The Mountain West Conference usually has its tournament at the same time as all the big boys. A convention led them to move it up by a week, allowing it to stand out a little more. On Thursday, it stood out in a way that it would have regardless of when it was held, starting and ending with high drama.
The beginning ended up being somewhat of a close call. The end, however, was a close call but had a shocking result to close out the night as No. 11 Wyoming rallied, then held off No. 3 Nevada 74-71.
As if that wasn’t enough, the second game of the day was a mild upset and the third game certainly gave the No. 2 seed a bit of heartburn. Utah State struggled for a stretch in the second half and at one point trailed 57-46, and Sam Merrill was on the bench. He then returned, and the game changed as the Aggies took over and basically won going away. Utah State had lost a lot of margin for error during Mountain West play, but they should be in reasonably good shape to get to the NCAA Tournament although they now have an unexpected land mine ahead in the form of a game where a loss would be a bad loss.
The day started with top seed San Diego State getting a mild scare from No. 9 Air Force. The Falcons led at the half, but shot just 27.3 percent in the second half as San Diego State was able to rally and then win 73-60 to move on. While it never looked like the Aztecs were in serious danger, they won less comfortably than the final score might indicate. Both teams shot well from long range in the first half, but the Falcons couldn’t sustain it.
After that, No. 5 Boise State managed to take out No. 4 UNLV on the Runnin’ Rebels’ home court by a 67-61 margin. It’s at best a mild upset, as UNLV was just a game better although the game was in their arena, but it’s a tough end to what was a solid first season for new head coach T.J. Otzelberger. UNLV has been irrelevant for several years, but this season looks like a move in the right direction. Boise State is very capable as well, and we saw that when they had a furious rally to stun Utah State earlier in the season.
The real story, though, was Wyoming. Allen Edwards is thought to be on his way out as head coach, and that might still be the case unless this turns into a real miracle run, but the Cowboys made quite a comeback on Thursday night. Nevada led 43-33 at halftime and appeared to be on their way to a semifinal date with Utah State. An NCAA Tournament at-large bid was not at stake, as the Wolfpack would only go dancing with a conference tournament title, but this looked like a game they would move on from.
The Wolfpack still led by 10 just past the halfway point of the second half, but Wyoming went on an 18-5 run to take the lead for good. Nevada had chances to tie or take the lead in the final minute, but couldn’t cash them in. Wyoming made enough free throws to force the Wolfpack to take three-pointers, and they couldn’t hit enough to complete a rally.
While this is bound to bring out some of Steve Alford’s detractors, let’s recognize that Nevada was a good but flawed team and give credit to Wyoming. The Cowboys are often tough at home even when they don’t have their best team, but this was a tough year as evidenced by their 2-16 conference record. But now they’ll get a chance to keep going on Friday, and should they keep it going, it would be quite a miracle indeed as they now have to get past a team hopeful of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Side Dishes
Conference tournament roundup:
- The Atlantic Sun championship game is set, and there was one surprise as No. 3 Lipscomb went to No. 2 North Florida and held off the Ospreys 73-71 for their eighth win in nine games, getting hot at the right time. No. 1 Liberty will host them after they got past No. 4 Stetson 66-62 in Lynchburg behind 26 points and eight rebounds from Caleb Homesley.
- Home teams won both quarterfinal games in the Horizon League Tournament as No. 4 UIC held off No. 5 Youngstown State 67-61 and No. 3 Green Bay broke away from No. 6 Oakland in the second half for a 78-63 win.
- Higher seeds won in the first round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, with No. 8 Drake pulling away from No. 9 Illinois State 75-65 and No. 7 Valparaiso holding off No. 10 Evansville 58-55, sending the the Purple Aces home without a Missouri Valley win all year. Adam Glatczk has more on Drake’s win.
- The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament had its quarterfinals in Evansville, with No. 4 Eastern Kentucky using an 18-2 second-half run to take over the game en route to a 58-48 win over No. 5 Tennessee State and No. 3 Austin Peay handling No. 6 Eastern Illinois 76-65 in a game that wasn’t quite that close.
- The quarterfinals of the Patriot League Tournament included a stunner as No. 7 Bucknell went to No. 2 American and knocked off the Eagles 64-59. The Bison will take on No. 3 Boston University, who shot nearly 52 percent in the second half to overcome a small halftime deficit and beat No. 6 Navy 69-63. No. 1 Colgate took care of No. 8 Lehigh 83-70 and No. 5 Lafayette held off No. 4 Army West Point 73-68.
- In the first round of the West Coast Conference Tournament, No. 8 Loyola Marymount took care of No. 9 San Diego 75-61 and No. 7 Santa Clara dumped No. 10 Portland 76-62.
UConn got a big 77-71 win over Houston that now puts the Cougars in a position where the best they can do is get a share of the regular season title in the American Athletic Conference. They are tied with Cincinnati a game back of Tulsa, with Memphis coming to town on Sunday, while Cincinnati hosts Temple on Saturday night and Tulsa travels to old rival Wichita State with a chance to win an outright title.
The Pac-12 regular season title comes down to UCLA and Oregon, with the latter running away from Cal 90-56 in Eugene on Thursday night. This was never really a ballgame, and the Ducks join the Bruins at 12-5 with a visit from Stanford remaining. The Bruins make the short trip to cross-town rival USC for their regular season finale. Also in the Pac-12, Washington ended any remote hope Arizona State had of a share of the regular season title by knocking off the Sun Devils 90-83 in Tempe, rallying past them in the second half.
Arizona shook off Washington State in the second half on Thursday night and then pulled away for a win, but the Wildcats were short-handed and will be in their regular season finale. The school announced that big man Chase Jeter is suspended for the final two regular season games for a violation of team rules. A McDonald’s All-American in high school, Jeter has had a relatively non-descript college career that is drawing to a close. Arizona was also without Max Hazzard on Thursday night, as he missed the game for personal reasons.
Eastern Washington now has the inside track in the Big Sky, as the Eagles blew out Idaho State 100-75 while Northern Colorado knocked off Montana 71-64. The Eagles can win the regular season title outright with a win at Montana State as they are a game up on both the Bears and Grizzlies.
Other results of note: Ohio State rallied past Illinois 71-63, and the Buckeyes are starting to look more like the team of early in the season than in January; Cletrell Pope had a big game with 20 points and 16 rebounds to lead Bethune-Cookman past Florida A&M 72-70 in overtime; Alcorn State surprised Prairie View A&M 80-71, but the Panthers still clinched an outright regular season SWAC title with Texas Southern losing 89-74 at Southern; New Mexico State completed an undefeated run through the WAC by thumping California Baptist 83-50; and Memphis got 14 points and 16 rebounds from Precious Achiuwa to knock off Wichita State 68-60.
In their 82-58 loss at Michigan, Nebraska was without guard Cam Mack, who they suspended for a violation of team rules. The school announced the suspension about an hour before the game, and the sophomore is no small loss since he typically fills the stat sheet for the Cornhuskers.
Tonight’s Menu
The conference tournament action continues, while the regular season slate is a little lighter.
- The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament continues in St. Louis with quarterfinal action. First, No. 1 Northern Iowa takes on No.8 Drake (1 p.m.), then No. 4 Bradley battles No. 5 Southern Illinois (3:30 p.m.), No. 2 Loyola-Chicago takes on No. 7 Valparaiso (7 p.m.) and No. 3 Indiana State battles No. 6 Missouri State (9:30 p.m.)
- The Southern Conference Tournament gets underway in Asheville with first round action as No. 8 Samford battles No. 9 VMI (5 p.m.) and No. 7 Wofford takes on No. 10 The Citadel (7:30 p.m.)
- The semifinals of the Big South Tournament will have No. 2 Winthrop battling No. 3 Gardner-Webb and No. 1 Radford taking on No. 5 Hampton.
- The Ohio Valley Conference Tournament also has its semifinals in Evansville, with No. 1 Belmont taking on No. 4 Eastern Kentucky (8 p.m.) and No. 2 Murray State taking on No. 3 Austin Peay (10 p.m.)
- In Las Vegas, the Mountain West Tournament has semifinal action as No. 1 San Diego State battles No. 5 Boise State (9 p.m.) and No. 2 Utah State takes on No. 11 Wyoming (11:30 p.m.)
- Also in Las Vegas, the West Coast Conference moves on to the second round with No. 5 San Francisco taking on No. 8 Loyola Marymount (9 p.m.) and No. 6 Pepperdine taking on No. 7 Santa Clara (11 p.m.)
- Two good MAC matchups get the regular season slate all going early as Buffalo visits Bowling Green (6 p.m.) and Akron hosts Kent State (6:30 p.m.), while another good one comes later as Ball State visits Northern Illinois (8 p.m.)
- A couple of ACC games are on tap as Georgia Tech visits Clemson and Wake Forest goes to NC State (7 p.m.)
- There’s a sleeper matchup in the Atlantic 10 as Richmond visits Duquesne (7 p.m.), while Davidson hosts VCU later (9 p.m.)
- The best game on a busy final night of MAAC action is Siena visiting Monmouth, while Iona visiting St. Peter’s is a good one as well (7 p.m.)
- The final two nights of Ivy League regular season action start tonight as Brown visits Harvard, Yale visits Dartmouth, Columbia goes to Princeton and Cornell goes to Penn, all tipping at 7 p.m.
