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?
Category: Lobo Basketball
Men’s Basketball Game 28 Preview: Colorado St.
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.
Basketball Game 27 Preview: Fresno State
The Lobos are coming off a much-needed win against Boise State on Valentine’s Day to keep pace with the rest of the top of the conference. Now, they’ll need to do it again, and again, and again, and again, starting on the road against a reeling Fresno State team. We’re in the home stretch, which makes a strong finish seem both more real, and more necessary than ever.
Men’s Basketball Game 26 Preview: Boise State
After a weekend off, the Lobos have a guest over for Valentine’s Day in the Boise State Broncos. Boise has been on a roll recently, which has put them in sole possession of first place. And although the Lobos can’t move back into first place with a win, a loss would likely put them out of the running.
Towards a Better Basketball Conference
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.
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.
Men’s Basketball Game 24 Preview: SJSU
The Lobos gutted out a win at UNLV on Wednesday, overcoming the absence of two starters thanks to some solid team play. They’ll have to do it again on Saturday, as both Tim and Dane are still out for this game against SJSU. Although they are towards the bottom of the conference, the Spartans aren’t pushovers, so the Lobos will still need to get good performances by the entire roster if they’re going to keep pace with the conference leaders.
Men’s Basketball Game 23 Preview: UNLV
After a four-game win streak, the Lobos managed to suffer three losses on Saturday at Nevada: the game itself, Dane Kuiper, and Tim Williams. Now, the banged-up Lobos will need to pull themselves together for their trip to Las Vegas, where they will be looking for revenge against UNLV.
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.
Men’s Basketball Game 22 Preview: Nevada
The Lobos are on a roll right now, having won 4 straight games and moving just a half game back of first place in the conference. They now head on the road to take on the only team ahead of them: the Nevada Wolf Pack. You probably remember what happened last time these two teams faced each other, as it is now required to be mentioned at least eight times each Lobo game, so you know the Lobos haven’t forgotten either. I’m sure they’ll be ready for this one.