Tucson, Ariz. • The NCAA failures of last year and the year before are in the past.

The mental hurdle has been climbed, and Utah State's fully ready to face Kansas State on Thursday night with clear heads.

That was the sentiment in USU's locker room on Wednesday afternoon. There was the admission that the Aggies had sometimes beaten themselves in the past when they matched up against Marquette and Texas A&M.

No. 12 Utah State contends that there will be none of that when it meets the No. 5 Wildcats.

"We've been around long enough to know that Kansas State is just a bunch of guys," junior forward Brady Jardine said. "We hear a lot of things about the Big, 12 and we get it in our heads that they're not a normal basketball team. But in the end, they're just a bunch of guys playing basketball just like us. We're going to come out and play hard. I like our chances."

The Aggies are hoping that the experience of making three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is enough to tip the scales. They're banking on their ability to come out and match the Wildcats elbow for elbow, as well as their ability to defend.

"There are a lot of us that are veterans," senior guard Brian Green said. "A lot of us have been here before. This is nothing new. I think this is one of the closest teams we've seen in a long time. We're unselfish, we all really want to win and I think that could work to our advantage. There's a lot of motivation to win with it being the potential last game we could ever play."

Pullen sick

Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen, one of the best players in the country, missed Wednesday's news conference and practice with food poisoning, according to Kansas State's sports-information department.

Pullen is expected to be fully healthy for game time, and is expected to be in the starting lineup.

Pullen averages 19.5 points per game and is someone Utah State has to control if it wants to win.

Winning ways

Last season, Utah State came into the NCAA Tournament after losing to New Mexico State in the Western Athletic Conference title game. That won't be the case this season, with the Aggies entering Thursday on an eight game winning streak.

"As far as momentum goes, we're taking this one game at a time," Jardine said. "We won last week, but that's in the past now. We're looking forward to tomorrow and our one chance to win a tournament game."

Odds and ends

Utah State's redshirt crew of Leon Cooper, Ben Clifford, Preston Medlin and Antonio Bumpus took part in practice on Wednesday night. All four are expected to contribute heavily on the team next season. … Wednesday's practice was open to the media and the public and consisted of a dunk contest and a shooting contest from half court. … Stew Morrill said that rebounding would be the key to the game.

tjones@sltrib.com