There were plenty of unforgettable memories for the Utah State Aggies this year.
Great Osobor’s Mountain West Player of the Year award and Darius Brown’s game-winner against New Mexico. The school’s first outright Mountain West Conference basketball title and its first NCAA Tournament win in 23 years.
On Sunday, the point guard Brown called it a “storybook ending.”
That would make the game that preceded the comment — a 106-67 thrashing at the hands of No. 1 Purdue — simply an epilogue to be forgotten.
Playing in the second round of the tournament for the first time since 2001, the Aggies started strong, led by an early push from guard Ian Martinez. But after Josh Uduje made a pair of free throws with 8:46 to play in the first half, things quickly unraveled. USU missed 12 straight field goal attempts, going scoreless for nearly six minutes of game time — a 16-0 Purdue run that flipped momentum for the rest of the afternoon.
“We kind of got a little selfish and we started going one on one,” USU coach Danny Sprinkle said. “That’s where the game kind of got out of hand there.”
(Michael Conroy | AP) Members of Utah State sit on the bench during the second half of a second-round college basketball game against Purdue in the NCAA Tournament, Sunday, March 24, 2024 in Indianapolis.
Purdue’s Zach Edey, the national player of the year, finished with 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks while only playing 27 minutes.
“Tonight we just ran into a buzz saw,” Sprinkle said. “We knew they were really good. I think there are elite teams and there are special teams. They can be special. When you have a player like Zach Edey, he’s special. There haven’t been many guys like that in college basketball history.”
The Boilermakers outrebounded the Aggies 49-26 and won the battle in the paint 44-18. They finished the game shooting 55.9% from the field.
“Congrats to Utah State. That’s a very good basketball team,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “Today was just our day. I thought some things, after we kind of got settled into he game and we were able to establish Zach at the rim, I just felt like that was too much for them.”
For the Aggies, Osobor had 14 points on 4-of-11 shooting. Brown had 12 points and Uduje finished with 13 off the bench.
(Michael Conroy | AP) Purdue's Zach Edey (15) has the ball knocked away by Utah State's Isaac Johnson (20) during the first half of a second-round college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament, Sunday, March 24, 2024 in Indianapolis.
Martinez’s fast start ended after his 11th point, but the guard who had played at Utah and Maryland before arriving in Cache Valley this season spent his postgame reflecting on the highlights of the year.
“I’ve been in a lot of different places,” Martinez said. “This coaching staff, the players they made it really especial for me. They took me in. They were there for me the whole time. They believed in me. I never had people who actually believed in me. It meant a lot.”
The Aggies finished the season with a record of 28-7 — tied for the third most wins in program history — despite not returning a single point from last year’s roster.
Sprinkle credited his point guard Brown, who followed him to USU from Montana State, for the Aggies’ improbable season.
“When you have a leader like Darius, who put guys on his shoulders and showed them the way … he deserves more credit than anybody,” the coach said. “He’s a legend now in Utah State basketball for the way he played this year.”
Brown also spent his time on the podium reflecting more his journey than the final box score.
“Everything feels like a storybook ending,” the point guard said. “To be able to do great things and win an outright title and win a tournament game. … it just seems to me and my college career like a storybook ending. Obviously, we’d like to keep going as long as we can but when you run into a team like Purdue and they’ve got a guy like Zach Edey and the guys around him are making shots, there’s not much you can do.”
