There is a place up north, it's called the Aggielands.
When you go there to play, you will have to beat Stew's team, on the floor plus 10,000 slightly crazies in the stands.

The Aggies have always been a favorite to me.
So be careful what you say, slip-up and you had better be able to runaway at a speed faster than that of an SST.

They always play as a team, and when in school they can pass a history test.
I love being an Aggie. Win or loose you're still the very best.

I love to be dressed in the Aggie's dark blue + a conehead + a cape + a big finger and a little bit of white.
To that school down south, copying our colors just wasn't right!!!!!!

And good 'ol Stew knows how to win the important game.
The "Stew Morrill Western Athletic Conference" should be the WAC's new name.

So stand up, sing out the Aggie theme song loud and clear,
Then into the opponents will be embedded the Aggie fear.

And to the Aggies that have gone before and are now lounging on a cloud in the sky,
Go to St. Peter with an Aggie shirt, you know he has always wanted to wear the Aggie 'A' he's just been a little shy.

Now that you've seen how good they are, you can just let all your doubts out the window go,
'Cause I'm telling you in the final NCAA game of this season the Aggies win the championship...I know! I know! I know!

So show your Aggie spirit and give your best,
Be quiet and timid like me, or just crazy like Al and all the rest.

Go Aggies! Win win win!
Let's let the celebrations in the cold north land begin.

Wear your "A" with all your pride,
And if you see an Aggie walking Reno, please give that conehead a ride.

And to channels 2, 4 and 5, the USU Aggies really are here,
You can come to Reno, there's nothing to fear.

The Aggies are sweet and the lovely fans, they will treat you with grace,
But forget about us or put us after a commercial, your signal may just disappear without a trace.

Go Aggies! Fight Aggies! Win Aggies!

Captain Aggie!
Andy K. Pederson

Utah State, who has now won 13 straight games including 12 straight in the Western Athletic Conference, improves to 23-6 on the season and 12-2 in league play with the win. Hawai'i, who lost its ninth straight game, falls to 9-18 overall and 2-11 in league play with the loss.

For Utah State, it is the 11th straight year that it has won at least 23 games joining Kansas and Gonzaga as the only teams in the nation to accomplish that feat.

Hiram Thompson led Hawai'i with 13 points, while Brandon Adams and Adhar Mayen each had 12 points.

Hawai'i made four of its first five shots of the second-half to get within 27-21, but USU answered with a 7-1 run to increase its lead to 12 at 39-27 with 13:16 to play following a three-pointer from Williams. The Warriors cut the lead to seven at 39-32 with 11:42 to play but a Quayle three-pointer gave the visitors a double-digit lead at 44-32. USU later led 51-38 following a Brady Jardine jumper and neither team scored for the next 2:59 before Flemings scored on a dunk to break the drought. On the next possession, USU took its largest lead of the game on a three-pointer from junior guard Brian Green to make the score 54-40 with 3:42 to play and USU held on from there for the win.

Utah State finished the game by shooting 43.8 percent from the field (21-48), 33.3 percent from three-point range (6-18) and 68.8 percent at the free throw line (11-16). Hawai'i shot 40.9 percent overall (18-44), including 50.0 percent from behind the arc (6-12) and 50.0 percent at the charity stripe (8-16). UH also out-rebounded USU, 30-28.

Utah State scored the first three points of the game on a trey from junior guard Tyler Newbold and led 5-3 following a put-back dunk from junior forward Tai Wesley before Hawai'i went on a 10-4 run over the next 4:04 to take its largest lead of the game at 13-9. Hawai'i later led 17-15 following a free throw from Roderick Flemings at the 6:40 mark, but Utah State held the Rainbow Warriors scoreless from that point on as the Aggies closed the half on a 10-0 run to take a 25-17 lead into the locker room

Quayle had seven first-half points to go along with five rebounds to lead Utah State, while Wesley had five points and three assists. USU shot 40.0 percent (8-20) in the first half, including 77.8 percent at the free throw line (7-9), but was just 2-of-7 (.286) from three-point range. Hawai'i shot just 28.0 percent (7-25) during the first 20 minutes, including 33.3 percent from three (2-6) and 20.0 percent at the free throw line (1-5).

Utah State will return home and host Fresno State on Monday, Mar. 1 at 7 p.m. in its first of two home games to conclude regular season play. (Tonight) Watch it on BigBlueChat.com

Utah State also received votes in both national polls this week and is ranked 29th in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll with 18 votes, and tied for 35th along with Oklahoma State in the Associated Press poll with four votes.

On the season, Utah State is shooting 42.7 percent from three-point range, which ranks first nationally. USU also ranks second in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.58), fifth in free throw shooting (.770), seventh in fewest turnovers committed per game (10.5), 11th in assists per game (16.6) and 11th in overall shooting (.487). Overall, USU is one of just two teams in the nation to rank among the top 11 nationally in all three shooting categories along with Brigham Young.

Overall this year, Utah State ranks among the top 22 nationally in 10 different statistical categories as it also ranks 12th in the nation in scoring margin (+13.0), 20th in scoring defense (60.5), 21st in rebounding margin (+6.1) and 22nd in winning percentage (.786).

Individually, junior forward Tai Wesley ranks 19th in the nation in field goal shooting at 56.2 percent and senior guard Jared Quayle ranks 19th with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.57-to-1.00.

Utah State (22-6, 11-2) has won 12 straight games and 16 of its last 18 overall, and is tied with Kansas for the third-longest active winning streak in the country behind Butler and Murray State who have both won 17 straight games.

Utah State will play just one game this week at Hawai'i (9-17, 2-10) on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 10 p.m. (MT) in its final road game of the regular season. USU will then host Fresno State (13-15, 6-7) on Monday, Mar. 1 and New Mexico State (17-9, 9-3) on Saturday, Mar. 6 before playing in the WAC Tournament the following weekend in Reno, Nev.

Both home games next week will begin at 7 p.m. (MT), with its regular season finale against NMSU televised live on CW30.

"I was really pleased with our team," head coach Stew Morrill said. "That was a good win, that's a good basketball team that we played, and we had to play well in lots of phases of the game to win."

Two of the phases that coach Morrill emphasized that the Aggies had success in were defense and passing. USU held the Shockers to a 40% mark from the field, including a meager 29% in the first half. Wichita State's leading scorer was JT Durley with 12 points, which he earned by going 4-11 from the field. Utah State forced eight Shocker turnovers, and made the visitors take contested jump shots all night long. The Aggies also displayed great ball movement throughout the game, as they recorded assists on 22 of their 26 field goals. Jared Quayle lead USU with seven assists. The senior point guard out of Perry capped off an impressive week, as he did not turn the ball over once in either of the Aggies' last two games.

"That is phenomonal," Morrill said when informed of this statistic. "He just did a great job running our offense, and I am awfully pleased with him."

"I thought we were real good defensively the first half," said Morrill. "We had a good assist to turnover ratio... I was real pleased that our guys just did the things that we needed to do to have a chance to win."

Offensively, Utah State got the majority of their points from the big men. Tai Wesley, Nate Bendall, and Brady Jardine all reached double figures in scoring, with 13, 12, and 11 points respectively. Jardine, who is trying to adjust to a mask that he is required to wear due to his broken cheekbone, was able to turn around from his subpar performance on Wednesday with a huge showing against Wichita State. The sophomore out of Twin Falls, Idaho also had seven rebounds to go, and played well defensively. Wesley started off the game extremely hot, notching nine points in the first five minutes of the game. He also had six rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal. Wesley credited his good game to the type of defense that the Shockers used against him.

"It seemed like they weren't double teaming me, their guards weren't helping down, so I just had one guy on my back. I'm real comfortable when my back is to the basket and there is just one guy guarding me," Wesley said.

The Spectrum crowd was in full effect in front of a national audience, despite the late tip-off time of 10 PM. It was USU's fifth sellout of the season, with 10,270 in attendance. The fans recieved praise from both the Aggie players and Coach Morrill after the game.

USU will now turn their attention towards the Hawaii Warriors, whom the Aggies will visit next Thursday. Gametime will be at 10PM Logan time, as the Aggies will look to continue their 12 game winning streak.

Now, as Utah State heads into Saturday's BracketBusters game against visiting Wichita State, the Aggies are starting to think their 11-game winning streak, and slow crawl up the RPI rankings, could sneak them back into the at-large conversation for the NCAA Tournament.

While four nonconference losses and two road defeats to open Western Athletic Conference play seemed to burst that bubble by early January, Utah State's 11-game streak, coupled with an impressive double-digit win over BYU in December, could get the tourney talk brewing again.

The last team Utah State lost to was Louisiana Tech on Jan. 4 in Ruston, La. That 82-60 defeat served as a low point for the Aggies.

Utah State coach Stew Morrill called the video of that loss a "horror film," but he also said his team learned a lot from that WAC-opening road trip that also featured a loss to the league's second-place team, New Mexico State.

Should Utah State beat Wichita State on Saturday and close out the WAC's regular season with wins at Hawaii and vs. Fresno State and New Mexico State (seemingly their biggest remaining league challenge), the Aggies would be entering the WAC tournament with a solid RPI, a 15-game winning streak and a 25-6 overall record.

The difference in the game proved to be Pooh Williams. The junior guard had a monstrous second half, scoring all 15 of his points in the final 20 minutes. The lefty sparked the Aggies late in the game, when he scored 11 straight points in the final three minutes to pull the Aggies ahead. Williams' points were even more impressive considering that he was given the task of guarding all-WAC player Kyle Gibson for most of the night. Williams did a great job on Gibson, holding him to 14 points on 4-18 shooting.

Aside from Pooh's outstanding game, USU received contributions from the other starters also. Tai Wesley, Jared Quayle, and Nate Bendall all reached double figures in scoring, notching 16, 13, and 11 points respectively. Quayle was able to record his second double-double of the season by pulling down a game high 10 rebounds. Tyler Newbold also had a solid game, with five points, four assists, and a rebound. Newbold helped to clinch the win with a key steal and a pair of free throws in the final thirty seconds.

Louisiana Tech was able to keep themselves in the game with their free throw shooting and timely three point shots. The Bulldogs finished the game 13-15 from the charity stripe, and 6-22 from three point territory. Although the percentage from downtown was not that impressive, it seemed as if all of the visitor's threes came at crucial points in the game, just as it seemed the Aggies were about to patch together a run.

USU will now have two days of preparation for Wichita State, whom the Aggies will play on Saturday at 10 PM. The Shockers are paying Logan a visit as part of ESPN's BracketBuster deal, which will give the Ags a good match up with a quality team from out of conference.

Bendall had a dunk, a putback and a free throw in the final 90 seconds to seal the win.

The Aggies Basketball team are on a roll and look unstoppable, here is a YouTube video. *Notice* the distraction. *hint he's cupid..

www.youtube.com/Watch?v=apP4X1HC5JM&feature=related

Every week I'm going to post different polls. So come every other day to vote. I will try to have at least 2 different polls a week.

This weeks polls are Who Do You Think Is Going to Win the battle between Utah State and Wichita State. Obvious pick *wink *wink you know who to pick. And Which NBA All-Star event was the best?. *The Polls will be below the Tweets Module on the left.*

Thanks to law school admissions, three advanced creative writing contests, and two other jobs, I have become overly stressed and never seem to find time to blog about anything here. Because of this, I have handed my site off to Ian Mangum, who you can see already posted an article just before this one.

Good luck Ian, and go Aggies