USU basketball: BracketBuster games a boon for Ags

LOGAN — There was a time when Stew Morrill wasn't particularly a fan of ESPN's BracketBuster creation.

Nowadays, however, Morrill is more than happy to have his Utah State team participating in the made-for-TV basketball matchups.

It is, he says, the only way he's able to get a team from the West Coast Conference to make a visit to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

"We've been trying with St. Mary's (and West Coast Conference teams) for years," Morrill said of this weekend's arranged marriage between the Aggies and Gaels. "We can't convince any of those guys to play us."

It's a story Morrill has repeated often — he's willing to play just about anyone in the country as long as they are willing to schedule Utah State in a home-and-home arrangement.

It's also one of the biggest, perhaps only, criticisms people have with the Aggies — Morrill's hard-line scheduling philosophy leaves USU's annual slate of opponents looking a little thin on name-brand opponents and heavy on the likes of Howard, Houston Baptist and Montana State-Northern.

Tonight, the Aggies face 6-19 Cal State-Bakersfield — RPI of No. 321 according to CBSSports.com — in another game USU's critics will point to as a reason the team might not deserve a ranking or an at-large NCAA Tournament bid if it does not win the WAC tourney.

"Home-and-homes are getting to be hard to come by," Morrill said.

If not for gentlemanly agreements with most of the in-state schools, Utah State might struggle to see quality opponents — the reputation of USU's Dee Glen Smith Spectrum has scared away more than a few schools not wanting to risk a road loss to a "mid-major" team like the Aggies.

That's one reason Morrill has changed his mind about the BracketBuster setup his team will be participating in. With ESPN in charge of the matchups, USU now has a home-and-home with a top-notch team that was ranked just a few weeks ago.

Without ESPN's help, Morrill says, there is little chance St. Mary's would make the trip to Logan for a game next year.