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.
MW Men’s Basketball Tourney: First Round Preview
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.
Men’s Basketball Game 30: SDSU
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.
Lobo Baseball Series 3 Preview: Air Force
The Lobos (4-3), start off their Mountain West schedule this weekend, as they travel to Colorado Springs to take on the Air Force Falcons (4-3). Coming into this series, the Lobos have lost 3 of their last 4 games, but don’t let that scare you off from this team. Last weekend, the Lobos played a tight series against a very talented Dallas Baptist team, where the Lobos lost the deciding game 7-6 in 11 innings. In that game, the Lobos came back from down 4-1 in the 9th to send the game to extra innings, then took a 6-4 lead in the top of the 11th before a three-run homer won the game for DBU. In their midweek game against nationally-ranked Texas Tech, the Lobos had one bad inning and lost the game 7-2. While the final score looks like a blow out, the Lobos had plenty of chances, including a bases load opportunity in the 8th down 5-2.
Men’s Basketball Game 29 Preview: Wyoming
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.
Lobo Baseball Series 2 Preview: Dallas Baptist
After their season-opening sweep of Binghamton last weekend, the Lobos (3-0) take the show on the road to face a very talented and familiar face this weekend when they head to Dallas to take on the Patriots of Dallas Baptist University (3-1). This is an important series for both teams, as it could be the difference in seed lines for the NCAA Tournament. A good thing for the Lobos this year is that they will have a lot of opportunities to pick up great wins, which will be useful if they need an at-large bid, but it would be great to start getting these wins in the second week of the season, rather than needing to pick them up later. It will be important for the Lobos to get great starting pitching this weekend, since it is probably the only area in the matchup where they have a decided edge right now. This should be a fun series to watch, and quite frankly, I hope we get to see this become an annual series for years to come.
Men’s Basketball Seeding Possibilities
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?
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.
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.