Jerrod Calhoun hopes his players get comfortable in their opponent’s gym on Wednesday night.
The Utah State head coach knows how important playing well at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, the home of the Mountain West Conference’s tournament, might be for his team later this year.
“I think it’s awesome. It gives you a great opportunity to [get some experience there]right?” the Aggie coach said. “That’s a neat thing for our guys, especially some of the new guys. … For them to get some run in that big arena would be good.”
But Calhoun knows that won’t be an easy task, even if the Rebels have lost their last two games heading into this meeting.
“The reality of it is they’re 8-1 at home, so I don’t really look at the last two games, losing on the road. It’s totally different,” he said. “This team is exceptionally good at home, so we’ve got to play much better defensively.”
That would start by slowing down UNLV sophomore guard Dedan Thomas, who leads his team in scoring (16.1 points) and assists (4.4) this season.
“The head of the snake is Thomas, a tremendous, tremendous player, one of the best point guards in this conference,” Calhoun said. “He’s kind of their engine, but they’ve got a bunch of other guys and they shoot it from deep more than most teams.”
USU guard Dexter Akkano believes the Rebels are better than their 9-7 record.
“They’re just kind of trying to find their footing,” he said, “but we understand they’re a very dangerous team.”
Now 16-1 on the season, Utah State moved up to No. 22 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on Monday after beating Boise State in thrilling fashion over the weekend.
A win on Wednesday would add to the Aggies’ good vibes heading into a week off and would certainly give them a positive memory when they return to Vegas for the Mountain West tourney.
Then again, if the Aggies keep playing like they have they might not need a conference tournament win to punch their ticket for March’s big dance.
How to watch
Utah State at UNLV
Tipoff: Wednesday, 9 p.m. MT
TV: CBSSN
