Mountain West Basketball: Is the conference a one bid league this year?

By Carmine Carcieri | Oct 6, 2016

Mar 12, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Fresno State Bulldogs hoist the trophy after defeating the San Diego State Aztecs in the Mountain West Conference Tournament at Thomas & Mack Center. Fresno State won 68-63. Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports /

Can the Mountain West basketball conference return to their old ways in 2016-17?

The Mountain West Conference used to be just a step below the Power Five conferences. San Diego State was an perennial NCAA Tournament team, while UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado State and others were very competitive. Nevada was also a difficult team to play under head coach Mark Fox.

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But times have changes. The Mountain West has molded itself into a one-bid league and a league that has become more of a mid-major conference than one that is on par with the Atlantic 10.

Last year, San Diego State won 25 games, lost only two games in conference play and reached the Mountain West conference tournament final, yet they failed to receive a bid. Fresno State, who won the conference tournament, earned the league’s lone bid before losing to Utah by 11 points in the opening round.

Nevada had a surprising 19-13 season, but New Mexico dropped off with Cullen Neal’s inconsistencies, UNLV had a disastrous season in which they fired Dave Rice mid way through the year, and Colorado State finished two games under .500 in conference play.

Will this trend continue for this upcoming season? Will it continue to be San Diego State and then everybody else?

Well, it certainly looks like it.

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The Aztecs will once again be a borderline top-25 team. They obviously still have the legendary head coach Steve Fisher roaming the sidelines and they return solid, experienced players in the backcourt.

The team’s leading scorer, Trey Kell, is back and he will be flanked by now-sophomore guard Jeremy Hemsley, former Missouri guard Montaque Gill-Caesar and senior Dakarai Allen.

Forward Malik Pope inserted his name into the NBA Draft pool, but opted to return for at least one more season after receiving feedback. Matt Shrigley, Nolan Narain and breakout candidate Zylan Cheatham return to help anchor the front court, while Valentine Izundu transfers over from Washington State.

It would be beyond shocking if San Diego State didn’t just win the conference, but make the NCAA Tournament and win at least a game.

Beyond the Aztecs though, there are a lot of question marks.

Eric Musselman and Nevada look like the second best team in the league. They return future NBA Draft selection Cameron Oliver, Lindsey Drew and D.J. Fenner. Missouri State transfer Marcus Marshall, Southern Illinois transfer Jordan Caroline and Brown transfer Leland King II will give the Wolf Pack an extra punch as newcomers.

As good as the Wolf Pack look, they might truly be a year away from being an NCAA Tournament team. Their non-conference schedule looks good enough to build up their RPI (Saint Mary’s, Oregon State, etc), but will they be able to capitalize and pull off those upsets?

New Mexico lost Neal to Ole Miss, however, they still have a competitive roster made up of scorer Elijah Brown, the best big man in the league Tim Williams, Sam Logwood and Obij Aget. The Lobos are not good enough at point guard though, so that will impact them in the long run this season.

After Nevada and New Mexico, there’s a major drop off.

Even though Gian Clavell returns for Colorado State, they are still suffering from departures of three of their top five scorers. Fresno State doesn’t have Mountain West Player of the Year Marvelle Harris. Boise State lost James Webb III to the NBA. UNLV has a massive amount of turnover to deal with, including the fact that they nearly had three different coaches this off-season. Wyoming is also looking at an adjustment under a new head coach after Larry Shyatt resigned.

If anyone has a chance to reach the Big Dance besides San Diego State, it’s definitely the Wolf Pack of Nevada. But even that’s a stretch.

Next: Big 12 Conference preview

This doesn’t mean that Mountain West teams will be a walk-in-the-park during the non-conference portion of the schedule. It just simply means that this league is not what it once was.