Utah State’s History With The Tenth Seed in NCAA Tournament

Shine your shoes, brush your teeth, comb your hair and break out the fancy clothes because it’s time to go dancing.

Utah State is getting ready to cut a rug in their 3rd consecutive NCAA tournament and their 25th appearance all time, starting this Thursday against #7 UCLA.

The path was full of highs and lows, smooth stretches and rough patches, but Utah State did as they’ve done for years now, and overcame expectations to claim the ultimate prize, a chance at a national title.

In Coach Jerrod Calhoun’s first year Utah State became “just the 2^nd team in NCAA history to reach three straight NCAA tournaments with three different non-interim head coaches” per the official website of the Utah State Aggies.

Despite the only constant thing in Logan being change, Cache Valley is a consistent winner evident by their 26-7 record combined with a 15-5 Mountain West showing.

However, In order to prolong their postseason play Utah State will have to improve upon their 2-4 record in Quad 1 games, channeling what made them elite in quad 2 contests with 8 wins in 11 tries.

USU’s efforts were enough to land them a 10^th seed in this year’s bracket, a spot they have found themselves in three other times in team tournament history.

The first 10^th seeded showing happened back in the 1982-83 season when Utah State was bested in the first round by Iowa, 64-59.

The Aggies 7 point halftime lead was done away by a 34-22 2^nd half advantage for Iowa.

Their next chance to pick up a win with the #10 next to their name came in their very next tournament appearance 5 seasons later in 1988.

Unfortunately for the boys in blue it yielded the same result in the win/loss column that the 82-83 team had, a first round exit, this time to Vanderbilt, in excruciatingly close fashion.

It was an 80-77 final as Vanderbilt held off a 49 point second half from Utah State.

The Aggies would then go 9 straight tournament appearances from 1988 to 2017 without being as high as a 10 seed, including five #12 seed appearances.

After an 8^th seed during the 2018-19 season and an 11^th in the 2020-21 year, Utah State would reunite in the 10^th slot 2 seasons ago where they played Missouri.

The Tigers outpaced and out-shot Utah State en route to a 76-65 win making the Aggies 0-3 all time when being a #10.

Is the 4th time the charm for Utah State?

The Aggies will face a familiar tournament foe in the UCLA Bruins as this will be the 4^th meeting in the big dance.

In the prior three games (1962,1970 and 2001) UCLA has won all three with an average margin of victory of 19.3 points.

Utah State must buck that trend in order to pick up win #8 all time in their NCAA tournament history as they are currently 7-25.

Their chance to snap the bad luck associated with the 10^th seed is set for this Thursday, 7:25 Mountain time at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.