I'm not too worried about an emotional letdown. This is a veteran team that has been through plenty. Actually, both teams are coming off tough OT games and USU might be more vulnerable as they lost (in a bad fashion) are much younger (well, less experienced anyway, pretty sure their stud Freshman, Collette, is the same age as Nance and Grabau).
I am concerned about the matchup. I think the Aggies pose a very interesting matchup issue for the Pokes. A couple of key items:
1. Small Ball - USU's best player, Jalen Moore, is a stretch 4 with excellent perimeter range. He will be a very tough cover for either Cooke or Nance (I expect Nance to guard him, but I am not sure). Does Shyatt toy with a small lineup with Hankerson at the 4 at times? Do we play a lot of zone?
2. Zone - The flip side to the Moore matchup issue is that the Aggies don't have anyone that can handle Nance in the post. I expect the Pokes will see a lot of zone out of the Aggies as a result. Expect them to sag in the paint and dare the Pokes to beat them from the perimeter? Can we do it?
3. Rebounding - USU is an awful rebounding team. Some of it is by strategy (like us, they don't crash the offensive glass very much), but some of it is personnel (Small Ball, as I noted earlier and Collette, while very skilled, is not a bouncy athlete). However, since we don't crash the offensive glass we kind of negate one of the primary weaknesses that USU has which typically leads to a lot of 2nd chance opportunities for their opponents.
Put all this together in a very tough college basketball environment and this poses a great challenge.
The Pokes are certainly capable of winning and have beaten better teams on the road already this year (CSU, maybe Fresno), but it will take their A game. I am looking forward to watching them rise to the challenge.
