The Mountain West Tournament kicks off on Wednesday and it may match the record for the most NCAA tournament teams in its history. Currently, Joe Lunardi has the Mountain west projected as a four-bid league (Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, and Wyoming).
If four teams from the Mountain West get into the NCAA it will be the second-most in the conference’s history, but will a team steal a bid and make it five?
The favorite in my opinion is easily Colorado State. They are ranked 23rd in the AP poll and are led by the conference player of the year, David Roddy. Roddy is also my favorite for player of the tournament. He is averaging 19.5 points per game on 57.5% shooting and also averages a block a game and 7.6 rebounds a game.
Colorado State as a team leads the conference in Offense, but do not rule out San Diego State or Boise State who both are near the top of the conference in offense and defense.
Wyoming is the biggest question mark heading into this tournament. They come into the tournament losing four of their last seven and needed overtime to beat a bad Fresno State team. Wyoming is currently on “the bubble” and their game against UNLV I think has the potential to be the game of the tournament.
With a win, Wyoming is most likely into the NCAA tournament. UNLV however, is my sleeper pick to win the tournament. The five seed in the Mountain West is led by Bryce Hamilton who averages 22 points and nine rebounds a game.
The Rebels have swept Colorado State and have beaten Wyoming already a week ago. UNLV has a serious chance to run the table and get a bid to the Big Dance.
This is one of the most wide-open conference tournaments, with four teams that could win and a sneaky UNLV team that could give some teams a run for the title.
Final prediction: Colorado State beats UNLV 70-62 in the final.