Utah State’s Sam Merrill and Neemias Queta returned to help the Aggies get back to the NCAA tourney. The moment has arrived.

Las Vegas • Every NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament wraps up with an emotional highlight reel known best by the title of the song it’s set to: “One Shining Moment.”

Utah State’s two best players, Sam Merrill and Neemias Queta, pushed aside NBA aspirations and returned to the Aggies this season for a shot at that moment. And with the start of the sudden-death postseason this week, they’re well aware this is their time to shine.

“We want to have the best marks we can have,” Merrill said Wednesday. “Last year was great. It didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but we want to do what we did last year and get even further.”

The mission begins Thursday when USU opens its defense of its Mountain West Conference Championship Tournament title with a quarterfinal game against New Mexico at the Thomas and Mack Center on UNLV’s campus. The Aggies most likely have to at least reach the championship game again to receive another NCAA Tournament invitation.

USU earned plenty of momentum, accolades and hype last year after it won the MWC Tournament and was seeded into the March Madness bracket for the first time in eight seasons. What it didn’t earn was a win. The Aggies, a No. 8 seed, lost to No. 9 Washington in the first round.

The loss stung, not just at the time but throughout the offseason.

“You could go down line with all the accolades accomplished that these guys earned. But at the end of day they got to the NCAA Tournament and lost,” second-year coach Craig Smith told The Salt Lake Tribune prior to the season’s start. “It would be easy for guys to walk around beating their chest, but they’re not. There’s a bitter disappointment. I don’t think they look at it that way because of how it ended but because they are true competitors and very, very driven. They expect a lot out of themselves and expect a lot out of our program. It’s been our driving force throughout the summer and preseason.”

During that summer, both Merrill, a senior guard, and Queta, a sophomore center, mulled throwing their hats into the NBA Draft. Merrill never actually submitted his name for the draft, deciding he had more business to take care of in Logan, like closing in on the school’s all-time scoring record (he needs just 14 points Thursday to move into second). Queta declared for the draft and hired an agent before deciding in May to return to the Aggies. He was succinct when asked Wednesday if he was motivated by unfinished business.

“Definitely,” said the 7-footer, who leads the MWC in blocks despite missing part of the season while recovering from a knee injury he suffered while playing for the Portugese national team over the summer. “Especially after all that we’ve been through. It wouldn’t be bad, but it would just feel a little short if we didn’t get it.”

Their aspirations may be as tall as their team — the Aggies boast the second biggest lineup in the NCAA with an average height of 6-foot-7½ — but Merrill and Queta know better than to start looking down the line to the Big Dance. If they didn’t, New Mexico gave them a good reminder when the Lobos handed USU a 66-64 loss in both teams’ regular-season finale last Saturday in The Pit, abruptly halting a seven-game streak for USU. The Aggies won’t have the luxury of bouncing back if New Mexico does the same this time.

USU ended the Lobos’ season last year in the MWC Tournament, and guard Vance Jackson said the memory of that loss drove him as he scored 26 points in a first-round victory over San Jose State on Wednesday. He said the loss left a “bitter taste” in his mouth and the mouths of his teammates.

Like the Aggies, and hundreds of other teams in the nation, they didn’t get their moment and they’re out to make the most of a second chance.

“It’s one and done now. It’s not like the NBA playoffs,” Smith said Wednesday. “You win and you keep going. You lose and no one knows what’s at stake. It’s thrilling and it’s the best sporting event in the country.”