Is the MWC competitive or bad?

Mont_Poke · Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:25 am

During half-time of the game against the Lobos the CBS Sports studio declared the MWC a 1-bid league. Wanting to throw up my arms in disgust at the thought I try to think of a couple of teams this year with big time wins... Nothing. Any team with a big win? Off the top of my head... nothing. So I go and see how the MWC has done against top 25 teams (not the best metric, but perception is huge for the tournament). I see:
0-11

What happened to the days where the MWC was a shoe in 3 bid league (SDSU,UNLV, 1 wildcard)?
SDSU- loss of in state recruits to the revivals at UCLA, USC.
UNLV- Dave Rice debacle (lol)
New Mexico- Steve Alford.

As much as I enjoy seeing Wyoming be competitive it's a whole lot more enjoyable to be beating top teams instead of fellow mediocre ones.

Just a thought.

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Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:48 am

The league is down from years past for sure but I still think it's a competitive/quality league. I look at the Sagarin rating system a lot which isn't perfect but gives a pretty quality glimpse into the NCAA entire bball rankings. Currently it ranks the MWC as the 9th best league in the country, this is a drop from the 3 bid days which in the same system in 2012 it ranked the MWC as 4th (way too high but you get the picture). That said this year Sagarin has 4 teams ranked in the top 100 (SDSU-68 which seems kinda bunk, UN-69, BSU-88, UNM-99) then 4 more teams in the top 150 (FSU-114, CSU-118, UW-137, USU-150). So that's still a quality league that is tough to get wins on in the road (tough venues) imo, however legit NCAA bid territory starts around the top 60-65ish teams. That means a few teams have to go on big win streaks to creep into that realm. It's possible for the MWC to get 2 bids the way it usually happens with a league champ and a separate tourney champ. League champ will have to do work for that bid including having a strong season finish and a win or 2 in the MWC tourney.

Note- UNLV is noticeably outside the top 150

That's a dramatic change from almost every year in the past.

Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:27 pm

The MWC killed itself in nonconference play, and nobody's exactly running the table in league play either.

Tue Jan 24, 2017 7:37 am

just not good anymore, not getting the kinds of recruits that we were a few years back, and because of it just not getting any good non conf games anymore, guess we are in the lull, someday it may come back

Mont_Poke · Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:09 am

I agree with the recruits. A lot of that rides on UNLV and SDSU able to dip into California to get those top guys. The scheduling is better though, as every team but the sheep playing at least one top-25 team. It almost feels like the wcc is a better conference currently. But I think in 2 years with a bunch of young teams we should be back.

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Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:19 pm

I honestly don't see the MWC ever really being a top 5 league in bball baring maybe one or 2 dream seasons for the conference. It would take having 3 programs being in the top 25 (one of them more like a top 15) and 3 to 4 more knocking on the door in the top 100. That can happen of course but it's more of a once in a decade or two type of circumstance. In reality we should be hoping the MWC is more in the 6-8 slots, being ranked 9th right now isn't horrible but we're really feeling the slump of SDSU and UNLV this year. Programs like UW, BSU, USU, FSU, and UNM always seem to have a top 25 potential brewing but it takes 2-4 seasons of positive building to really get there. Sustaining that success isn't the easiest either. The league does continue to put out pro players which really helps our reputation!

To put it into perspective here are the 8 conferences listed above the MWC this year on Sagarin. From top to bottom in rankings... Big 12, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, Pac 12, AAC, and the A 10. So in reality the MWC really wants to jump the American Athletic conference and the Atlantic 10. That's not as easy as it seems when you look at who's playing in those conferences. The next up is the Pac 12 and I've never really seen the MWC on the Pac 12 scale. Sure there have been years when the Pac 12 or the SEC are down in hoops but when isn't our champ gonna struggle with their champ???

Mont_Poke · Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:28 pm

I think being in that slot behind the PAC 12 would be ideal and and most likely a dream situation. There's enough talent on the west coast for the MWC to do this and I think there are a ton of young teams who can play and develop in the next year or 2 where maybe we are back.

I mean rarely is the top team in the MW (historically SDSU) gonna beat the best PAC-12 team or Kentucky... but I think the MWC can be just as deep. To prove it there just needs to be a top team or two. Will this happen? I don't know, but I think we can all agree that we'd like to see that.

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Tue Jan 24, 2017 4:35 pm

Our biggest problem is the MWC hasn't been too legit for awhile. The years we get in 3 teams in the tourney they all crap out or win a game. SDSU and UNLV have been the only ones to do anything for awhile. The MWC really needs a team to get back to the final 4, hell yeah I'd take an elite 8 too! Who better to do this then Wyoming next year.....I'll keep dreaming. Our new recruits will really have to be on another level to do this, including the guys sitting out this year. It's not impossible

Mont_Poke · Tue Jan 24, 2017 5:28 pm

Hey, Butler went to the championship game in consecutive years, why not us? Hell, I'd even take a sweet sixteen! Am I going to hope that next year this happens? Of course, but I'm also hoping for:
-Gonzaga to join the MW
-BYU to disappear into NAIA obscurity
-Santa Claus to pay off my house...
We can dream cosmic, we can dream.

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