Mountain West Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2021-22 season

Year two for coach Jeff Linder begins with the Cowboys, needing to replace the production of freshman Marcus Williams, who transferred to Texas A&M after an outstanding season leading the team in scoring. Fortunately, this is where the bad news ends, as most of the rest of the Cowboys’ roster will return, with a few new faces thrown in as well.

The Cowboys still have stud scorer Hunter Maldonado (12.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and hope to get a full season from forward Graham Ike, who averaged 11.2 points in just 12 games last year. One of the key newcomers is Deng Dut, one of the nation’s best JUCO players from last season; hoping that he can fill some of the hole left by Williams’ departure. Losing the conference’s Freshman of the Year really hurts, but Linder’s dynamic offenses will recover and look to build on last year’s 14-11 mark.

It’s been slow and steady for Fresno State, and we don’t just mean that about the Bulldog’s slow tempo offense. In Justin Hutson’s fourth year running the program, the Bulldogs are looking to bounce back after a 12-12 season and may have the pieces to take a step forward. Last year’s Fresno State squad featured a plethora of new faces getting to know each other, but this year’s squad suffered virtually no significant losses.

Fresno State’s starting lineup remains intact, including junior forward Orlando Robinson, who led the way with 14.6 points per game last year. That lineup adds Jemarl Baker, who scored 12.0 points per game with Arizona last season, and has much better depth than last season.

This is the kind of season where everything can come together for the Bulldogs, especially with a roster in decent shape, but it remains to be seen how Fresno State will fare against some of the bigger dogs in the MWC.