2017-18 WAC Post-Mortem

Amidst seemingly endless regular social media and message board banter about its future, who might stay and who will go, something fairly important has quietly become lost about the Western Athletic Conference:

This has become a pretty darn good basketball league.

From the ashes of what was once a regular top-10 conference but then was notably fighting to stay in business a few years ago, the WAC has very quietly built a solid nucleus of basketball schools. Don’t believe it? Look at the numbers.

Four of its eight members won at least 20 games this year. Five of those eight teams made it to the postseason (Texas-Rio Grande Valley even snuck into the CBI with a losing record).

WAC teams defeated the likes of Colorado State, Davidson, Illinois, Miami (Fla.), New Mexico and Texas-El Paso. Most impressive of all-in fact, it’s downright incredible-just three years after ranking 30th of 32 leagues in the conference RPI, the WAC halved that number and shot all the way up to 15th this year.

Regionally, the WAC flat-out owned its peer conferences in the West, going 8-1 against the Big Sky and 7-2 vs. the Big West. It also posted a sparkling 5-0 mark against Conference USA, a notably improved league in its own right this year.

The WAC was paced, as it so often is, by New Mexico State. But this was a different Aggies team, one that scored some high-profile scalps in non-conference play (a win over nationally ranked Miami in particular was one of the more eye-opening by any team in November and December) and was one of the best rebounding teams in the country (fourth nationally in rebound margin).

Chris Jans was NMSU’s third coach in three years, but the former Wichita State assistant brought a good dose of the Shockers’ ‘Play Angry’ mantra to Las Cruces. The Aggies-led by rebound-devouring Jemerrio Jones and high-scoring Zach Lofton-had some cold-shooting nights in February and March and didn’t match their early season success in the NCAA Tournament, but their 28-6 season was an enjoyable journey and the most impressive season by a WAC team since Utah State’s 30-4 mark in 2010-11.

Yet New Mexico State wasn’t the only conference team to have a campaign worth noticing. Utah Valley also won 23 games, showed well back in November on national television in a two-day road trip to Kentucky and Duke, and ended NMSU’s quest for an undefeated WAC season. Grand Canyon won 22 games for the second straight year, made it to the conference tourney final, and its games with New Mexico State became such happenings that both drew sellout crowds-including nearly 13,000 showing up at NMSU’s Pan American Center in February.

Seattle won 20 games at the NCAA Division I level for the first time in 49 years. Even Texas-Rio Grande Valley-the program formerly known as Texas-Pan American-showed signs of significant improvement and made a rare postseason appearance.

All is not perfect in the WAC, and that is a fact that can’t be ignored. Still, in a time where it seems some would rather talk about what conferences could be instead of what they are, the WAC deserves more credit for what it is-right now.

Final Standings:

Conference Tournament
The WAC Tournament was contested in Las Vegas for the eighth straight year, as the Orleans Arena has been a comfortable neutral site for the event. This year’s eight-team tourney opened with Grand Canyon, in its first year of NCAA Tournament eligibility, playing in the event for the first time. The third-seeded Lopes played a barnburner with No. 6 UMKC, falling behind by 16 points in the first half before rallying for a 77-74 win. Grand Canyon took the lead on two free throws by Casey Benson with 1:41 left and held on, with Alessandro Lever scoring 29 points.

The second quarterfinal also was close, No. 2 Utah Valley bolting to a 15-point lead late in the first half but withstanding a number of pushes by 7 seed Cal State Bakersfield in an 81-74 win. The remaining two quarters were settled in more decisive fashion, top seed New Mexico State handling No. 8 Chicago State 97-70 and then higher seed Seattle prevailing over Texas-Rio Grande Valley in the 4-vs.-5 game, holding the Vaqueros to icy 29.8% shooting.

The semifinals started with a mild surprise, as Grand Canyon raced out to an 18-point lead in the first half on Utah Valley. The Wolverines got back within four in the second half but couldn’t complete the comeback, hampered by 35.5% shooting in the Lopes’ 75-60 win. It appeared the second semi also was ready to provide an upset, as Seattle rebounded from a 14-point first half deficit to take a six-point halftime lead on New Mexico State. The Aggies seized the lead back with a 13-0 run to start the second half, and then weathered a back-and-forth game late, but just barely. Six missed free throws in the final 1:15 almost cost the Aggies, but Zach Lofton’s 31 points were enough in an 84-79 win.

It was another big run that put New Mexico State in control in the championship game. The Aggies trailed Grand Canyon by four late in the first half but finished the period on a 19-4 run for a 33-22 halftime lead, and never trailed in the second half of a 72-58 win. The Lopes got as close as 50-47 midway through the second half, but then went without a field goal for more than four minutes. Jemerrio Jones scored 15 points and added 19 rebounds and was named tournament MVP as New Mexico State clinched its seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament in nine years and its eighth WAC tourney title, easily the most of any school in the event’s 35 years.

Postseason Awards
Player of the Year: Jemerrio Jones, F, Sr., New Mexico State
Freshman of the Year: Alessandro Lever, C, Fr., Grand Canyon
Coach of the Year: Chris Jans, New Mexico State

All-Conference Team
Nick Dixon, G, Sr., Texas-Rio Grande Valley
Jemerrio Jones, F, Sr., New Mexico State
Alessandro Lever, C, Fr., Grand Canyon
Zach Lofton, G, Sr., New Mexico State
Kenneth Ogbe, G, Sr., Utah Valley

Season Highlights

• New Mexico State continued to own the WAC Tournament, winning its seventh title in the last nine years. The Aggies also posted the league’s two biggest non-conference wins, topping eventual NCAA Tournament qualifiers Miami (Fla.) and Davidson in Hawaii as part of the Diamond Head Classic, on the way to 28 wins for the second straight year.
• The WAC put five of its eight teams in postseason play, including four teams in the College Basketball Invitational.
• Utah Valley tied a school record with 23 wins and won a game in the CBI for the second straight year.
• New Mexico State’s Jemerrio Jones ranked second in NCAA Division I in rebounding (13.5 rpg). He posted five games with at least 20 rebounds and led the Aggies to a finish of fourth nationally in rebound margin (+8.8). Jones also was sixth in the country with 21 double-doubles and led the nation with three triple-doubles.
• Texas-Rio Grande Valley’s Nick Dixon was fourth in the country in free throws made (222) and attempted (279). Also on the team side, Grand Canyon ranked No. 1 in the nation in three-point field goal defense (27.8%).
• Grand Canyon senior Josh Braun was named a CoSIDA Academic All-American for the third straight year.

What we expected, and it happened: The beat continued at New Mexico State, where a third coach in three years was no problem and the Aggies were just as good as ever. Maybe even better.

What we expected, and it didn’t happen: Some thought last year was the year that Grand Canyon would take over as the WAC’s signature program. With four starters back plus a touted transfer, New Mexico State supposedly weakened and GCU in its first year of NCAA Tournament eligibility, everything seemed to be lined up, but the Antelopes swung and missed in a number of winnable non-conference games and never seriously challenged the Aggies for conference supremacy.

What we didn’t expect, and it happened: Most everyone knew that Seattle made a superb hire when it brought on Jim Hayford from Eastern Washington, but few wouldn’t thought he’d have the Redhawks as a 20-game winner in his first year.

Team on the rise: Seattle. The arrow seems to point only up for the Redhawks right now.

Team on the decline: Missouri-Kansas City. The Kangaroos were going to have a tough season this year anyway after losing five starters. The bigger concern going forward is that the rest of the WAC is improving, and UMKC’s quest to keep up only gets tougher.

2018-19 WAC Outlook
The WAC is a very solid conference competitively right now. Unfortunately, it is still true that there is work to do to reach a point of stability. Chicago State’s struggles are well-documented, of course, and there have been some noises about UMKC wanting to return to the Summit League. Cal State Bakersfield also is headed to the Big West beginning in 2020, and New Mexico State will always be ready to jump in a second if the Mountain West comes calling. Meanwhile, Cal Baptist begins its move up to NCAA Division I this year and becomes an official member of the league on July 1.

When it comes to the quality of basketball, though, there’s little reason right now for any members to want to leave. Stretched out as some of its geography is, the conference was demonstrably better than the Big Sky and Big West last year, and the top four of Grand Canyon, New Mexico State, Seattle and Utah Valley is very solid. GCU and NMSU also have built a healthy rivalry, one that has sold out arenas on both campuses, and Texas-Rio Grande Valley has become a solid fifth. Plus, with only eight teams, the NCAA Tournament is a good bit more accessible here than it might be in a 12-to-14 team behemoth of a league.

Of course, New Mexico State has made that something of a moot point with its dominance, and discussion of next year must again start with the Aggies. The loss of arguably the conference’s two top players-Jemerrio Jones and fill-it-up scorer Zach Lofton-will have an impact, so perhaps expect a bit more of a balanced attack. Coach Chris Jans still has talent and length, though (players like Eli Chuha personify as much), and after just one year of watching his teams there seems little doubt that NM State will defend well.

Grand Canyon will again be a chic pick to challenge, but the Lopes must be better offensively than a year ago, when they hit just 42.9% from the field and too often had dry spells. Utah Valley loses a lot of experience, including three from its starting lineup that featured five double-figure scorers. The Wolverines still have the Toolson cousins Conner and Jake though, and Mark Pope appears to have this program still on the rise. Seattle also has a solid core with superb shooter Matej Kavas and massive (7-foot-3) Aaron Menzies.

If looking for a darkhorse, Texas-Rio Grande Valley fits the bill to a T. Former Lon Kruger assistant Lew Hill has done a superb job at a long-struggling Division I outpost, and the Vaqueros’ CBI appearance in March was their first trip to postseason since the 1981 NIT, when the school was known as Pan American University. UTRGV did struggle shooting last year and loses high-scoring Nick Dixon, so firepower is needed. Cal State Bakersfield will be terrific defensively, as usual, but also needs improvement on the other end. A backcourt with Damiyne Durham, Rickey Holden and Jarkel Joiner is capable of helping with that, especially as the latter two now have a year of D-I ball under their belts.

UMKC brings back most of its team and could move up if it can improve on a horrendous -8.7 rebounding margin that ranked No. 347 in the country. Chicago State’s perpetual struggle continues.

Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam