Utah State men's basketball: Aggies cautious facing reeling Broncos

BOISE — One team is on a roll, having won eight straight games, and sits atop the conference standings.

The other is in a free fall, with whispers of the team having given up on the season, and is in danger of being left out of the conference tournament in four weeks.

Which, of course, makes Utah State coach Stew Morrill nervous.

"The thing you always worry about with players and youth is they look at first place and last place," Morrill said as he prepares his team to take on Boise State tonight at Taco Bell Arena. "Hopefully, we are not that stupid and realize that Boise State has good personnel. All you have to do is look at the second half of the game here (in Logan) with us to see that they can step up and play with us."

The Aggies started the WAC season 0-2 and had all sorts of question marks themselves.

Since that ugly road trip five weeks ago, however, there has not been a hotter team than Utah State this side of Kansas. No team in either the Mountain or Pacific time zones is riding as long a win streak as USU, and the Aggies have bolted up the RPI standings to No. 53 thanks to their winning streak — and the last six wins have each been by 10 or more points.

"They were feeling pretty bad about all the expectations and predictions. That is when I brought up it is just basketball," Morrill said, trying to settle his team down and asking them to have a little more fun on the court. "It is not an earthquake. It is not life-threatening. It is basketball. Play hard, have fun and do what you are supposed to do.

"They have bought into it, I think. It helps kids to buy in to things when you talk about it and go win some games."

If the eight-game winning streak is any evidence, the Aggies have clearly bought in to that philosophy.

Boise State, though playing with talented posts Daequon Montreal and Ike Okeye and guard La'Shard Anderson, has struggled. After a solid non-conference season in which the Broncos posted a 9-4 record, things have fallen apart.

The Broncos are shooting just 42.4 percent in WAC games, allowing opponents to shoot 48.8 percent. Their coach, Greg Graham, is rumored to be on the hot seat because of the tailspin and lackluster support in the football-crazy Treasure Valley.

Playing with nothing to lose could turn the Broncos into a dangerous team, especially if Utah State's focus is not sharp.