The 2019–20 Utah State Aggies men's basketball team represented Utah State University in the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Aggies, led by second-year head coach Craig Smith, played their home games at the Smith Spectrum in Logan, Utah as members of the Mountain West Conference. They finished the season 26–8, 12–6 in Mountain West play, to finish in a three-way tie for second place. They defeated New Mexico, Wyoming and San Diego State to become champions of the Mountain West tournament, their second consecutive Mountain West tournament championship. They earned the Mountain West's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. However, on March 12, 2020 it was announced that the NCAA tournament would be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previous season The Aggies shared the regular-season Mountain West title with Nevada, and defeated New Mexico, Fresno State and San Diego State to win the Mountain West tournament to earn the Mountain West's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for their first appearance since 2011. They lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Washington.
Offseason
Departures Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Reason for departure Tauriawn Knight 1 G 6' 1" 170 Freshman Edmond, OK Transferred Dwayne Brown Jr. 2 G/F 6' 6" 220 Senior Conyers, GA Graduated John Knight III 3 G 6' 2" 195 Sophomore Jackson, MS Transferred to SUU Crew Ainge 4 F 5' 11" 180 RS Sophomore Wellesley, MA Transferred to Babson Quinn Taylor 10 F 6' 8" 240 RS Senior Houston, TX Graduated Ke'Sean Davis 13 F 6' 7" 225 Junior Compton, CA Left team Ben Fakira 21 F 6' 10" 240 Freshman Sydney, Australia Left team
Incoming college transfers Name Number Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Previous college Carson Bischoff 1 G 6' 4" 210 Junior Ogden, UT Junior college transfer from Treasury Valley CC Alphonso Anderson 10 F 6' 6" 220 Junior Tacoma, WA Junior college transfer from North Idaho College Marco Anthony 44 F 6' 5" 225 Junior San Antonio, TX Transfer from Virginia Kuba Karwowski 52 C 7' 2" 220 Junior Warsaw, Poland Junior college transfer from North Platte CC
Recruiting
Preseason
Mountain West media poll The Mountain West Conference media poll was released on October 15, 2019. The Aggies were unanimously selected by MW media members as the preseason favorites.
Media poll 1 Utah State 2 San Diego State 3 New Mexico 4 Nevada 5 Boise State 6 Fresno State 7 UNLV 8 Air Force 9 Colorado State 10 Wyoming 11 San Jose State
Preseason All-MWC teams Sam Merrill and Neemias Queta were selected to the All-MWC Preseason Team. Merrill was additionally selected as the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year.
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=9 style=| Exhibition
!colspan=9 style=| Regular season
!colspan=9 style=| Mountain West tournament
Source:
Rankings
*AP does not release post-NCAA tournament rankings.
References