Are the Utah State Aggies underdogs in their 8-9 matchup with TCU?

You can’t win the press conference with size, but TCU could try.

Asked about the Horned Frogs’ size advantage over the Utah State Aggies this week, a 6-foot-9 Xavier Cork offered an answer. But any of Cork’s teammates meeting with reporters — all of them listed at 6-7 or 6-8 — could have fit the bill.

“I would say that we’re going to use it mainly defensively,” Cork said. “I would say that over the past couple practices we’ve been making a big emphasis on defense and using our length as an advantage because we have a very lengthy team and I think we can bother people just off of pure athleticism and length.”

It’s a concern USU head coach Danny Sprinkle has been thinking about, too.

“Yeah, that’s kind of the key to the game,” Sprinkle said. “Our offense has to be great. Our ball movement, our body movement has to be on point because they’re one of the best transition offensive teams in the country. They’re averaging almost 18, 19 points a game in transition.

“If you let them start getting going with that off silly turnovers and live ball turnovers, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

TCU was 15th in the nation in steals per game (9.1) and first in fast break points (18.06).

“That’s been a real focus but I think what’s been really good about this is Mountain West has prepared us for this,” USU guard Darius Brown II said. “We’ve seen so many different types of teams throughout the whole year, teams that play really fast, teams that play really aggressive on defense and teams that are just solid on defense and love crashing the glass. … If we just focus on what we’re supposed to focus on and follow the scout and all those things, I think we’ll be fine.”

Aggies embracing underdog role

As soon as Brown saw the matchup appear on the screen, he knew.

It didn’t matter that his Aggies were the eight-seed and the TCU Horned Frogs were the nine.

“We knew as soon as we saw who we’re playing that we weren’t going to be favored in this game,” Brown said. “It really doesn’t surprise us at all.”

USU was a 3.5-point underdog at most Las Vegas sports books heading into Friday’s first-round game in Indianapolis.

But being the underdog is something the Aggies said they want to embrace.

“Yeah, personally I do like that,” USU’s Ian Martinez said. “Since the beginning of the year, people have always been doubting us, and we’re just trying to block out the outside noise. It don’t really matter what nobody said. They’re going to end up switching up anyways.”

Added Brown, “We’ve been doubted all year, coming from the no returning points and picked ninth in the Mountain West and winning an outright title, and now it’s no different. … We’ll be ready.”

Injury update

After missing a game in the Mountain West tournament with a shoulder injury, freshman Mason Falslev appears to be good to go for the start of the NCAA tourney.

“He’s been practicing all week, and he looks as good as he’s been here in the last two, two and a half weeks,” Sprinkle said. “A lot of his decreased time against San Diego State was because of foul trouble, and he’s one of those guys that we need on the court. But he looks good right now.”