Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun explains decision to run up score on Penny Hardaway-led Memphis

‘The deck is stacked totally against mid-majors now,’ Calhoun said

Utah State Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun. | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

Mountain West-leading Utah State took a break from conference play on Saturday and dismantled Memphis in a non-conference men’s basketball game at Smith Spectrum, 99-75. 

To the dismay of Memphis (12-13) head coach Penny Hardaway, the Aggies (22-3, 12-2) didn’t coast to the finish line. Utah State closed the game on a 13-2 run that included an MJ Collins Jr. transition windmill dunk in the final seconds. 

Hardaway was visibly upset in the postgame handshake line.

“You can’t keep scoring the ball,” Hardaway said in his postgame radio interview. “You gotta have more class than that. You’ve just gotta have some type of class, seriously.”

Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun gave a vigorous defense of the Aggies’ late-game onslaught.

“Unfortunately—the way the rules are written with the analytics—the last two baskets, we would not have scored if this was a normal circumstance,” Calhoun said. Despite a sterling overall record, the Aggies were given a No. 7 seed in the last NCAA Tournament projection by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. 

“The deck is stacked totally against mid-majors now. You’ve got teams that have $10 and $20 million rosters; we don’t have that. We don’t have the ability to play a bunch of Quad 1 and Quad 2 games; we can’t get them. So we’re measured … we almost have to be perfect, let’s call it like it is. The Power Fours can lose 12, 13 games, we can lose five, right? So every possession is measured, and we’ve got to score the ball there, unfortunately. We play by the rules. Those are the rules that KenPom and Bart Torvik and the NCAA selection committee want us to play by. I would never have done that to coach Hardaway, but (that’s the system). 

“Their assistant is a very good friend of mine, Mike Davis. I coached against him for years. He was at Indiana, a national runner-up coach. I’ve got a ton of respect for Mike. He said ‘Jerrod, I would run it up, too. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. You’re scraping and clawing.’ In three weeks, when we go to Selection Sunday, we’re not going to look back on possessions and say we could’ve won some of those. So everything is on the line.”

Collins Jr. finished with 24 points while Mason Falslev and Karson Templin added 20 points apiece. 

On Friday night, UNLV (13-12, 8-6) erased a 23-point first-half deficit on the road and stunned Boise State (15-10, 7-7) in overtime, 86-83. 

It was the biggest comeback in MWC play this season. 

Boise State, which travels to Utah State on Wednesday, had won six of its last seven games entering Friday. 

Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn scored a career-high 36 points in the come-from-behind win. In January’s home overtime victory over the Broncos, Gibbs-Lawhorn netted 33 points with six assists. 

San Diego State (18-6, 12-2) secured a 71-57 victory over Nevada (17-8, 9-5) on Saturday night to move into a tie for first place in the MWC standings. The Aztecs host Utah State on Feb. 25. 

Grand Canyon (16-9, 9-5) stayed in the mix for a first-round MWC tournament bye with a 94-79 road win over San Jose State (6-19, 1-13). 

Colorado State (15-10, 6-8) evened the Border War regular-season series by taking down Wyoming (13-12, 4-10) at home, 79-68. 

Fresno State (12-13, 6-8) snapped a two-game skid with a 93-63 win over visiting Air Force (3-22, 0-14).