Category: Lobo Basketball

MW Men’s Basketball Tourney: Semifinals Preview

by Jono

If you’re reading this and you’re a Lobo fan, bless you. That was a tough, and somewhat unexpected way to watch the Lobos go out and (likely) end their season. We’ll have more to say about it when some of the dust settles, but for now, there are still a few games left to decide the MW Tournament Champion. Let’s check out the matchups:

Game 8: #1 Nevada vs. #4 Fresno State

As expected, the Wolf Pack took care of Utah State with relative ease, claiming an 83-69 victory after leading the entire game. They got solid games from their big three, with Caroline putting up a 22-8, Oliver a 19-11, and Marshall chipping in 14 points. Utah State’s Jalen Moore went off for 27 points and Kobe McEwen added 17 of his own, but they didn’t get much help from elsewhere.

Fresno was able to advance after taking out the Lobos, 65-60. After the Lobos jumped out to an early double-digit lead, the Bulldogs were able to come back and keep the score close for the majority of the game. They were able to create enough separation at the end with a late run to hold off the Lobos, mostly thanks to some timely plays by the Taylors, Deshon and Jahmel. The Lobos didn’t shoot particularly well, which became a theme towards the end of the season, but most surprisingly was their performance at the free throw line, where they went just 12-22. Just another missed opportunity in a season full of them.

Fresno and Nevada faced each other twice this season and in both instances, the Bulldogs came out on top. However, they were both close games, with the game in Fresno going down to the wire, 77-76, while the game in Reno ended up 81-76. One has to think that this game will be close too.

Stat Comparison

(To read the plots, the further away from the center, the better the team is at each stat. That is, for each stat, the best team will have a value on the outside of the radar plot while the worst team will have a value on the very inside of the plot. For an explanation of the stats, click here. All stats taken from kenpom.com)

Key Players

Nevada: Marcus Marshall (SR Guard, 19.7 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.6 apg); Cameron Oliver (SO Forward, 15.7 ppg, 8.5 rpg, 1.9 apg); Jordan Caroline (SO Forward, 14.5 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.0 apg)

Fresno State: Jamel Taylor (JR Guard, 11.1 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.9 apg); Jaron Hopkins (JR Guard, 13.3 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 3.5 apg); Deshon Taylor (SO Guard, 11.9 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.1 apg)

Prediction

On one hand, Fresno State beat Nevada twice already this season, so it’s clear that they have the ability to take out the top seed. However, at this point I feel like we’re on a collision course to a Nevada-CSU rematch, so I’ll take Nevada in this one, 77-72. In our bracket challenge, only 38.9% of our respondents picked Nevada to win this game, but that’s because the other 61.1% picked the Lobos. 🙁

Game Info

Who: #1 Nevada (26-6, 15-4) vs. #4 Fresno St. (20-11, 12-7)

When: Friday, March 10, 2017 at 8pm MT

Watch: CBS Sports Network

Game 9: #2 Colorado State vs. #6 San Diego State

Colorado State did exactly what they should have done to the 10 seed in the conference: they dominated them. The conference player of the year, Gian Clavell, dropped 30 on the poor Falcons, including a 6-11 performance behind the arc. Three other Rams ended up in double figures, while the Falcons only ended up with two players scoring more than 6.

San Diego State recovered from a poor first-round performance to beat down Boise State 87-68 behind 22 points and 10 rebounds by Malik Pope (who may or may not have reinjured the knee that kept him out of 9 games earlier this season). Rather than the types of games they’ve played recently that can only be generously called “basketball”, the Aztecs put together a great offensive performance, including making 9 of 14 threes, while playing solid enough defense to hold off the Broncos. They’re now exactly where they figured to be going into the season, although they’d probably prefer you to forget the route they took to get there.

These two teams faced each other twice, with the Rams pulling out a one-point win each time. If that trend holds, fans will be rewarded for staying up all night to watch this one.

Stat Comparison

Key Players

Colorado St.: Gian Clavell (SR Guard, 15.5 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.0 apg); Emmanuel Omogbo (SR Forward, 12.5 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 2.6 apg); Printiss Nixon (SO Guard, 11.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.5 apg)

San Diego St.: Trey Kell (JR Guard, 13.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 2.8 apg); Dakarai Allen (SR Guard, 8.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.4 apg); Jeremy Hemsley (SO Guard, 13.2 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.1 apg)

Prediction

These teams are probably more evenly-matched than either fan base would like to admit, but given how their last two games against each other were each decided by one point, it would be hard to argue against. Before the tourney started, I picked CSU to win this game, so I’ll stick with this choice, although I expect it to be close. I’ll pick the Rams to win 69-66. The Lobo fans in our bracket challenge all picked one of these two teams to move on to the finals, with 83.3% picking CSU and 16.7% picking the Aztecs.

Game Info

Who: #2 Colorado St. (22-10, 14-5) vs. #6 San Diego St. (19-13, 11-9)

When: Friday, March 9, 2017 at 10:30pm MT

Watch: CBS Sports Network

MW Men’s Basketball Tourney: Quarterfinals Preview

by Jono

The first day of the MW Men’s Basketball Championship is behind us, with a couple of teams advancing with blowouts and another team needing a comeback and overtime to survive. That takes us to the quarterfinals, where the top five seeds get their first taste of the action. Again, each of these teams likely need to win the tournament to go dancing, so you better believe that emotions will be riding high.

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MW Men’s Basketball Tourney: First Round Preview

by Jono

After several months of buildup, we’ve finally made it to March, and with it comes the Mountain West Conference Tournament. This year seems like it could be especially chaotic, as there are no prohibitive favorites and every single team needs to win the conference tournament to assure themselves a spot in the NCAA Tournament. With so much on the line, and so much parity, expect a lot of close games, a lot of emotion, and a lot of heartbreak. Today, we’ll be previewing the first round of games, featuring the 6-11 seeds in the tournament, and will continue our previews throughout the week.

ALSO: If you haven’t already, you should fill out your picks for the tournament! We’re interested in how everyone thinks things will turn out.

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Men’s Basketball Game 30: SDSU

by Jono

It all comes down to this, as we all expected. UNM vs. San Diego St. playing in the final game of the season with a lot on the line for both teams. Of course, when we were imagining this scenario before the season started, we figured that it would be for the conference championship, but that’s clearly not the case. Instead, the teams are fighting for the all-important fifth seed in the conference, which would allow the winner to avoid having to win four games in four days to win the conference tourney next week. That might not be a conference championship, but you know that both teams really want that seed at this point. Hopefully the Pit is rocking tonight.

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Men’s Basketball Game 29 Preview: Wyoming

by Jono

With the loss at home against Colorado St., the Lobos now have lost two in a row and eliminated themselves from a top-three seed in the conference tournament. However, there’s still plenty for the Lobos to play for, as a first-round bye is still very much in reach and if they’re playing well, anything can happen in Vegas. They’ll look to get back on track up at Wyoming, facing a Cowboys squad looking for a strong finish of their own.

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Men’s Basketball Seeding Possibilities

by Zach

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?

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Men’s Basketball Game 28 Preview: Colorado St.

by Jono

With the tough loss at Fresno St., the Lobos are now 1.5 games back of the three teams tied for first in the conference, making their bid for a regular season conference title all the more difficult. It’s not impossible, though, but any reasonable path towards it has to start with a win against Colorado St. in the Pit. Last time these two teams faced each other, it got pretty heated, so this could end up being a wild, entertaining game.

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Towards a Better Basketball Conference

by Jono

With the Lobos getting the weekend off, it feels as good as a time as any to revisit a topic that’s been going through my mind a lot recently: conference realignment. After half of the teams in the Mountain West batted their eyelashes at the Big 12 – and were all turned down – it feels like the conference is in a weird place right now and needs to do something to survive. Especially given that none of the Power 5 conferences are likely to be looking for new members and the gap between the haves and the have-nots seems like it’s growing every day. The Mountain West is pretty solidly one of the best of the rest, but the truth is, it feels hard to imagine the conference ever joining the ranks of the elite in football, which is where most of the attention is focused these days.

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