MW Tournament guide: Top teams, players to watch, Pack's chances

The Mountain West men’s basketball tournament begins Wednesday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

The conference is coming off what might be its most competitive regular season ever, with six 20-win teams and three teams finishing within one game of each other at the top of the final standings.

Here’s a look at the tournament, including players to watch, broadcast details, and where the MW stands in terms of NCAA Tournament berths. The event wraps up with Saturday’s championship game (3 p.m., CBS).

SCHEDULE

Wednesday: No. 8 Wyoming (15-16) vs. No. 9 Fresno State (11-20), 11 a.m.; No. 7 Colorado State (22-9) vs. No. 10 San Jose State (9-22), 1:30 p.m.; No. 6 New Mexico (22-9) vs. No. 11 Air Force (9-21), 4 p.m.

Thursday: Wyoming-Fresno State winner vs. No. 1 Utah State (26-5), noon; No. 4 UNLV (19-11) vs. No. 5 San Diego State (22-9), 2:30 p.m.; Colorado State-San Jose State winner vs. No. 2 Nevada (26-6), 6 p.m.; New Mexico-Air Force winner vs. No. 3 Boise State (22-9), 8:30 p.m.

Friday: Quarterfinal winners, 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Saturday: Championship, 3 p.m.

HOW TO WATCH

Wednesday: Mountain West Network, beginning at 11 a.m.

Thursday: CBS Sports Network, beginning at noon

Friday: CBS Sports Network, 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Saturday: CBS, 3 p.m.

THE FAVORITE

It’s likely the deepest field ever for a MW Tournament, so pointing to a clear-cut favorite isn’t easy.

The No. 1 seed — 26-5 Utah State — is probably as good of a pick as any. The Aggies, picked to finish ninth in the MW’s preseason poll, have been one of the biggest surprises in the nation and enter the tournament having won seven of their last eight.

Utah State will also benefit from playing its quarterfinals game against either Wyoming or Fresno State, the eighth- and ninth-place teams in what turned out to be a conference with seven strong teams.

It would not be a shock, though, to see another member of the Mountain West’s “Big 7” — Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, and UNLV — cut down the nets Saturday afternoon. Each of those teams enters the tournament with at least 22 wins, other than UNLV (19).

THE DARKHORSE

Watch out for UNLV (19-11). Not only did the Rebels play better in the final third of the season — winning 10 of 11 games before losing at Nevada on Saturday — they also get to play the MW Tournament on their home floor. Can that translate into three wins in three days? It can’t hurt, although the Rebels have not won the tournament since 2008.

No. 4 seed UNLV opens on Thursday against No. 5 San Diego State. The Rebels beat the Aztecs on March 5, 62-58.

NEVADA

The Wolf Pack will be looking for its first conference tournament title since 2017, when an Eric Musselman-led team swept both the MW regular-season and tournament titles.

Nevada enters the event as one of the MW’s hotter teams. After a stretch of losing four times in five games in the second half of January, the pack reeled off 10 wins in 11 outings and fought its way to a second-place finish in the MW standings (trailing only Utah State, which did not have to play in Reno this season).

The Wolf Pack enters the tournament on a seven-game winning streak, the longest of any of the 11 teams.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

• C Jaedon LeDee, San Diego State: Has blossomed at this third school (Ohio State, TCU) and is a Wooden Award candidate. He leads the conference in scoring (20.5 ppg) and also averages 8.2 rebounds per game.

• C/F Great Osobor, Utah State: The transition from Big Sky (Montana State) to Mountain West did not phase Osobor at all. He’s in the top three in the MW in both scoring (17.5 ppg) and rebounding (a MW-best 9.0 rpg).

• G Isaiah Stevens, Colorado State: The fifth-year point player does everything for the Rams and is CSU’s most valuable player by a large margin. He leads the conference in assists (7.0 apg) and is second in assist-turnover ratio (3.1).

• F Tyson Degenhart, Boise State: The Broncos have gotten important contributions from a number of sources this season, but Degenhart has been the team’s most reliable player. He averages 16.8 points and 6.0 rebounds.

• C/F J.T. Toppin, New Mexico: The Lobos’ Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr. are flashier, but Toppin’s presence on the inside has been key to UNM’s success. He leads the MW in shooting (.632 from the floor) and blocked shots (1.9 bpg), along with finishing second in rebounding (8.7 rpg). And he’s a freshman.

WOLF PACK LEADERS

• G Kenan Blackshear: The Wolf Pack’s “glue” player; Nevada depends on him to be a difference-maker at both ends. Not surprisingly, he’s all over the stat sheet (15.1 ppg; 4.9 rpg; 4.8 apg).

• G Jarod Lucas: Nevada is in great shape when Lucas is shooting well. He was second in the MW scoring race (17.8 ppg) and is the conference’s top free-throw shooter (.901).

• F Nick Davidson: In his sophomore campaign, he seems to be gaining confidence with each outing (12.2 ppg; 7.3 rpg).

• F Tre Coleman: A player who spent three seasons making his mark as an outstanding defender before blossoming into more of an offensive threat this season (8.6 ppg; 3.8 rpg).

6-BID MW? 7?

The record for Mountain West teams invited to the NCAA Tournament is five, set in 2013.

That mark looks to be in danger this season.

“Six-bid Mountain West” has been a talking point since November, both among national commentators and college basketball’s large — and vocal — social media sphere. And it hasn’t just been a meme, either, as the conference has the numbers to justify having as many as six teams in the national conversation:

• Through Saturday, the conference has six teams in the top 36 of the NCAA’s official NET rankings tool. No team ranked in the top 32 has ever been left out of the NCAA Tournament.

The MW’s NET spread runs from 20 (San Diego State) to 36 (Colorado State).

• Add to that the wild-card of UNLV — again, playing on its home court — which was 9-9 at one point, but has surged since the calendar flipped to February.

• The MW finished 104-38 (.732) in non-conference games, the fourth-best record among the sports’ 32 major conferences. The MW is also one of just two conferences with six teams with .700 winning percentages or better, joining the Big 12.

• The MW dominated play in the Western U.S., finishing 6-1 against the Pac-12 and 18-6 against the West Coast Conference.

PACK BASKETBALL

Who: Nevada (26-6) vs. Colorado State (22-9) or San Jose State (9-22)

When: Thursday, 6 p.m.

Where: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas

What: Mountain West Tournament quarterfinals

TV/Streaming: Mountain West Network

Radio: 95.5 FM (John Ramey)