The end of the regular season for the Lobos and the rest of the Mountain West basketball teams is coming up – after all, the conference tournament is starting in less than two weeks – and there isn’t a team locked into a seed line yet for the tournament. What happens over the next week and a half will decide every seed line and even the regular season champion, or co-champions. While the Lobos aren’t in the running for the regular season championship anymore, they have plenty to play for over the next week and a half. To get a better sense of that, we’re looking at all the possible scenarios that could play out, and how those scenarios affect each team in the conference. And in particular, in the very likely case that we’ll see some teams tied in the standings, who holds the tiebreakers?
Author: Zach
Lobo Baseball Series 1 Preview: Binghamton University
The long journey of the 2017 Lobo Baseball season starts this weekend against Binghamton University, where the Lobos will face the Bearcats in a three-game series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Lobos look to get their season off to a great start before their schedule really heats up next weekend when they travel to Dallas Baptist. This should be a very good series to start the season, since Binghamton is a talented team that also made the NCAA Tournament last season.
2017 Lobo Baseball Season Preview: Part 2
2017 Lobo Baseball Season Preview: Part 1
Hope springs eternal for the Lobo Baseball team, as they look to make this year the year that Lob-Omaha becomes a reality. They’re coming off a very strong season, in which they went 39-23 (20-10 in conference play), won the conference tournament, and made noise in the Lubbock Regional before falling to Texas Tech and Dallas Baptist. Although they lost some talent from last season, the Lobos have reason to be optimistic about their chances this year, as not only do they still return a lot of talent, they brought some excellent players into the program, including many intriguing arms for the pitching staff. The Lobos will once again have a great offense and could very well have the arms necessary to bring fear to teams in a regional. While we don’t know what the season has in store for the Lobos, we know that we are excited to cover the journey and see the great moments and memories that play out over the next few months.
About Men’s Basketball’s Unbalanced Schedules
The next two games for the Lobos present a great opportunity to discuss the unbalanced schedule that happens in the Mountain West. The Lobos’ next two games are against the only two teams that they play once this season in SJSU (at home) and Air Force (on the road). Because of the current structure of the Mountain West, with 11 teams and an 18-game conference schedule, every year each team plays two teams only a single time, with both a home and away matchup against the other eight teams. Since the start of the 2013-2014 season, when that structure was put in place, the conference has seen a few teams get unfair unbalanced schedules (both good and bad). This has led to some unfair advantages, and in some cases, huge disadvantages. First off, we will look at each year and see what the numbers tell us and break down who caught the breaks in the schedule and who didn’t for all 11 teams. Then, we will look at the possible solutions for this problem, and determine if there is a way that to bring as much schedule balance as possible.
Women’s Basketball vs. Nevada Game Preview
The Lobos (10-9, 6-3) return home for a three-game home stand, starting Saturday night against a struggling Nevada (8-11, 2-6) squad. The Lobos won the first meeting in Reno 69-63, even without the services of Alex Lapeyrolerie. However, the other three guards did well filling in for her, combining for 53 points (Cherise Beynon 25, Mykiel Burleson 18 and Jayda Bovero 10). If the Lobos can take care of the ball better in this game (17 turnovers in the first meeting), they should be able to win this game going away.
Women’s Basketball at Wyoming Game Preview
The Lobos (9-8, 5-2) return to Mountain West road play today, as they head to Laramie to take on the first-place Wyoming Cowgirls (14-3, 6-0). This will be one of the toughest games the Lobos will have this year, playing on the road against a very good Cowgirls team that plays great defense and has the best offense in the conference. The Lobos need to bring their A+ game to have a decent shot to win the game. The Lobos must shoot the ball well and limit their mistakes on both offense and defense to come away with the huge road win.
Women’s Basketball vs. CSU Game Preview
The Lobos (8-7, 4-1) dropped their first Mountain West game of the season on Wednesday at UNLV, thanks to some offensive struggles. They scored only 42 points in the loss, shooting 21.9% from the floor and didn’t hit a three-pointer (0-19) in the game. Losing at UNLV isn’t a terrible loss, even with the Rebels being short-handed for the matchup, and one has to think that they won’t go 0-19 from the three point line regularly. Even with that loss, the Lobos are still in a good position in the conference standings, and have two very important home games this week against two of the top teams in CSU and BSU. The first game is the annual Pack The PIT promotion game against the CSU Rams (11-5, 3-1), who went a perfect 21-0 against Mountain West teams last season, sweeping the Regular and Tournament Championships. The Lobo offense will once again be tested, this time against the best defensive team in the conference. For the Lobos to give themselves the best chance to win, it may be best suited to slow things down a little and make sure to get the ball inside to Rachelle van der Keijl and Jaisa Nunn.
Women’s Basketball at Nevada Game Preview
The Lobos (7-6, 3-0) return to Mountain West road action with their first of two road games this week in the state of Nevada. First stop on the trip for the first-place Lobos is a game against the last-place Nevada Wolf Pack (6-8, 0-3). The Lobos should be able to find it easy to score in this game, as the Wolf Pack may have the worst defense in the conference. If the Lobos can take care of the ball and force a turnover prone Wolf Pack team over, the Lobos should be able to win this game easily. Road games in conference play tend to be tougher than they should be, so the Lobos must show up and play a good game to improve to 4-0 in conference play.
Women’s Baskeball vs Utah State Preview
The Lobos (6-6, 2-0) return to action after their second straight dominating performance to start out Mountain West play. Neither the game at Fresno State nor against San Diego State were ever in question. In fact, the only thing that made you hold your breath during either game was when Lobo wing Alex Lapeyrolerie was face down on the floor for an extended period. Good news for the Lobos is Lapeyrolerie should only miss a couple of games due to concussion protocol, instead of it being something far more serious. Tonight, the Lobos will host a solid Utah State Aggies (8-5, 1-1) team, who are looking for a huge road win. The Lobos must find players to fill the void left by the Lapeyrolerie injury, but I think that the Lobos should be able to handle the Aggies in The PIT.