Mountain West Conference Basketball Weekly Recap

Scores

Tuesday, December 13

Wyoming 58, UC Irvine 48

Wednesday, December 14

UNLV 65, UTEP 54

Friday, December 16

Wyoming 62, Sioux Falls 54

Saturday, December 17

UNLV 64, Illinois 48

New Mexico 66, Oklahoma State 56

Denver 79, Boise State 62

Air Force 64, Maryland-Eastern Shore 60

There are two clear stories to point to after a relatively light week of action in the Mountain West Conference. There’s a lull in the schedule for numerous conferences this season as kids prepare for Christmas and coaches seek to avoid distractions after the glut of holiday tournaments and early-December TV-friendly events. The Mountain West played only three total games from Monday, December 12 through Friday the 16th. The league was almost on shutdown, in a scenario shared by some of the smaller leagues in the country. Two teams, though, did manage to pierce the fog of invisibility by making a name for themselves.

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New Mexico won at USC last weekend. The Lobos, under head coach Steve Alford, are trying to regain status and leverage in the sport after crashing to earth last season. In the 2009-2010 campaign, UNM made the second round of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed in the West Region, a high point for a program that has to fight to gain national attention. Last season, the magic faded away, as the Lobos failed to make the NCAA Tournament, but in the 2011-2012 campaign, there are signs that Alford’s athletes could very well be on the comeback trail. The boys from Albuquerque went into Oklahoma City and defeated Oklahoma State by a 10-point margin. The ability to win road games and neutral-court games will give New Mexico leverage with the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. Road and neutral wins look great on a resume, and while USC and Oklahoma State are not big hitters in the world of college basketball, the Lobos are still going upward rather than downward on a lot of projected brackets.

That said, the biggest story in the Mountain West so far this season has to be UNLV. The Runnin’ Rebels from Las Vegas are at a point where only a dramatic collapse will prevent them from making the Big Dance. UNLV already owns a massive poker chip, a win over North Carolina in late November. Now, after putting together a terrific week with wins over UTEP and Illinois, coach Dave Rice’s roster has solidified its standing as the Mountain West’s one near-guaranteed candidate for an at-large NCAA berth. If UNLV doesn’t win the Mountain West Tournament, it should still find itself snugly ensconced in the field of 68 teams on Selection Sunday.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer