Seven Mountain West games to watch this season

Forward Winston Shepard is San Diego State’s best returning scorer and rebounder. The team’s success this season will likely rest heavily on his shoulders

Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Tuesday, November 25: San Diego State vs. BYU, 12:30 a.m. EST

If you’re a night owl, you’re in for a treat. For the second time this season, San Diego State takes on a former Mountain West foe, but this time they’ll leave the cozy confines of home for…well, for the cozier confines of Hawai’i and the Maui Invitational.

While Utah took an all-sports invite to one of the best conferences in the country, BYU dropped most of its athletic programs into the West Coast Conference in order to allow its football team to emulate Notre Dame and play as an independent. BYU senior Tyler Haws is one of the top returning scorers in the country, averaging over 23 points per game for the Cougars during a season that saw the team reach the NCAA Tournament.

While stopping Haws is incredibly difficult, the Aztecs will be more than capable of bringing matchup nightmares to the table. The most capable of these will be Winston Shepard. Currently projected as a second round pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by DraftExpress; Shepard is a lanky 6-foot-8 forward that can score, rebound and defend at a very high level.

With a victory, San Diego State would almost certainly avoid a matchup with tournament host Chaminade in favor of a game against Pittsburgh. The rest of the field features Arizona, Missouri, Kansas State and Purdue. You can watch the Aztecs’ first game of the tournament on ESPN2; with subsequent games featured on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, or online at ESPN3 depending on how many games the team wins.