Home-court success is a minus for Aggies, too

LOGAN — With its 73-56 victory over Weber State in mid-December, Utah State upped its home record to 88-8 under coach Stew Morrill.

Very impressive? Yes and no.

Impressive is the fact the Aggies won 88 games, and included in that number is a 10-1 mark against BYU, Utah and Weber State and only four losses to Big West Conference opponents.

Their other three losses were to Hawaii (2004 NIT), Montana State (2002 NIT) and Colorado State (1998).

Now for the unimpressive. If you take away Big West Conference opponents — Utah, BYU and Weber State — the Aggies are 32-3. Can you name Utah State's most impressive win?

Fresno State, 83-66, in 1999-2000, or Air Force, 59-50, in 2000-01.

In all fairness, the Aggies have been victims of their own success. With at least 23 wins in each of the past five seasons, Morrill is finding scheduling top-notch home opponents more difficult.

Scheduling coordinators at Arizona, Oregon and Washington said playing Utah State in Logan is a lose-lose proposition. A representative at Pepperdine, also a mid-major like Utah State, said the school wouldn't schedule Utah State either.

First, the Aggies seldom lose in the Smith Spectrum. Second, it's inconvenient to travel to Logan, and third, on a national scale, teams like Arizona, Washington and Oregon are supposed to win over a mid-major school, and if they don't, it hurts them as far as an NCAA tournament bid is concerned.

At the same time, however, Morrill has numerous stipulations when trying to schedule a team home-and-home, and for some of those reasons bigger teams shy away. He has said numerous times that he won't play a bigger school unless it schedules a home-and-home and that it is willing to play in Logan first to eliminate the possibility of a buyout in order for the team to not have to travel to Logan the following year.

Also, Morrill shies away from 2-for-1s, meaning Utah State will travel to the opponent twice for one visit to Logan.

Morrill said a Pac-10 team was ready to come to Utah State for the beginning of a home-and-home next year, but the school saw what the Aggies did to Utah, a 71-45 win earlier this year, and backed out on the deal because no contract had been signed.