Community Picks: Vermont 0% vs Nevada 0%

LAS VEGAS — It was only three years ago that the Mountain West was the nation's No. 1 RPI league and sent five of its nine teams to the NCAA tournament. Now the league has fallen to the point that its 16-2 regular season champion is a long shot to earn an NCAA bid. When second-seeded Fresno State upset top-seeded San Diego State 68-63 in Saturday's Mountain West title game, it sent the Bulldogs to their first NCAA tournament in 15 years and the Aztecs to the bubble. San Diego State won the Mountain West regular season title by three games over Fresno State, but Aztecs coach Steve Fisher admitted he isn't certain that will be enough for his team even though the league's outright champion has earned an NCAA bid every year since its inception in 1999. "I said yesterday that if we win today, all doubt will be erased and if we don't, I'll be like everybody — wondering, worrying and waiting," Fisher said. "That's what we'll do. It's not my job to politic and it's not my job to pick. We'll have to wait and see." [ Yahoo Tourney Pick’em is open. Sign up now and play for $50K ] San Diego State's tenuous position on the bubble is partially its own fault. Expected to win the Mountain West and return to the NCAA tournament despite the departure of two starters from last year's team, San Diego State got off to an unusually poor start. The Aztecs beat only one of the four major-conference opponents on their schedule and also suffered damaging home losses against Grand Canyon and Arkansas Little Rock and a fluky loss to woeful San Diego outdoors at Petco Park. Atoning for those early woes normally wouldn't have been an issue, but this year's unusually weak Mountain West offered San Diego State (25-9) few if any opportunities for resume-boosting wins. At No. 78 in the RPI, Fresno State was the Mountain West's only other top 100 team besides the Aztecs. Defending champion Boise State underachieved this season and Mountain West flagship programs UNLV and New Mexico faded from relevance, the Lobos faltering late in non-league play and the Rebels crumbling as soon as the conference season began. The struggles of the league's top tier masked the usual challenges that come with going 16-2 in the Mountain West. The selection committee's team sheets won't show the challenges of traveling to remote Mountain West cities and playing a handful of road games at altitude in front of crowds larger than many power-five programs draw. "This is a hard league to win on the road for a lot of reasons," Fisher told Yahoo Sports last month. "The travel is a bear. The altitude. The logistics. And then you're going to venues where the crowds are there and they're supportive of their teams. So I'm very proud of the fact we've found ways to win." San Diego State could have left no doubt that it belonged in the NCAA tournament with three wins in Las Vegas this week, but the Aztecs faltered on Saturday against a program built very much in their image. Rodney Terry's collection of under-the-radar recruits and transfers in need of a second chance is very reminiscent of San Diego State's rosters before the Kawhi Leonard era elevated the Aztecs to new heights. Ahead by a point with just over three minutes to go, San Diego State's carelessness with the basketball reared its head at the worst possible time. Especially costly was a blown lob pass to Malik Pope that led to a Fresno State fast break culminating in a Julien Lewis pull-up 3-pointer that gave the Bulldogs the lead for good with less than two minutes to go. "We wanted to be the team that won the league outright and we did," Fisher said. "We wanted desperately to be the team that put an exclamation point on it here, and we didn't. I'm disappointed, but we'll see what happens tomorrow." Whether the Aztecs sneak into the field or not on Sunday, there are two things that need to happen for them not to be in this position again next March. The first is that they need to play to their potential in November and December and realize those games are as important as games in February and March. The second is that they need the rest of the league to pull its own weight and return the Mountain West to its heights of a few years ago. It will help that Nevada is on the rise under first-year coach Eric Musselman, but improvement from the Wolf Pack isn't enough. The Mountain West desperately needs a rejuvenated UNLV and New Mexico to regain national relevance. Both the Rebels and Lobos are at a crossroads after quarterfinal losses in the Mountain West tournament. UNLV needs to identify a coach who can retain the current talent and develop it into a cohesive team the way Dave Rice seldom could. New Mexico needs to determine whether Craig Neal is capable of returning the program to the heights of the Steve Alford era or not. Fisher declined to single out the Rebels and Lobos, but he acknowledged the need for the league to improve as a whole. "We're not a one-bid league as a rule," he said. "We've had as many as four or five in the tournament at one time. That's what we should be. It happens in a variety of ways. You have to have teams that are good, schedule with thoughtfulness and then win some of those." - - - - - - - Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @JeffEisenberg Continue to Article

March 12, 2016 10:34:pm EST

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Trey Kell scored 15 points as San Diego State never trailed and beat Nevada 67-55 on Friday night in a Mountain West Conference Tournament semifinal. Continue to Article

March 12, 2016 12:39:am EST

Freshman Cameron Oliver had a career high 26 points with 15 rebounds and four blocked shots, one with 3.5 seconds to play to give Nevada a 64-62 win over New Mexico in the Mountain West quarterfinals on Thursday. With a 63-62 lead, fifth-seeded Nevada's Eric Cooper, an 85 percent foul shooter, missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 15.7 seconds left. Fourth-seeded New Mexico whipped the ball around to Cullen Neal in the right corner but Oliver closed quickly for the swat. Continue to Article

March 10, 2016 8:09:pm EST

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Elijah Brown had 17 points, Cullen Neal scored 16 and New Mexico beat Nevada 71-66 on Saturday night in the season finale for both teams. Continue to Article

March 06, 2016 12:36:am EST

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Tyron Criswell scored 23 points and posted a career high 16 rebounds, while Marqueze Coleman added 10 points to move into 23rd place on Nevada's all-time scoring list as the Wolfpack beat Utah State 73-68 Wednesday night. Continue to Article

February 25, 2016 12:21:am EST