Las Vegas • As a ninth-grader, Sam Merrill joined his family at Orleans Arena eight years ago when Utah State won the Western Athletic Conference championship game and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
Merrill remembers being angry the next day when the Aggies received only a No. 12 seed, while never imagining it would take so long for USU to reach the NCAA level again. He helped make it happen Saturday in a 64-57 victory over San Diego State for the Mountain West title at the Thomas & Mack Center, a few miles east of Orleans Arena on Tropicana Avenue.