The Mountain West has had a very up and down performance as a conference in the NCAA tournament, currently boasting a 3-4 record in the tournament as only one of the six teams who earned a bid into the tournament, being last year’s national runner-up San Diego State, has advanced into the Sweet Sixteen.
A perfect example of the Mountain West’s mixed success in the tournament would be Nevada’s first round blunder against Dayton, who they had a 17 point lead on with 7:30 left to go in the second half but lost by three by the end of things, allowing the Flyers to go on a 24-4 run at the end of the game as their offense completely disappeared at the end of the game.
“Just a meltdown, really,” Nevada senior guard Kenan Blackshear said of the Wolfpack’s final 7:30 stretch in the second half.
Colorado State proved to be another night and day example, as they dominated Virginia in their First Four game, holding them to 14 first half points and outrebounding the Cavaliers by 19 as well.
In stark contrast, they were only able to muster up 11 first half points against Texas in their first round contest as they struggled to score against the Longhorns in a 56-44 loss despite holding the Longhorns to just 7.1% from beyond the arc.
“It was hard to get into a good rhythm,” Colorado State senior guard Isaiah Stevens said of the Rams first half struggles. “We were much tougher in the second half, much more sound. Just not enough there to get the win.”
The Cowboys were able to take down both Colorado State and Nevada at home during the regular season, the only two tournament teams the Cowboys were able to beat. Otherwise, the Cowboys were 2-8 versus the six teams in the NCAA tournament.
New Mexico, a team the Cowboys struggled immensely with and the hottest team coming out of the conference having won the Mountain West tournament title, had likely the weakest outing, disappointing high upset expectations after losing to Clemson by a large margin.
“Certainly the wrong day to go cold,” New Mexico head coach Richard Pitino said. “We just couldn’t make a shot and you have to make shots versus [Clemson] because they really pack the paint.”
Boise State also had a relatively disappointing outing, losing to a solid Colorado squad in the First Four after a tough offensive performance.
Utah State showed promise in the first round, taking care of TCU in an 8/9 matchup that ultimately set them up for a date with one of the top seeded teams in the tournament, Purdue. Despite holding their own in the first 15 minutes of the game, the Aggies were completely outmatched by the Boilermakers who beat the Aggies by a final score of 106-67.
To add salt to the wound for the Aggies after their loss in the second round, their first year head coach and Mountain West coach of the year Danny Sprinkle has taken a job to become the new head coach of Washington. This now leaves the Aggies to look for their fourth head coach in six years.
San Diego State again is the highlight of the Mountain West in the NCAA tournament, as they advance to their second straight Sweet Sixteen.
They were able to hold off the comeback of a scrappy UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) team in the first round and dominated an upset minded Yale team that beat Auburn in the first round. With those wins, they are then rewarded with playing the number one overall seed in a rematch of last year’s championship game against Uconn.
“I think we’re just excited,” senior guard Darrion Trammell said. “I feel like we were right there, just to get another chance at it I think we’re up for the opportunity and got the team to do it.”
San Diego State remains to be the standard for Mountain West basketball and it doesn’t seem like that will be changing anytime soon as the rest of the conference looks to catch up to their success.
