Teams at summit of Mountain West give league high profile
Tim Miles has improved in each of his three years at Colorado State, going from ninth to eighth to fifth in the Mountain West Conference. Now the goal is to crack the top four of the league, somehow. And while I'm not ready to label it the likely scenario, what I can predict is that Miles will worry himself silly if he keeps staying up to watch conference foes on television.
Consider this tweet from late Tuesday.
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| SDSU's Kawhi Leonard, a double-double guy, is a threat to BYU's Jimmer Fredette for MWC Player of the Year. (US Presswire) |
Then guess what happened?
BYU went out and beat Utah State, and UNLV and Utah likewise improved to 2-0 with Wednesday night wins. Consequently, the Mountain West still has seven schools with perfect records, and those schools have spent the first 10 days of this college basketball season recording victories over the WCC favorite (Gonzaga), WAC favorite (Utah State) and a top-half team from the Pac-10 (Arizona State). Combined it makes for a nice start, and it's the latest bit of evidence suggesting that the four bids the MWC earned last season were anything but flukey.
The league will get four again this season.
At least.
Because it's a league filled with serious programs and serious coaches who have recruited serious players -- guys like New Mexico's Dairese Gary (18 points in this week's win over Arizona State), BYU's Jimmer Fredette (26 points in this week's win over Utah State) and San Diego State's Billy White (30 points in this week's win over Gonzaga), the last of whom wasn't even considered one of Steve Fisher's top two players entering this season. Now White is shooting 74 percent from the field and averaging 18 points and 7.5 rebounds. Meantime, Kawhi Leonard is averaging 19.5 points and 12.0 rebounds for the Aztecs and looking like a serious threat to Fredette for MWC Player of the Year honors.
Personally, I believe the Big 12 is more up for grabs than any other good league.
(Kansas State? Kansas? Texas? Baylor? Missouri? Any could win the conference.)
The Mountain West is a close second.
Four different schools received first-place votes in the MWC preseason poll, and though San Diego State and BYU are the only two from the group currently ranked, it should surprise nobody if New Mexico (still waiting on Drew Gordon to get eligible) and UNLV (still waiting on Tre'Von Willis' suspension to be lifted) also break into the Top 25 (and one), sooner rather than later. That means the MWC is clearly the best of the non-BCS leagues, and at least in my eyes also better than the Pac-10. We could debate it, I guess. But barring a surprise, the Mountain West will put at least four schools in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year while the Pac-10 figures to get no more than three bids after getting just two last March.
Advantage: Mountain West.
(And by a notable margin.)
"Might even be tougher than last year," Utah coach Jim Boylen told me Thursday morning, at which point I called Miles and suggested he get an Ambien prescription, ASAP.
"You look at those top four teams -- San Diego State, BYU, UNLV and New Mexico -- and they're pretty awesome," Miles said. "Our league is better than ever, just watching the games I've watched. So hopefully we can play well. We're going to have to."
