{"id":892291,"date":"2026-03-18T02:11:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/double-champion-utah-state-could-be-mountain-wests-lone-ncaa-tournament-representative\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T02:11:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:11:56","slug":"double-champion-utah-state-could-be-mountain-wests-lone-ncaa-tournament-representative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/double-champion-utah-state-could-be-mountain-wests-lone-ncaa-tournament-representative\/","title":{"rendered":"Double champion Utah State could be Mountain West’s lone NCAA Tournament representative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Basketball <\/p>\n

\n

The Utah State men\u2019s basketball team wrapped up its first double Mountain West championship since 2019 with a 73-62 victory over San Diego State <\/a>in Saturday\u2019s MWC Tournament title game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Aggies (28-6), who also won the outright MWC regular-season title, are projected to be a No. 8 seed for the NCAA Tournament in the 2026 Bracket Matrix composite averages. ESPN\u2019s Joe Lunardi also has Utah State as a No. 8 seed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI hear all these coaches talking about their teams,\u201d Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. \u201cWe just won the regular season and the tournament. We\u2019ve got 28 wins with great metrics on both sides. Now we\u2019ll see if we get rewarded. I\u2019ll be anxious to see what kind of seed, what kind of matchup, but our guys will be ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cMomentum is a powerful thing, and we\u2019ve got great momentum right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

After struggling on defense to close the regular season, Utah State surrendered an average of 62.7 points over three games at the MWC Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last three days, we just guarded our tail off,\u201d Calhoun said. \u201cI\u2019m really proud of the guys. To win the regular season (outright) and a (MWC) tournament title, we just made Utah State history. It\u2019s never been done, so I\u2019m just really, really proud of our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utah State shared the MWC regular-season crown in 2019 and went on to capture the tournament title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Aggies are set to make their fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, which is also a program record.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The MWC could be a one-bid league for the first time in nearly a decade as San Diego State (22-11) and New Mexico (23-10) are both among the first four out in Bracket Matrix and Lunardi\u2019s projection. The MWC was awarded four NCAA Tournament bids last season and hasn\u2019t received fewer than two bids since 2017.<\/p>\n

The NCAA Tournament selection show broadcast will air on CBS at 4 p.m. Mountain time on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are the results for the 2026 MWC Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wednesday, March 11<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First round<\/strong><\/h3>\n

No. 8 UNLV 73, No. 9 Wyoming 70<\/p>\n

No. 5 Nevada 80, No. 12 Air Force 45<\/p>\n

No. 7 Colorado State 67, No. 10 Fresno State 63<\/p>\n

No. 11 San Jose State 84, No. 6 Boise State 74<\/p>\n

Thursday, March 12<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Quarterfinals\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

No. 1 Utah State 80, No. 8 UNLV 60<\/p>\n

No. 5 Nevada 84, No. 4 Grand Canyon 80<\/p>\n

No. 2 San Diego State 71, No. 7 Colorado State 62<\/p>\n

No. 3 New Mexico 93, No. 11 San Jose State 77<\/p>\n

Friday, March 13<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Semifinals<\/strong><\/h3>\n

No. 1 Utah State 79, No. 5 Nevada 66<\/p>\n

No. 2 San Diego State 64, No. 3 New Mexico 62<\/p>\n

Saturday, March 14<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Championship game<\/strong><\/h3>\n

No. 1 Utah State 73, No. 2 San Diego State 62<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a> Bob Lundeberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Basketball The Utah State men\u2019s basketball team wrapped up its first double Mountain West championship since 2019 with a 73-62 victory over San Diego State in Saturday\u2019s MWC Tournament title game.\u00a0 The Aggies (28-6), who also won the outright MWC regular-season title, are projected to be a No. 8 seed for the NCAA Tournament in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":892292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124942,3681,1884,1212],"tags":[16302],"class_list":{"0":"post-892291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"category-basketball","9":"category-champion","10":"category-double","11":"tag-nba"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}