Mountain West Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season
504. . . . Bulldogs . 9. team
After a postseason appearance in 2022, Fresno State saw its fortunes flip last year following the departure of Orlando Robinson to the NBA. Back towards the bottom of the Mountain West, the Bulldogs need to find a new star to pick them back up.
It won’t be Joseph Hunter. During the offseason, the former four-star recruit was arrested on two felony gun charges. It was his second arrest in two weeks, all but forcing head coach Justin Hutson to kick Hunter off the squad.
Graduate student Isaiah Hill will be tasked with leading the charge. The guard is a good three-point shooter and averaged a career-high 12.6 points per game last season. The former Tulsa guard will want to lead the Bulldogs back to prominence as his career winds down.
Another Isaiah, Isaiah Pope, is the most important addition to Fresno State. The senior guard started his career at Humboldt State but has spent the last three years at Utah Tech, emerging as one of the WAC’s top scorers at 13.1 points per game last year. He’s a solid shooter and also has a nose for stealing the ball.
Most of the program’s core next year will be made up of seniors and upperclassmen, providing Fresno State with valuable experience. Beyond the two Isaiahs, seniors who should be in the rotation include Eduardo Andre, Xavier DuSell, Leo Colimerio, and Donovan Yap.
The flip side of that experience is a fair question of whether or not this core has peaked. DuSell and Pope are new to the program, but the other four are not. This team played in The Basketball Classic at the end of the 2021-22 season, but has only sniffed the NCAA Tournament once in the past two decades.
Fresno State should be a dark horse to surprise in the Mountain West, but entering the season, they’re stuck towards the bottom of the conference pecking order.