Let’s go over this one last time.
In late April 2023, the Utah State basketball program was, as some put it, “in shambles.” A brand-new coach had just taken over but he had no roster. Last season’s stars, including a First Team All-Mountain West selection, the Sixth Man of the Year and an Honorable Mention All-MW player had all either graduated or transferred.
Not only the stars, but other starters, backups, even the backup’s backups left the program. A whole 0.14 percent of USU’s points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks production from last year stayed with the program and only three players from the 15-man roster.
You know, the stuff that’s been repeated game-in and game-out, with every new set of CBS Sports Network or FS1 broadcasters gushing over these facts and seemingly every national basketball podcast and radio show lining up interviews to ask about it.
But there’s a reason that kept happening. And it’s because what Utah State did on Saturday — win the outright Mountain West regular season championship — wasn’t supposed to happen. It should never happen because sports has pretty much never worked this way. Even Danny Sprinkle, the head coach and leader of the staff that produced this literal miracle, was at a loss for speech as he pondered the feat.
“I don’t have too many words. Like this team, I don’t know how to describe them,” Sprinkle said. “This will never be done in Division I basketball again.”
Utah State was picked to finish ninth in the Mountain West with good reason.
It wasn’t until late November, nearly eight months after Sprinkle signed on with Utah State, that the first hints of success began to appear. That was when the Aggies put the finishing touches on a run to win the Cayman Islands Classic.
“I knew we were coming together at the Cayman Islands,” Sprinkle said. “I could see how close this team was and I hadn’t seen that up until that point. And when I saw it I was like, ‘Okay, it’s real.’ Now I would have never told you we’re gonna win the Mountain West championship. But I knew how committed they were to each other and how they played.”
Darius Brown said that after that showcase victory, they looked at themselves and thought, “We’re a really good team.”
By the time conference play rolled around, Utah State was positively rolling, with a 11-game winning streak heading into the Mountain West opener against Air Force. But that wasn’t earning the Aggies as much respect as perhaps they felt they deserved by then. They heard the talk from all the outside voices.
“It’s hard when the media gets in your head and Twitter, all those types of things,” Brown said. “You start to think ‘Oh, yeah, we’re a really good team’ seeing like, ‘Oh, they haven’t played anybody in their non-conference. We’ll see how they do in conference’ and all those shenanigans. I’m glad that we got to prove everybody wrong ’cause that ninth place stuff, the whole team was mad about that and we all took it personal.”
When USU defeated at-the-time No. 13 Colorado State at home on Jan. 6, though, talk changed. Not only did outside narratives shift as the Aggies leaped into the AP Poll, but it added more and more confidence onto the growing bonfire that would eventually take over the Mountain West.
“That was my first win against a ranked team,” Brown said, “And it was like, ‘Oh yeah. We belong here.’”
The Aggies were far from perfect from that point on, picking up double-digit losses on the road at New Mexico, San Diego State, Colorado State and even at home to Nevada. But despite jabs from fans, media and even other coaches in the league about its conference schedule, there’s no denying Utah State deserves the spot at the top of the standings.
At no point from the opening of Mountain West play in early January until the final seconds of its title-clinching victory over New Mexico, did USU ever yield first place to another team. Other teams tied the Aggies, but in three separate first-place duels — Jan. 27 at Boise State, Feb. 10 against Boise State at home, and finally Feb. 20 against San Diego State — they came out ahead to remain on top, the top of a conference having potential its best season top-to-bottom in its 25-year history.
One way or the other, Utah State always seemed to find a way to never be taken too far down. Even in dire moments against the toughest of opponents, these players found a way.
The contributions came from all around, Brown hitting massive shots time, and time, and time, and time again. Great Osobor made a massive jump from Sixth Man of the Year in the Big Sky to Player of the Year candidate in the Mountain West. There’s hardly even time to individually point out each Aggie that contributed in an unexpectedly good manner, such as Mason Falslev and Isaac Johnson playing key roles in their first season of being full-time rotation players, or Ian Martinez balling out on both ends as he broke out in his fourth season as a collegiate player, or Josh Uduje embracing and excelling in the sixth man role.
“Spectrum Magic” is the given name for the home-court advantage the Aggies enjoy, but that magic must have expanded beyond confines of those walls to produce this kind of season in these circumstances in this good of a conference.
This likely isn’t the greatest team in either Mountain West or even Utah State history. It remains to be seen whether the 23-year drought for wins in the NCAA Tournament will be broken, or whether the Aggies will even match the likes of the 2018-19 or 2019-20 squads that won the conference tournament. This season is a story that’s yet to be completely told.
What is certain is that this team will be one-of-a-kind. There will be another conference championship team in Utah State’s future. More teams that get into the NCAA Tournament. And, be it this year or down the line, Aggie teams that win teams in Big Dance.
But there will never be another team quite like the 2023-24 Utah State Aggies.
