Conference action for Mountain West basketball on Wednesday night. Here are five questions concerning the month of January.
1. Can UNLV complete the road sweep in January?
Winning on the road is never easy in college basketball, and, in the Mountain West, it’s particularly difficult due to elevations and raucous road environments.
For the Rebels. it’ll be the first time many of their key players will go through this. The good news is that it starts out somewhat easily. San Jose State, Air Force, and Colorado State are expected to finish in the bottom half of the league. For a team trying to get an at-large bid, UNLV must win those games. The tricky one will be at Fresno State, but a win there is certainly doable. Going 4-0 will go a long way towards a happy March.
2. Will Montaque Gil-Caeser crack the rotation?
There were high expectations when the former top-50 player came in from Missouri. He struggled last season, and Matt Mitchell along with Jalen McDaniels have replaced him on the depth chart. Only averaging 10 minutes a game, there’s a chance that Dutcher might be going in a different rotation.
3. Is Nevada overly reliant on Caroline and the twins?
The 66-64 recent loss to San Francisco showed a potential downside to how the Wolf Pack plays. Jordan Caroline had an off game, and that happens to everyone. But the Martin twins both played well enough to win. Outside of the “big three”, only Kendall Stephens took more than three shots.
Are there enough scorers on this team to win games where the scouting report will focus on the top players or is Nevada ultimately too predictable for comfort?
4. Is Fresno State actually the best team talent-wise?
The Bulldogs may be the most equipped to play in the Mountain West environments. Rodney Terry’s team checks off just about all of the checklists; experience, depth, scoring, defensive tenacity, and a star player. Even the teams at the top have weaknesses to take care of. Fresno may not finish first, but don’t be surprised if they make a run of their own.
5. How many teams will still have an at-large shot at the end of the month?
In just my personal opinion, the following teams are at least in the conversation for a non-automatic bid: Nevada, San Diego State, UNLV, Fresno State and Boise State. Of course, all five won’t get in but each has a shot.
Next: Mountain West power rankings before league play
The goal for each of those five teams is to just get to February still in the conversation. But with these teams taking each other on soon enough, someone’s going to get eliminated from the at-large pool. That makes these games all the more important, starting this week.