NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: How to Watch and Game Thread - #7 Seed UCLA Bruins vs. #10 Seed Utah State Aggies
The Bruins open play in the NCAA Tournament with a game against the Aggies.
Are you ready for a UCLA basketball feast? Sure, there’s a full day of games today and tomorrow in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, but the next four days should give us four Bruin basketball games to watch and follow along with. That’s because both the UCLA men’s and women’s basketball teams are playing in their respective NCAA Tournaments.
While the focus is usually on the men, the fact that the women have earned the #1 seed in the Women’s Tournament may shift things over to them this year, especially since they are expected to go deeper into their tournament than the men.
It all gets started tonight when the men’s team takes on the Utah State Aggies in a game in Lexington, Kentucky that should start about 6:25 pm PT tonight, depending on when the Tennessee-Wofford game ends.
Utah State finished third in the Mountain West this season behind New Mexico and Colorado State. The Aggies finished ahead of Boise State, San Diego State, UNLV and Nevada, among others. (As an aside, the Wolfpack, who are still coached by former UCLA head coach Steve Alford, finished 17-16 overall and just 8-12 in Mountain West conference play.)
Utah State began the season by winning their first eleven games of the year. They didn’t lose until their penultimate non-conference game against UC San Diego.
The Aggies and the Bruins had two common opponents this year—New Mexico and Iowa. The Lobos won both games they played against Utah State as well as the one they played against UCLA while Iowa lost each of the games they played against these two teams.
The last time the Bruins lost to the Aggies was the 1935-36 season when Caddy Works, UCLA’s second men’s basketball coach, led the Bruins. Utah State took two of the three games the teams played that year and they did not play again until March 16, 1962. Including that game, the Bruins bring a five-game winning streak against the Aggies into tonight’s game.
Aggies’ head coach Jerrod Calhoun is Utah State’s third coach in three seasons and their sixth in the last ten years. No head coach has stayed more than three seasons at the school since Stew Morrill who coached at the school from 1998-99 through 2014-15. Additionally, no coach has stayed more than three seasons since the school joined the Mountain West Conference in 2013.
Prior to making the move to Logan, Calhoun spent seven seasons at Youngstown State where he went an unimpressive 118-106. Before coaching the Penguins, his first head coaching job was at Division II Fairmont State. His tenure with the Fighting Falcons was better than Youngstown. He led the team to the Divison II Tournament in four of his five seasons including being the national runner-up in 2016-17.
Interestingly, Calhoun did not bring any of his Youngstown State players with him to Utah State.
Utah State Aggies Starting Five
Even in a college basketball environment where the unconventional has become conventional, Calhoun will start an even more unconventionial lineup. Look for the Aggies to start four guards and a forward.
The Aggies are led by fifth year guard Ian Martinez. The Costa Rica native played his high school ball in Orange County for JSerra Catholic in San Juan Capistrano. He’s averaging 16.8 ppg for the Aggies and he’s one of the team’s biggest threats from behind the arc. While he’s only made 37.9% of his three-point attempts, the fact that he’s taken almost twice as many as any other player on the team means he’s made 50% more three-pointers than anyone else.
Even though sophomore guard Mason Falslev is the only second on the team in scoring with an average of 14.9 ppg, he may be Utah State’s biggest threat on the court. That’s because he leads the Aggies in a lot of very different categories. Not only is he their leader in assists, he also is the leading rebounder as well as the team leader in steals and field goals made. So, he’s both a threat on offense and defense.
No other Aggie averages more than 8.3 ppg. The other two guards are Oregon State transfer Dexter Akanno and Queens University transfer Deyton Albury. While Akanno only averages 8.3 ppg, he is another three-point threat for Utah State. His 43.9% three-point percentage is highest on the team among guys who have taken more than 25 three-point attempts. Meanwhile, Albury’s 55.8% shooting percentage is the highest among the starters even though he only averages 7.7 ppg.
The final starter for Calhoun is senior forward Aubin Gateretse. The Stetson transfer averages 6.5 ppg and he is second on the team in rebounds with an average of 4.3 rpg.
Against Colorado State in the Mountain West Tournament, Calhoun played six guys off the bench, probably because Albury, Gateretse and reserve Karson Templin all had four fouls. In fact, four reserves got more minutes against the Rams than Gateretse. That said, look for Templin and freshman Jordy Barnes to get the most minutes off the bench.
Analysis
Utah State had trouble scoring against Colorado State when a bunch of their guys found themselves in foul trouble. Look for UCLA to be aggressive in an attempt to force the same thing tonight.
The Bruins need to play tough defense all game long. If UCLA can force the Aggies to play at a slower pace, it will likely spell trouble for a team which has scored 80 or more 15 times this season. Not coincidentally, Utah State has won all 15 of those games.
So, if the Aggies turn the game into a track meet, it could result into a very early exit for Mick Cronin’s squad.
This is your UCLA men’s basketball vs. Utah State Aggies NCAA Tournament First Round game thread. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream today’s game.
NCAA Men’s Tournament First Round
Teams: #7 Seed UCLA Bruins (22-10) vs. #10 Seed Utah State Aggies (26-7)
Series Record: UCLA leads, 8-5
When: Approx. 6:25 pm PT, Thursday, March 20, 2025 (30 minutes after end of Tennessee vs. Wofford)
Where: Rupp Arena, Lexington, KY
TV: TNT with Brian Anderson, Jim Jackson and Allie LaForce
Live Stream: MarchMadness.com, the March Madness app and the Max app
Radio/Audio
Local Radio: AM 570 with Josh Lewin and Tracy Murray
Satellite Radio: SiriusXM Ch. 208
Live Stats: UCLA StatBroadcast
Tournament Notes:
UCLA
Go Bruins!!!
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Story of this game is that UCLA has P5 talent and was actually motivated. Utah State was a fun story but also not a great defensive team and has the kind of offensive profile that struggles in March.
A Bilodeau Bomb!