FILE PHOTO: USU basketball in the Spectrum. Photo by Robert K. Scott LOGAN — Utah State and seven other schools were officially named as participants in the 2023 edition of the Cayman Islands Classic Monday morning. The event will take place between Nov. 19-21 with each team playing three games in that three-day period. The seven other schools set to participate are Drake (27-8 record in 2022-23), Loyola Marymount (19-12), Marshall (24-6), Oakland (13-19), Ole Miss (12-21) Stephen F. Austin (19-13), and Wake Forest (19-14). Of the eight participants, Utah State and Drake are the only ones to have participated in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. This year will mark the fifth edition of the event and will be played at the John Gray Gymnasium in George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. While the field of teams has been announced, what the matchups will be has not been determined by tournament organizers. Free News Delivery by Email Would you like to have the day’s news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start! Source link

Utah State guard Sean Bairstow (2) ducks around Missouri forward Noah Carter (35) during the first half of a first-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, March 16, 2023. Thursday, March 16, 2023. (AP Photo/José Luis Villegas) SACRAMENTO – It’ll be 22 years and counting for Utah State in the NCAA Tournament, 22 years and more without a victory in March Madness as the 10th-seed Aggies lost to seven-seed Missouri 76-65. Despite missing its first 13 shots from 3-point land and trailing Missouri for nearly all of the first half, Utah State were able to stay with the Tigers and even take a lead in the second half. The Aggies shot 76 percent on its 2-pointers in the first half (making up for the 0-11 mark from three) and only trailed 35-31 at halftime despite their poor outside shooting. “We went into halftime knowing that we were down four and hadn’t made a three yet,” junior guard Steven Ashworth said. “We had a lot of confidence in that.” Utah State head coach Ryan Odom calls for timeout during the first half of a first-round college basketball game against Missouri in the NCAA Tournament in Sacramento,

LOGAN – A 5 a.m. text message woke Ryan Odom up in his hotel bed. The head coach of the Utah State men’s basketball team had been trying to rest in preparation for his team’s Mountain West Conference Tournament semifinal game against Boise State. But a group text of 20-plus players and coaches were flooding Odom’s phone, preventing just that. The messages weren’t from current players and coaches, though. These came from Odom’s days as the head coach of UMBC. That morning, March 10, marked the five-year anniversary of UMBC upsetting Vermont in the American East Conference Tournament championship game — a game won on a Jairus Lyles 3-pointer made just four seconds before the final buzzer. Less than a week after that victory, Odom, Lyles and the rest of the Retrievers achieved sports immortality by becoming the first 16 seed to defeat a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The messages in the group chat didn’t begin by reminiscing about either of those wins. Initially, those players and coaches were congratulating Odom — along with forward Dan Akin and assistant coach Nate Dixon, current Aggies who were part of that UMBC squad — on advancing in the Mountain West

LOGAN – The Utah State men’s basketball team will face Missouri in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in. The Aggies were chosen as a 10 seed, the Tigers as a seven in the South region. The game will take place in Sacramento, CA on Thursday, March 16. Utah State’s opponent, the Missouri Tigers, went 24-9 under first-year head coach Dennis Gates. The Tigers finished fourth in the SEC with an 11-7 record and have been ranked multiple times in the AP Poll including in the most recent poll on March 6 at No. 25 overall. The highest rank Missouri received was No. 20 in the Jan. 2 and Jan. 9 polls. In program history, the Aggies have only faced the Tigers twice and not since 1968. The two teams split a home-and-home series between the 1967 and 1968 seasons. Utah State won the first matchup in 1967, played in Logan, by a score of 87-81. Missouri won the next year on its home court 97-87. Utah State’s invite to the NCAA Tournament marks the fourth time in five years the Aggies have qualified for the March Madness festivities and the first time under head coach Ryan Odom. Including