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Mountain West Basketball Week 1: What We Learned
What we learned in the first week of Mountain West basketball
Contact/Follow @boettger_eli & @MWCwire
Mountain West Basketball Week 1: What We Learned
–Mountain West Basketball Week 1: Plays of the Week
–Nevada Steamrolls Over Pacific 83-61
–Boise State Stunned 72-70 By Idaho State In Season Opener
The first week of Mountain West basketball is in the books. Here’s what we learned:
This was a rough start for the conference
https://twitter.com/boettger_eli/status/1061483096204165121
Yikes.
Conference frontrunners Nevada, San Diego State, and New Mexico are still unbeaten at the top, but things get a bit dicey as you move down the ladder. Let’s start with Boise State, which opened up an 18-point advantage in the second half in Taco Bell Arena. The Broncos choked down the stretch and suffered an inexplicable home loss to Idaho State.
Elsewhere, UNLV missed fourteen three-pointers and turned it over 24 times, scoring just 50 points in a head-scratching defeat to Loyola Marymount in Vegas. Wyoming started the season 0-2, averaging 65 points a game in double-digit losses to UC Santa Barbara (at home) and Oregon State (in Corvallis). Air Force and San Jose State also fell to sub-200 KenPom opponents.
Nevada, somehow, is probably scarier than we first thought
https://twitter.com/boettger_eli/status/1060075506970705920
In most regards, Nevada hasn’t played all that well through its first two regular season games. Its results? A 16-point victory over a potential NCAA Tournament team in BYU and a 22-point blowout of a KenPom top 150 squad in Pacific. Jordan Caroline has been the Wolf Pack’s best player through 80 minutes, averaging 20.5 points and 10 rebounds while converting 14 of his 24 field goal attempts.
The Martin twins are a combined 32.5 percent from the field (compared to 48.1 percent last season) and Eric Musselman‘s squad is still blowing out teams at home with ease. Nevada’s depth will allow a star or two to have an off night and not miss a beat. The first two games are tangible evidence.
Wyoming’s injury bug could be costly
The Cowboys could be in trouble. Red flags were drawn well before the start of the season with three senior starters graduating. Things have only gotten worse since. Allen Edwards‘ team dropped its first two regular season games, a 10-point home loss to UC Santa Barbara and a 19-point defeat at Oregon State. Projected frontcourt starter Jordan Naughton is out more than a month with a knee injury and his fill-in, redshirt freshman Hunter Thompson, is now in concussion protocol without a recovery timetable in place. This is starting to look more and more like Justin James versus the world in Laramie.
Player of the Week: Nico Carvacho, Colorado State
Eli Boettger is the lead basketball writer at Mountain West Wire. He’s covered Mountain West basketball since 2015 and his work has been featured on Bleacher Report, NBC Sports, SB Nation, Yahoo Sports, MSN, and other platforms. Boettger is a current USBWA member.
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