LOGAN — Within a week both the men’s and women’s basketball teams for Utah State released their non-conference schedules, with the men’s team also releasing a “non-finalized” version of its conference games.
Here’s the full schedule released by USU Athletics Thursday morning.
| Date | Opponent | Location | 2022-23 NET |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 3 | MONTANA STATE-BILLINGS (Exhibition) | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | N/A |
| Nov. 6 | SOUTH DAKOTA MINES | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | N/A |
| Nov. 11 | @ Bradley | Carver Arena (Peoria, IL) | 78 |
| Nov. 14 | SOUTHERN UTAH | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 113 |
| Nov. 19 | Marshall | John Gray Gym (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) | 83 |
| Nov. 20 | To Be Determined | John Gray Gym (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) | — |
| Nov. 21 | To Be Determined | John Gray Gym (Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands) | — |
| Nov. 28 | at Saint Louis | Chaifetz Arena (St. Louis, MO) | 97 |
| Dec. 2 | UC IRVINE | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 102 |
| Dec. 6 | SAN DIEGO | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 234 |
| Dec. 13 | @ Santa Clara | Leavey Center (Santa Clara, CA) | 87 |
| Dec. 16 | San Francisco | Delta Center (Salt Lake City, UT) | 114 |
| Dec. 22 | EAST TENNESSEE STATE | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | N/A |
| Jan. 2 | @ Air Force | Cadet Field House (USAF Academy, CO) | 152 |
| Jan. 6 | COLORADO STATE | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 115 |
| Jan. 9 | WYOMING | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 180 |
| Jan. 13 | @ Nevada-Las Vegas | Thomas & Mack Center (Las Vegas, NV) | 94 |
| Jan. 16 | @ New Mexico | The Pit (Albuquerque, NM) | 64 |
| Jan. 20 | FRESNO STATE | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 148 |
| Jan. 27 | @ Boise State | ExtraMile Arena (Boise, ID) | 34 |
| Jan. 30 | SAN JOSE STATE | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 99 |
| Feb. 3 | @ San Diego State | Viejas Arena (San Diego, CA) | 15 |
| Feb. 6 | NEVADA | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 48 |
| Feb. 10 | BOISE STATE | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 34 |
| Feb. 13 | @ Wyoming | Arena-Auditorium (Laramie, WY) | 180 |
| Feb. 17 | @ Colorado State | Moby Arena (Fort Collins, CO) | 115 |
| Feb. 20 | SAN DIEGO STATE | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 15 |
| Feb. 27 | @ Fresno State | Save Mart Center (Fresno, CA) | 148 |
| March 2 | AIR FORCE | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 152 |
| March 5 | @ San Jose State | Provident Credit Union Event Center (San Jose, CA) | 99 |
| March 9 | NEW MEXICO | Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, UT) | 64 |
Utah State’s season begins on Nov. 3 with an exhibition against Montana State-Billings and officially starts with a regular season game against South Dakota Mines which will be both season and home opener. The first road test of the game is a road game at Bradley, the return trip of a home-and-home series between the schools. Utah State’s first home game against a Division I opponent will come when in-state foe Southern Utah travels to Logan.
In the middle of Utah State’s non-conference schedule it will travel to the Cayman Islands for the Cayman Islands Classic. The Aggies will play three games there though only the first opponent is known — Marshall. The two remaining foes will be determined by results of the games.
Conference play begins after the new year as USU opens at Air Force, the conference home opener coming shortly after when the Aggies host Colorado State. As is the custom of Mountain West scheduling, Utah State will have a home-and-home against all but two conference opponents, one of those two the Aggies will only play on the road and the other only at home. UNLV will be the team USU only plays on the road, Nevada the team it only plays at home.
With strength of schedule such a key aspect of getting into the NCAA Tournament, schedule-making is a balancing act for programs like Utah State than need to find ways to get home games while also finding quality non-conference opponents.
Utah State didn’t quite pull that off this season, with no team team on its home slate having a top-100 NET ranking last year with two home opponents being non-D1 teams (generally USU has one, occasionally two non-major teams on its regular season schedule). Last year the Aggies were able to play four home games against top-100 NET teams (UVU, Bradley, Santa Clara, Oral Roberts). The Aggies play two of those teams, but both are road games.
A clear similarity with last year’s schedule is that Utah State’s toughest games will likely be conference games. Based on last year’s NET, the six toughest matchups for USU are all Mountain West teams with 10 of the top 14 matchups being conference games. That tracks to last year as all six of Utah State’s Quad 1 games were conference or conference tournament games and 13 of the combined 17 Quad 1/Quad 2 games were Mountain West matchups.