WAC Basketball: 2020 conference tournament preview and predictions

By Andy Patton | Mar 10, 2020

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 16: The Western Athletic Conference logo is shown on the court before the championship game of the Western Athletic Conference basketball tournament between the Grand Canyon Lopes and the New Mexico State Aggies at the Orleans Arena on March 16, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images) /

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 15: The Western Athletic Conference tournament logo (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images) /

Teams to look out for

Team to beat: New Mexico State

I mean, this is pretty obvious. Behind an extremely balanced scoring attack, the Aggies breezed through conference play with an undefeated record and a 25-6 overall mark. Sure they didn’t face a lot of competition, but it’s hard to imagine anyone figuring out how to beat them in Vegas after no one proved capable of doing it in the regular season. Trevelin Queen, Jabari Rice and Johnny McCants should be enough for this team to head into the NCAA tournament riding a 22-game win streak.

Top contender: UT-Rio Grande Valley

With Cal Baptist out of the picture, the Vaqueros represent the biggest threat to New Mexico State. Going 9-7 in conference play and 14-16 overall doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence, nor should it, but this team did play NMSU really close in their first meeting, losing by just five. They also didn’t have star guard Javon Levi in that game, and with him in the picture things could get interesting in a potential WAC championship matchup.

Surprise team: Seattle University

The Redhawks have been on the cusp of winning this tournament in the past, but they lost a lot of talent from last year’s squad. Terrell Brown is elite, and he alone is enough to make this team dangerous in Vegas. However, with so little scoring behind him (Morgan Means is the only other scorer above 10 points per game) this team likely doesn’t have the depth to win out in the tournament.

The rest

Grand Canyon is hard to count completely out thanks to Alessandro Lever and Carlos Johnson, but they haven’t shown they can put together a full 40 minutes of basketball too often this year.

The rest of the conference (outside of Chicago State) is fairly even, with UMKC likely representing the best chance at an upset – and Utah Valley and Cal-State Bakersfield in the mix as well. Conferences like this don’t have as much predictability, so it’s sort of anyone’s guess how things fall – although New Mexico State is the obvious betting choice.