It's Aggie fever...

Apologies for the late post - had to rise at a time not experienced for years, attend a basketball club team practice in the next town over and then have a breakfast/brunch/lunch meeting about providing some content at a new site for a WAC school. But enough about the really important stuff...

The victors get to lead off:

Aggies beat Nevada to assure a Big Dance
Jared Eborn
Deseret News
March 15, 2009

Remember all those questions about 'if' Utah State would get into the NCAA Tournament? Well, scratch them all.

Behind a ferocious defense that shut the vaunted Nevada offense down for most of the game, Utah State cruised to an easy win over the host Wolf Pack to win the Western Athletic Conference title with a 72-62 victory Saturday night.

The win gives the Aggies a 30-4 record and all sorts of momentum as they wait to learn not the if, but the where, who and when of their NCAA Tournament appearance.

"We're going to enjoy Selection Sunday," Aggie coach Stew Morrill said, "and not have to fret..."

Go here for the remainder.

Leaving no doubt
Shawn Harrison
Herald Journal
March 15, 2009

Utah State is going dancing.

The third time was the charm for the Aggie men’s basketball team.

USU pounced on Nevada early and held the Wolf Pack at bay throughout the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship game Saturday night at the Lawlor Events Center. The Aggies punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the 18th time in school history with a 72-62 win in front of 7,820 fans.

“This feels great,” said regular season and WAC Tournament MVP Gary Wilkinson as he mingled with jubilant USU fans. “I don’t know what to say.”

Fellow all-tournament honoree Tai Wesley had similar thoughts.

“This is amazing,” Wesley said as he posed for photos. “... We just wanted this. We knew from the start we were not losing this game...”

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Pooh does great job on Nevada’s Johnson
Wade Denniston
Herald Journal
March 15, 2009

Pooh Williams loves playing defense.

He relishes the chance to guard the other teams’ best player.

Such was the case Saturday night when Williams was given the assignment to defend Nevada’s Armon Johnson in the championship game of the Western Athletic Conference Men’s Tournament.

“After we played them last time, (assistant) coach (Tim) Duryea said, ‘If we play them again, you’re guarding him,’” Williams said. “That put a big smile on my face because I like to guard the best players on the other teams.

“I like a challenge and tonight was a big challenge for me. He’s a possible NBA point guard and to guard him and slow him down, it feels pretty good.”

Williams didn’t just slow Johnson down. He pretty much shut him down — on the season’s largest stage no less...

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And in this corner,

Ag-ony for Nevada: Utah State takes WAC title
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
March 15, 2009

Nevada basketball coach Mark Fox said earlier this week that sometimes his team has to be run over by a bus before it gets up and starts to fight back.

In the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship game against Utah State on Saturday night, the Wolf Pack was drilled by a bus, a couple of semi-trailers and some dump trucks before it responded.

After spotting Utah State a 21-4 lead to start the game, the Wolf Pack pulled itself up and fiercely clawed back into the game. But in the end that slow start doomed Nevada, which lost, 72-62, in front of 7,820 fans at Lawlor Events Center to end its dream of winning the WAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

As Utah State cut down the nets in front of its fans who traveled the 600 miles from Logan to Reno, Nevada coach Mark Fox said he and his team had a singular feeling.

"Pain," the fifth-year coach said. "When you invest what we force these kids to invest, it hurts. And I hurt for them because they have invested a great deal. So it should hurt. Because they genuinely invested in their team, in their school, in a program that has tradition, and tonight they came up short..."

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Post-game wrap from Wolf Pack's title game loss to Utah State
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
3/15/2009

Before we look at Nevada's 72-62 loss to Utah State in Saturday's WAC Tournament title game, I want to go back to 2003 real quick. March 15, 2003 to be exact. Anybody know what happened that day? The Nevada basketball team lost to Tulsa, 75-64, in the WAC Tournament championship game. The next season, the Wolf Pack made it to the Sweet 16. I am not saying next year's Nevada team is going to Sweet 16. I am pointing out that becoming a champion is a process. A process that first invloves losing. The nucleus of that Sweet 16 team tasted losing and learned from it. This year's Wolf Pack team has tasted that losing. And everybody except for senior Lyndale Burleson will be back next season. The nucleus returns and part of the growing process usually invloves losing painfully before winning big. It doesn't feel good, but that's the way it is.

Now, fast-forward to Saturday's game. It's pretty easy to sum up in a few sentences.

* Nevada missed its first 10 shots, taking nearly six and a half mintues to score.
* Nevada made two of its first 23 shots and hit a season-low 30.6 percent from the field.
* Nevada trailed 13-0 and 21-4 and never could get it within a single possession, twice cutting the lead to four.
* Nevada missed shot after shot that it usually makes. Just one of those nights...

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