even when we're dead and gone.

"It means a lot because it shows that we're a team. Nobody really cares who has the hot hand or who has the most points. We're going to share the ball, find mismatches in the defense and attack them. We're all happy for each other, and when we're all clicking, that's when we're the best. That's what it's all about, doing it together as a team."

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