Utah State

Since Utah State is here, here are some quotes from the UtAgs. NMSU has their open practice at 6:55 mountain time.

The UtAgs are in the tournament for the seventh time in 11 years. They are coming off a tough loss to Marquette in last year's tournament, which seemed to dominate the conversation.

"To win some games would be a blast and put utah State on the list a little bit," Tyler Newbold said.

"If we can put two halves together, I think it helps that we have so many returners from last year so we aren't going to be nervous," Pooh Williams said.

Stew Morrill is 1-6 in the tournament, but he says that is usually because the UtAgs, like NMSU is usually matched up against a much higher seed.

"It's been talked a lot about, that we haven't won a game since 2001. The good news is we keep coming back and playing," he said. "If you look at who we have played, it's a who's who of college basketball. Last year when we came so close and I remember sitting up here and being pretty disheartened by the fact that we didn't quite get over the to and get a win. You don't know that you're going to be back, so it's great to be back and have another opportunity."

He said he would like see either or both WAC schools advance.

"our league gets way too many bad raps. Our league is a top 10 league in the country. It's a solid basketball league so I hope we can go out and show that. Both teams will certainly go out and try."


Here's how Pooh Williams got his name.
"When I was a baby, I was like this caramel skin color and I was really really fat and so she (his mom) used to call me her Pooh bear. And so it kind of stuck with me and a lot of guys tease me about it, but it's my name."