Utah State men’s and women’s basketball put on a show for fans in the Wayne Estes Center on Monday evening with its annual Aggie Madness, aiming to build hype for the upcoming Aggie basketball season. Though the event itself lacked the basketball substance that will quench the thirst for Aggie hoops, it helps set the stage for the true appetizers coming later this month.
Players from both teams participated in a small handful of events, starting with a relay race, then a 3-point shootout and dunk contest. The 3-point shootout, which featured a pair of players (one from each of the men’s and women’s teams) was won by Luke Kearney and Marina Asensio. That duo beat the pair of Brayden Boe and Andjela Marojevic in the final round. The other pairs featured Tucker Anderson/Karyn Sanford and Kolby King/Elise Livingston.
The dunk contest, which featured four of the Aggie freshmen, was won by Adlan Elamin. He defeated Kingston Tosi in the final round with a dunk featuring Elamin jumping over the 6-foot-8 forward Garry Clark.
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β USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) October 14, 2025
Following the event, both coaches β women’s basketball head coach Wes Brooks and men’s hoops head coach Jerrod Calhoun β spoke to the media after to offer more thoughts on the upcoming season. One of the most pressing concerns raised in the media scrum came from Calhoun, who voiced disappointment in the ticket sales for his team’s upcoming exhibition game on Saturday against Seattle.
“Very, very disappointed. We’ve sold less than a thousand tickets,” Calhoun said. “All the money for this goes to the retention fund. This is a big chance for us to raise money. If not, we’ll either take it on the road or do a closed scrimmage against a power four [team]. I couldn’t get a power four to come in here and play, so I thought for us to be able to give our fans an opportunity for an exhibition game, I thought it would be a win-win. So I’m a little concerned about those ticket sales right now.”
The exhibition is set to take place this Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. USU’s opponent, Seattle, went 14-18 last season which broke a run of three consecutive 20-win season.
Calhoun spoke briefly to the crowd following the event, remarks that included a note that his team’s performance in the preseason might be “ugly” but that he wanted the fans to stick with the team. He added clarity to those comments when speaking with the media, also making an appeal that he needs more time each week than what the NCAA currently allows.
“We’ve thrown a lot at them. We didn’t have a foreign trip this summer. This is the first time in the last two years I’ve not had a foreign trip, which means 10 [extra] practices and three games,” Calhoun said. “I think we have to change our preseason rules with just four hours per week. We go from four hours to 20. It makes no sense. We need at least eight hours of basketball on the court and time in the weight room. So you’re trying to cram things in. I don’t love that aspect of it. So that’s what I meant by it’s going to be ugly.”
In his comments with the media, Brooks went so far as to name three players he felt were likely to be starters this season, guards Marina Asensio and Aaliyah Gayles along with center Sophie Sene. The two final starting spots have yet to be determined.
“The battle right now for us is those last two wing spots,” Brooks said. “We are very good at those wing spots. So [we’re] trying to figure out who’s going to beat who out. And each day we’re grading that, and one person’s ahead one day, another person’s ahead the other day. So we’re pretty set, but the beauty of that is that we’ll have people coming off the bench who can produce, and there’s not going to be a drop at all.”
Gayles and Asensio are both transfers to Utah State. Gayles, once a five-star recruit and eighth overall prospect in the 2022 class according to ESPN, she has had a tough path toward what was expected stardom. Her promising career wasΒ halted by an incidentΒ in which the McDonald’s All-American was shot numerous times, leaving not only her sports career in jeopardy, but even her ability to have proper function of her arms and legs. In November 2023, Gayles made her collegiate debut and appeared in 22 games across two seasons with the Trojans.
Asensio has had a less chaotic journey to Utah State. The native of Spain most recently played at Western Michigan but has come to Logan alongside with fellow Spaniard, the new USU assistant coach Quim Gomez. Gomez spent two seasons as the assistant coach in charge of player development at Western Michigan. Asensio averaged 13.6 points, 4.9 assists and 3.1 rebounds last year with the Broncos.
The guard duo could end up being the key to a successful bounce back for the women’s team.
Sene is a returner for the Aggies. After transferring from Rhode Island in the 2024 offseason, Sene missed the early portion of USU’s season due to an injury. Upon her return, the 6-foot-3 center averaged 4.6 points and 5.3 rebounds while starting 17 of her 27 appearances.
While Brooks seems to have his lineup just about figured out a few weeks prior to the season, Calhoun can’t even say for sure one player that he felt will start, even going so far as to say they currently “plan on playing 15 players,” indicating no one on the roster is slated to be redshirted at this time.
“None of our rotations are down,” Calhoun said. “I heard Wes talk about his rotations. We have a lot of spots up for grabs on our team.”
