WBB Preview: Aggies Welcome League-Leading UNLV To Logan

For years, the Mountain West has been bookended by these two teams: UNLV uncontested at the top, and Utah State lagging behind at the bottom.

This is starting to change. UNLV’s undisputed reign is beginning to see some resistance, even if it’s still futile for now, and Utah State – in making an off-season coaching change and bringing in Wes Brooks – has made it clear that the status quo of perpetual last place is no longer in the plans.

The Rebels lost a conference game recently, a rarity in their current form under head coach Lindy La Rocque. They're still in first place, of course, but with Colorado State and Wyoming each just two games behind. The 59-58 loss at San Diego State on Jan. 25 was the first conference loss since last season for the Rebels, when they fell to New Mexico on Jan. 20, 2024. Those stand as UNLV's only league losses in the last three seasons, including the Mountain West tournament.

This matchup has not been friendly, and it has not been close – the Aggies are on a 14-game losing streak against UNLV. Last season, they lost to the Rebels twice, giving up more than 100 points each time. First, they lost 107-68 in Las Vegas, then 104-44 at home. They played once the year prior and lost 86-32. The last time the Aggies held the Rebels to fewer than 70 points was exactly five years before this season’s matchup, on Feb. 5, 2020, when the Aggies lost 69-45. In that time, Utah State hasn't scored 70 once, and the last time it did was on Jan. 24, 2015, in an 85-72 win.

The Rebels are so far above the Aggies that any year-over-year changes are negligible, but UNLV is marginally worse now than it was when the teams met last year according to Her Hoops Stats. Last year, the Rebels had an HHS ranking of 14th at the time of their first meeting and 25th at the time of their second. Now, they have an HHS ranking of 38th. Under La Rocque, they are 72-10 in Mountain West contests – and this year alone, UNLV beat Fresno State by 25 (twice, actually), San Jose State by 20 and Air Force by 33. They even dispatched a good New Mexico squad by 15.

Maybe it's the Rebels who are out of place. But, it's hard to fault a team for overperforming the rest of the conference year after year. The impetus is on Utah State to rise to UNLV’s level, not the other way around, and after falling by 60 in their last meeting, the Aggies have their work cut out for them.

It wouldn’t be especially fair to expect the Aggies to win against UNLV in year one of a rebuild, given that almost no one in this conference wins against UNLV. What is fair to expect, though, is for Utah State to play its own game of basketball and to make UNLV respect it. The Aggies did it against Boise State and Colorado State, forcing both teams to play a full 40 minutes.

Players To Know

Amarachi Kimpson: Kimpson is only in year two of her career, and is already a force on the college basketball scene. She has quickly become a titan in the Mountain West as a perfect fit in La Rocque’s program.

“(Kimpson) has been committed to our program for a long time,” La Rocque says of her star guard. “She’s very accomplished… She's a basketball junkie and a three-level scorer: She can shoot a three, pull up anywhere on the court, and has an array of ways to drive to the basket.”

She has already been collecting hardware in her short career in Las Vegas, too. The Rebels dominated the conference and were crowned both regular season and tournament champions in 2023-24, and as a freshman, Kimpson played an outsized role in those accomplishments. After averaging 8.9 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and a steal on the year, she was named the Mountain West Freshman and Sixth Player of the Year, and became the first Rebel to earn both awards in the same season. She was also named an All-Mountain West honorable mention, and was selected to the Mountain West All-Freshman Team.

In her work for the Mountain West title run last year, she opened up tournament play with a 16-point performance against Fresno State and followed it up with 18 points against Colorado State. Across the tournament, she averaged 14 points, three rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game, earning her a Mountain West championship all-tournament nod.

For someone with a shelf already full of personal accolades, she shares the ball well, and is the second leader in assists behind her teammate and distributor extraordinaire Kiara Jackson. With Kimpson, the numbers speak for themselves. She's averaging 13.9 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game, while shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from deep. She’s a scoring machine who can do just about everything else as well.

Kiara Jackson: Last year, Jackson went from the Mountain West Sixth Player of the Year to a full-time starter, earning All-Mountain West Team honors. She didn't stop there.

The standout guard is having another terrific year, establishing herself as the conference’s assist leader, chipping in 5.2 APG. And, she’s tricky to guard because of everything she can do with the ball in her hands: She can dribble, she can pass, and like Kimpson, she can score at all three levels. 

More importantly, Jackson is a winner. She was huge for the Rebels down the stretch last year, helping Young to close out the season strong, and was instrumental in the team’s third consecutive conference title run. She had double digits in the final two regular season games and in each of UNLV’s five postseason games, including the NCAA tournament loss to Creighton.

The Aggies can’t afford to deploy too many defenders to stop her from scoring if it means leaving any of her capable teammates open, because she will find them. She’s playing about as complete a game as anyone right now, coming off her second double-double of the season in a win over Nevada to earn the team’s ninth conference victory. She was only 4 of 14 from the field, but managed to fill up the stat sheet with 12 points, seven rebounds, 11 assists and a steal.

She struggled to score in her first game against Utah State last year with four points and one rebound, though she dished out nine assists, and made up for the lackluster scoring when she met the Aggies again later, dropping 11 points, three rebounds, five assists and a steal. This year she's averaging 12.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

Alyssa Brown: Brown is UNLV's interior security agent. She blocks a shot per game, adds 1.5 steals, and easily leads the team with 7.7 rebounds a night.

Brown doesn’t pose the same scoring threat as other Mountain West post patrollers, but she’s a major obstacle on defense. She makes it very difficult for offenses to operate with her stifling interior presence, and forces gameplan and in-game adjustments. She helps contain opposing offenses by cutting off access to the rim, taking space out of the paint and grabbing boards.

She did have a big scoring performance in her last outing with 12 points against Nevada, not far off from her season high of 16 that she recorded against Air Force. She also had eight boards against the Wolf Pack. On the year, she is averaging 7.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.5 steals and a block per game, leading the team in rebounds, steals and blocks.