ITS TOURNEY TIME

[BeaverPoke]

Utah State fan here.

Good luck guys. Anything can happen in the tournament. I think we're two and done, but we'll be pulling for the Pokes. I'm hoping you can slip into the NCAA tournament, or at the very least the NIT. I think if we're lucky, we might get a bid to the CIT. How pathetic is that?

Go Pokes! Go AGGIES!

NCAA tourny was a long shot with Nance, and that was only going to happen by winning the conference tourny. Right now, we'll be lucky to go to any tourny.

I really don't believe it was a long shot with Nance.

Wyo finished a game out of 3rd without Nance.

We would have likely finished 13-5 or at worst 12-6 with Nance...that's a full 2-3 games ahead of 4th.
Wyoming would have been one of the hottest teams in the conference (and country) and would have likely made some noise in the Tourney and ended up with 22+ wins.

But...that doesn't matter now.
Gotta get lucky and make a run.

 

[NowherePoke]

Utah State fan here.

Good luck guys. Anything can happen in the tournament. I think we're two and done, but we'll be pulling for the Pokes. I'm hoping you can slip into the NCAA tournament, or at the very least the NIT. I think if we're lucky, we might get a bid to the CIT. How pathetic is that?

Go Pokes! Go AGGIES!

NCAA tourny was a long shot with Nance, and that was only going to happen by winning the conference tourny. Right now, we'll be lucky to go to any tourny.

I really don't believe it was a long shot with Nance.

Wyo finished a game out of 3rd without Nance.

We would have likely finished 13-5 or at worst 12-6 with Nance...that's a full 2-3 games ahead of 4th.
Wyoming would have been one of the hottest teams in the conference (and country) and would have likely made some noise in the Tourney and ended up with 22+ wins.

But...that doesn't matter now.
Gotta get lucky and make a run.

I agree with you on where the Pokes would have finished. My guess is 12-6, a full two games clear of UNLV/Nevada for 3rd.

However, they still wouldn't have been even close to the NCAA conversation. Pokes had an OOC RPI of 131 and the MWC wasn't strong enough to offset that. Projections had the Pokes with a RPI in the 70's if they had gone 12-6, 21-10, but the OOC SOS hasn't held up over the last couple of weeks (part of why our RPI drop has been even worse than expected with the losses, Pokes are now 126), so best case scenario would have been mid 70's with only 1 top 50 win and 3 top 100 wins.

Still, it's tough to miss the opportunity that was there. I think they could have finished 3rd and made the NIT which is solid progress with a bunch of talent returning. That's kind of out the window now. Not sure what happens with Hankerson (a projected starter next year) and I don't anticipate Nance will play next year (not sure I want him to, if there is any risk of coming back too soon).

 

[stymeman]

I love being a 5 seed, but the damn Rebels 1st aaaaaargh

 

[kdwrightuwyo]

I love being a 5 seed, but the damn Rebels 1st aaaaaargh

Yeah, taking on the home team on a "neutral" court at the tourney doesn't give us the best chance for success.

Btw, just because the wood is changed, doesn't make playing there "neutral." The MW needs to rethink where the conference tourney is held. A true neutral location is needed.

 

[ItSucksToBeACSURam]

I love being a 5 seed, but the damn Rebels 1st aaaaaargh

Yeah, taking on the home team on a "neutral" court at the tourney doesn't give us the best chance for success.

Btw, just because the wood is changed, doesn't make playing there "neutral." The MW needs to rethink where the conference tourney is held. A true neutral location is needed.

I was just about to comment this. It make no sense that one of the teams in our conferences gets HOME COURT every single tournament. Its complete BS. Either do a true neutral court of move it every year to a different host conference team. Pisses me off that UNLV gets to sleep on their beds, drive their cars, and play in front of their home crowd for the entire tournament. What a joke. Did Burman make the decision to go back to Vegas....

 

[calpoke25]

One positive is the early tip. Anybody who's been to the MW tournament knows the difference between a UNLV day game and a UNLV evening game. I think the environment will be closer to a neutral environment, I imagine most UNLV fans view the game as a gimme and will save themselves for the SDSU game.

 

[seattlecowboy]

Yeah honestly playing UNLV in their arena on the first day in a day game isn't that bad. It will be closer to a neutral court. It is the 2nd game of the day so you will still have a lot of fans from other teams that have tickets that are in the arena so UNLV fans won't be able to fill the thing up and the fact it is in the afternoon also. I don't see it as a big deal.

I would have said Wyoming would win this game if Nance was playing healthy but without him and Hankerson it will be tough. Wyoming won't lose this game because UNLV has a huge "homecourt" advantage. If UNLV beats Wyoming it will be more due to the fact Wyoming is missing two key players and that might be too much to overcome.

That said I would rather be playing UNLV than Boise St. in the first game. So maybe we get lucky and pull out a win.

 

[J-Rod]

That said I would rather be playing UNLV than Boise St. in the first game. So maybe we get lucky and pull out a win.

How do you figure? Boise is in disarray right now.....losing to Reno and AFA back-to-back. Leon Rice threatening to leave players home (Derrick Marks).....I'd rather play a defeated and slumping Boise State than UNLV in front of their fans.

 

[NowherePoke]

That said I would rather be playing UNLV than Boise St. in the first game. So maybe we get lucky and pull out a win.

How do you figure? Boise is in disarray right now.....losing to Reno and AFA back-to-back. Leon Rice threatening to leave players home (Derrick Marks).....I'd rather play a defeated and slumping Boise State than UNLV in front of their fans.

It's amazing how the 2nd tier of the MWC (UNLV/Boise/Wyoming) fell apart down the stretch. Injuries, suspensions, you name it. There isn't anybody left that gives SDSU or UNM anything to worry about. Only real hope for a cinderella run and 3rd NCAA bid for the MWC is Fresno IMHO.

 

[seattlecowboy]

That said I would rather be playing UNLV than Boise St. in the first game. So maybe we get lucky and pull out a win.

How do you figure? Boise is in disarray right now.....losing to Reno and AFA back-to-back. Leon Rice threatening to leave players home (Derrick Marks).....I'd rather play a defeated and slumping Boise State than UNLV in front of their fans.

Like I said we won't be playing in front of a ton of UNLV fans. Yeah they will have their fair share there but there will be so many other fans in the arena at that time that it won't be that big of a deal. Also Wyoming matches up better with UNLV than they do Boise in my opinion. Boise just kicked our butts in the 2nd half last week. I think when Wyoming plays the slow down game that it frustrates UNLV more so than Boise.

And as bad as Boise tanked the last couple of games I believe Leon Rice is still a lot better coach than Dave Rice.

It probably won't matter because there is a good chance we would get beat by either one of them.