Mountain West Basketball will look a bit different for the following season. How do the teams stack up against one another?
Mountain West Basketball has been one of the best non-power seven basketball conferences this decade. However, the MWC’s standing took a little hit this year, falling from being ranked as the eighth best conference in 2018-19 to 12th this past season, according to WarrenNolan.com. A big reason for the conference’s drop was that the 11 teams combined to go just 65-64 in nonconference play and 9-47 in quadrant 1 games. Comparatively, the conference posted a 76-51 nonconference record and 13-43 in RPI Group 1 games in 2017-18.
Still, the conference was able to get multiple teams into the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year in seventh time over the past 10 years. Overall, four teams topped the 20-win plateau though only five of 11 squads finished with a winning record. Two teams also failed to reach double-digits in victories, marking the first time that has occurred since 2014-15.
Preseason favorite Nevada (29-5) once again tied its program record for the most wins and claimed its third straight conference regular season title. The Wolf Pack, who shared the conference’s regular crown with Utah State with a 15-3 record, fell to San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference tournament semifinals. They earned a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and was immediately bounced by No. 10 Florida in the second round. Meanwhile, Utah State (28-7) had a historical season as the Aggies posted their most wins since winning 30 games in 2011-12. Utah State also was bounced in the second round by No.9 Washington.
Fresno State (23-9, 13-5 MWC), which declined an invitation to play in the CIT, finished third in the conference and was followed by San Diego State (21-13) and then UNLV (17-14). Sixth-place Air Force (14-18) has finished with a losing record for the sixth straight season. New Mexico (14-18), Boise State (13-20) and Colorado State (12-20) tied for seventh in the conference with a 7-11 record. Wyoming (8-24) was 10th and San Jose State (4-27) finished last with a 1-17 record. Utah State ended up being the most surprising team and New Mexico the most disappointing.
The 2019-20 campaign is going to be a huge transition year for the Mountain West with Nevada and UNLV changing coaches. In addition, 11 of the players who made one of the three all-conference teams will not or are likely not to return. Plus, several other players are in the NCAA transfer portal.
The following is an extremely early look at how the conference is shaping up this upcoming season.