Utah State’s 2025-26 season will officially begin tonight when the Aggies host Westminster. A host of expectations follow this year’s team as the program finally managed to retain a head coach after having their coaches, and most of their roster, poached for two straight seasons. The Aggies were picked to finish second in the Mountain West and have one of the top returning players in the conference, the highly-touted junior guard Mason Falslev.
Here’s all of the necessary info ahead of the season debut for USU.
How to watch
- Tip-off: 7 p.m. (Mountain Time)
- Location: Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT)
- TV Broadcast: KMYU / Mountain West Network
- Radio Broadcast: KVNU (102.1 FM, 610 AM) / kvnutalk.com / KVNU mobile app
KVNU Aggie GameDay pregame show with Stockton Jewkes and J.D. Walker: 6 p.m.
KVNU Aggie Call: Immediately after Coach Calhoun’s post-game comments
Availability Report
In a preview press conference with the media, Calhoun bluntly stated he had no intentions of revealing injury information publicly. He did say his plans were to “play all 12 active players,” earlier noting that three players on the roster will be redshirting this season. Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun did not reveal who those players were, though it’s possible, if not likely, that two of those players will be freshmen Kingston Tosi and Brayden Boe. Neither saw the court in the second exhibition and played limited minutes in the first exhibition.
The only hint at potential injuries is that fifth-year senior forward Garry Clark started in the road exhibition at San Francisco, but was subbed out three minutes into the second half and did not play again the rest of the evening, tallying just eight minutes the entire evening.
Westminster does not have any reported injuries, though three players on its roster did not play in the team’s exhibition against Southern Utah — freshman forward Keith Williams, graduate guard Cole Kadoguchi and junior forward Deng Diew.
Projected Starters
Statistical averages in this section are drawn from both teams’ respective preseason exhibition games last month. Utah State played two games (vs Seattle and at San Francisco) with Westminster playing one game at Southern Utah
Utah State (0-0)
- G – Drake Allen (6-5, Sr.) – 5.5 points | 4.5 rebounds | 7.5 assists
- G – Mason Falslev (6-4, Jr.) – 9.5 points | 5.0 rebounds | 3.5 assists
- G – MJ Collins (6-4, Sr.) – 16.0 points | 2.5 rebounds | 1.0 assists
- F – Tucker Anderson (6-9, Jr.) – 10.0 points | 1.5 rebounds | 0.0 assists
- F – Zach Keller (6-10, Sr.) – 5.5 points | 4.0 rebounds | 0.0 assists
Westminster (0-0)
- G – Tommy Ball (6-0, Gr.) – 2.0 points | 2.0 rebounds | 4.0 assists
- G – Jake Nadauld (6-3, R-Fr.) – 2.0 points | 2.0 rebounds | 2.0 assists
- G – Colin Hayes (6-6, Jr.) – 17.0 points | 4.0 rebounds | 1.0 assists
- F – Boston Painter (6-8, Jr.) – 5.0 points | 3.0 rebounds | 0.0 assists
- F – Michael Frazier (6-10, Gr.) – 15.0 points | 5.0 rebounds | 2.0 assists
Team Statistical Ranks
Pace and offense/defense efficiency ratings via Ken Pomeroy’s preseason rankings. Shooting and rebounding stats and rankings are from the 2024-25 season. Division I rankings are out of 365 teams. Non-Division I teams will not have pace/efficiency stats available and ranks will be relative to their division.
Utah State
- Pace — 160th
- Offensive Efficiency — 116.5 (21st)
- Defensive Efficiency — 99.0 (72nd)
- 3-point Percentage — 35.6% (81st)
- 3-Point Attempts per Game — 24.8 (86th)
- Offensive Rebounding Percent — 34.9% (51st)
- Total Rebounding Percent — 52.1% (100th)
- KenPom Rank – 42nd
Westminster
- Pace — N/A
- Points per Game — 75.9 (133rd)
- Points Allowed per Game — 73.8 (138th)
- 3-point % — 37.4% (35th)
- 3-Point Attempts per Game — 14.3 (289th)
- Rebounds per Game — 33.0 (228th)
- Offensive Rebounds per Game — 9.9 (170th)
- KenPom Rank — N/A
Summary
Games against Division II opponents like Westminster are pretty much assumed to be not only victories, but victories by wide margins. Utah State’s smallest margin of victory in games against non-D1 opponents in the last nine years was a 26-point win over College of Idaho in 2020. In those nine years, USU has won its 11 games against non-D1 teams by an average of 40.8 points. Most recently, they beat the same Westminster Griffins by 64 points (117-53) and in 2023 the Aggies beat South Dakota Mines by 53 points (101-48).
Despite this disparity between Utah State and its non-major opponents, there are some points to keep in mind. For one, the Griffins are seemingly improved thanks to some internal development and at least one key addition. Those two things helped Westminster to nearly upset at D1 team, Southern Utah, in an exhibition game. The Griffins held a 77-75 lead with 1:42 remaining before allowing a few late points to lose 79-77.
Improvements internally for Westminster are showcased by Michael Frazier, who returned from last year’s team and played a disruptive role in the near-upset, scoring 15 points in just 11 minutes played (due to foul trouble). He hit 3 of 4 threes, grabbed five rebounds and had a pair of assists. Frazier has a connection to the Mountain West, having been initially recruited to Boise State, redshirting in the 2018-19 season and later transferring.
“Kid’s a good player,” Calhoun said. “So we’ve got to be aware of him. You know, most bigs can’t shoot nowadays. So when you can, it really opens up your offense. He’s a young man that is certainly coming in here and making 4-5 threes, so we’ve got to be aware of that.”
Alongside Frazier, Peter Amakasu showed some initial improvement. Last year he averaged just seven minutes per game for the Griffins, but came off the bench to play 31 minutes at SUU and scored 12 points.
The aforementioned “key addition” for Westminster comes in the form of Colin Hayes. Last year, the 6-foot-6 wing averaged 15.6 points per game for Northwest College and transferred this offseason. Hayes led the Griffins in scoring in their exhibition with 17 points on 7 of 16 shooting.
But with all of that noted, Calhoun didn’t really have much to say about Westminster aside from when he was asked about specific players. Not out of disrespect for the Griffins, but more out of a want to focus on his team and their current goals of improvement.
“We’re not putting any stock into anybody’s scores this year. We’re going to worry about us and take it game by game and day by day,” Calhoun said.
Utah State is currently trying to iron out its rotation, though this game is unlikely to finish that discussion. Calhoun plans on playing all 12 players he expects to have active for this season, with three yet-to-be-named players anticipating a redshirt season. The starting lineup appears to be mostly settled save for one position: center.
In the two exhibitions, the guards and forwards who started were Drake Allen, Mason Falslev, MJ Collins and Tucker Anderson. But in one exhibition, Zach Keller started at center while Garry Clark started the other. And though Karson Templin didn’t start in either, he’s certainly in the mix too. In fact, Templin leads all centers on the team (that group being Templin, Keller, Clark and David Iweze) in minutes played in the two exhibition. That fact is perhaps part of the reason Calhoun doesn’t give much thought to questions over the exact starting lineup.
“I think (the media) make a lot more to do about starting lineups and playing time. We’re about getting wins here and that’s what we’ve always done,” Calhoun said. “And you’ve got to sacrifice, whether whatever your role is. Who cares who starts a game. It means absolutely nothing.”
Monday’s season-opener ought to be a victory and by a wide margin. But just how much will be gleaned from this game, from what the rotation will look like to just how polished the Aggies are, may be hard to tell in the lead-up to the much more anticipated matchup this Friday against VCU.
