Utah State Aggies Head Coach Jerrod Calhoun Laments Loss To UNLV Runnin' Rebels

Utah State Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun speaks about their loss to the UNLV Runnin' Rebels.

Utah State Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun calls to his team during the first half against the UCLA Bruins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Rupp Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

The UNLV Runnin' Rebels came away with a huge road win over the Utah State Aggies on Tuesday night. While the Rebels are celebrating a great victory, there is another side to this coin. Utah State is lamenting a shocking loss in which they blew a 14-point second-half lead to a heavy underdog. Following the game, Aggies head coach Jerrod Calhoun spoke about the loss to the Rebels. Rebels head coach Josh Pastner also spoke about Calhoun and the program he has built in Logan, Utah.

Utah State Aggies Head Coach Jerrod Calhoun On His Team's Loss To The UNLV Runnin' Rebels

“There’s no excuses to play the way we did,” Calhoun said. “It was a collective effort. We got outcoached, we got outplayed, and it was obviously our worst loss since I’ve been the coach here, for sure.”

Calhoun On The Aggies Recent Struggles

“You know, there’s going to be a lot of highs and lows throughout a season, and this is obviously a low for us. I don’t feel like we’ve gotten better over the last seven or eight days, and that really stinks as a coach because you put a lot of time into scouting and practice, and I’m not getting the effort from a lot of our guys.”

Calhoun On The Aggies Bench Struggles Against The Rebels

“It was one of the worst bench performances I’ve seen in a long time. We had two kids that were -13 at halftime on the scorecard. It was just a horrific, horrific effort tonight from the bench.”

UNLV Runnin' Rebels Head Coach Josh Pastner On The Aggies And Calhoun

“I knew that for us to win this game, especially coming off of their loss versus Grand Canyon, we were going to have to be warriors today. It’s a great home-court advantage that they have. I’ve been in some great leagues and at some high-level places. I’ve been in the ACC, I was in the old Pac-10 — this is as good of a home court as there is.

Credit to Utah State, to coach Calhoun and their program for that atmosphere. For us to come into this place and win a game like that, it was really hard to do, but we toughed it out. It wasn’t pretty, but we found ways to make plays.”

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