Mountain West Basketball: Way-too-early power rankings for 2022-23 season

Now two weeks into June, we’re firmly ensconced in the college basketball offseason. A few weeks back we passed the deadline for withdrawal from the NBA Draft and we’re starting to see a great number of the remaining players from the Transfer Portal find their new homes. There’s still plenty more action from that portal in the days and weeks to come, but we’re at the point where we have a firmer look at what some of these basketball teams are going to look like next year.

Life is good in Mountain West Basketball, but at the same time, it’s not in an ideal spot. Last year’s conference was quite the dogfight, with four teams winding up in the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, and Wyoming each lost their only Tourney games, giving the conference an unfortunate 0-4 record in the Big Dance. However, this is still a mid-major deep with talent, especially from up-and-coming programs like New Mexico and UNLV.

Looking towards next season, the order of these teams may be a bit jumbled, and we’re going to dive deeper into how things look in the MWC. The rosters are not yet finalized, but recent transfer announcements and Draft withdrawals certainly gave a much better look at what some of these lineups will be when the basketball starts five months from now. Let’s start running through these teams, ranking how they currently stand in the offseason.

11. San Jose State

Basketball at San Jose State has been really rough for quite a long time now. You have to go back to 2011 for the last time the Spartans were above .500 and back to 1996 for their most recent trip to the NCAA Tournament. Since joining the MWC in 2013, it’s been more of the same story. Having just completed his first season at the helm, Tim Miles is trying to change all of that, but the former Nebraska coach won just 1 conference game last year and has a lot of work ahead.

The good news is that there’s some continuity for the Spartans, getting leading scorer Omari Moore (13.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 4.6 apg last year) back for his senior season. The Spartans did lose a slew of players to the Transfer Portal, but will see forwards Trey Anderson (8.7 ppg) and Tibet Gorener (7.6 ppg) back for another season. The Spartans have also added to the frontcourt, landing former Temple big man Sage Tolbert III and former Fresno State center Robert Vaihola into the mix.

While there are a few nice pieces returning for another year, there are no great additions to this Spartans roster and a few holes still to fill. At this point in time, there’s no reason to believe that San Jose State is going to surprise anyone next season. It’s possible that Moore and the other returning players can elevate this squad, but it’s hard to imagine them doing much better than last year’s 8-23 record.