Utah State Kept the Player of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year; Their Portal Adds Are Built to Guard

Utah State just put up a 25th-ranked KenPom offense and won the Mountain West. The question heading into the Pac-12 is not whether the Aggies can score. It is whether they can replace MJ Collins and still look like a No. 1 in a new league.

The answer starts with who stayed.

Mason Falslev is the Mountain West Player of the Year: 16.0 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.9 steals, 51.4% from the field, 39.0% from three, and all-defense. Karson Templin is the league’s Sixth Man of the Year at 8.8 points per game. That is a returning star and a returning punch off the bench. Utah State built the rest of the roster around defense.

Incoming players and the defenses they came from

• Dallin Hall (Virginia)

  Started every game and played 28 minutes a night for a team that finished 17th in KenPom defense. Not here to replace Collins’ 17.5 points. Here to run the floor, get the extra pass, and bring ACC defensive habits to Logan. 5.9 PPG, 4.4 APG on a top-20 defense.

  
  

• Will Hornseth (Northern Iowa)

  Comes from a 25th-ranked KenPom defense. Averaged 11.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.2 APG. Enough scoring to help hold that top-25 offense. More important: he already won on a team that guarded at a high-major level.

  
  

• Connor Turnbull (Evansville)

  2025 Missouri Valley Defensive Player of the Year. Around 1.9 blocks per game that season, then 2.4 BPG when healthy last year. Falslev and Templin give Utah State toughness. Turnbull gives them a rim.

  
  

• AJ Bates (Louisiana Tech)

  12.1 PPG, 5.9 APG. Tech was 287th in KenPom offense and 105th in KenPom defense. He is the creation piece. He also comes from a program that was much better at getting stops than at scoring.

That is the Gonzaga problem, too, just from the other side. The Zags are the Pac-12 favorite with a rebuilt core of Xaivian Lee (Florida), Isiah Harwell (Houston), Massamba Diop (Arizona State), Braden Huff, and Davis Fogle. Huff and Fogle are the continuity. Lee is the new lead guard. Diop is the 7-1 rim piece. Harwell is the Houston wing. Utah State did not play Gonzaga last season — the Aggies were still in the Mountain West, the Zags were still in the WCC — so there is no recent box score to hide behind.

What Utah State does have is March proof. The Aggies went 29-7, won the Mountain West regular season and tournament, then beat Villanova 86-76 in the NCAA first round before falling to Arizona 66-78 in the second round. Falslev had 22 points in the Villanova win. That is not a theoretical tournament team. The first Gonzaga meeting will be a style battle. Gonzaga’s lineup is longer and more drafted: Lee and Harwell on the perimeter, Huff and Diop in the paint, Fogle as the swing scorer. Utah State’s counter is not matching that size one-for-one. It is Falslev as the proven first option, Templin as the physical sixth man, Hall organizing from a Virginia defense, Hornseth bringing UNI’s standard, Turnbull meeting Diop and Huff at the rim, and Bates trying to replace Collins’ creation. If that group guards the way those old programs guarded, Utah State does not have to out-talent Gonzaga’s five. It has to make Gonzaga work for every possession.

Put it together and the roster logic is simple. Falslev is still the first option. Templin is still the energy big. Hall organizes minutes on a Virginia-level defense. Hornseth brings UNI’s standard and enough scoring to keep possessions clean. Turnbull protects the paint. Bates replaces some of what Collins did with the ball.

That is why the better question is not “can Utah State improve on a 25th-ranked offense?” Repeating a top-25 offense after losing your leading scorer would already be a win. The real upside is the other column. If those four transfers play to their old defensive programs, Utah State can stay elite on offense and jump on defense.

In a nine-team Pac-12 with Gonzaga at the top, that is how you stay in the 1-seed conversation. You do not need a prettier offense than last year. You need Falslev, Templin, and a portal class built to stop people.