I went into this season expecting this to be one of the best seasons ever as far as strength goes, but WAC hoops has been disappointing to say the least.

Preseason, I figured it would play out like this-

-Nevada would win the conference
-NMSU would challenge but finish in second place
-Fresno State would be greatly improved and challenge the above two teams
-USU would take a step back, but would still be a formidable opponent
-Hawaii would possible make some noise as well.

As it stands, Nevada is 9-1 with an ugly loss to Nevada Southern, but NSU may end up being much better than anyone anticipated so that may not be a bad loss. The Pack has looked like a top ten team in some games, and looked like they don't deserve to be in the top 25 in other games. Fortunately though, I don't think the Nevada team has peaked yet.

The next two weeks will tell us a lot about the Wolf Pack team. A tough road game against Akron this week, followed by the Gonzaga showdown on New Year's weekend.

However, the RPI ratings for the WAC are not very good, and the WAC is in serious danger of being a one-bid league this year for the first time since...maybe ever. I really thought at least three, maybe four teams would have the chance of making the NCAAs this year.

So the question is...what happened this year?

To be honest I think NMSU has a great chance to upset Nevada this year. I think NMSU will win in Las Cruces, and lose in Nevada, but since the WAC tourney is in Las Cruces, NMSU has a big chance to beat Nevada.

I think it's pretty simple. You have to play several good RPI teams and win some of those games.

USU is 0-1 vs top 100 rpi
NMSU is 0-2
Nevada 2-1
Hawaii 0-4
Fresno 1-2
Boise 1-3

Overall the top 6 teams in the conference are 4-13 vs the top 100 RPI teams. Add to that

Idaho 0-5
SJSU 0-4
LTU 0-4

and the conference overall is 4-26. I still think the WAC has 4 teams capable of being top 50 RPI, but if you can't prove it on the court, the selection committee will not put you in the tourney. Worst of all, in conference season, the top teams all have to play three teams bad enough that wins drop our RPI and then beat up on each other in the other games. The poor SOS didn't help, but you have to win when you play these teams.

As the most quotable person in history put it,

I agree it will be tougher for a couple of teams to seperate themselves from the pack with USU, NMSU, FSU and Nevada all capable of holding at home and beating the rest of the conference both home and away (though Hawaii and Boise could surprise any of these teams playing at home). If a few of these teams can sweep one or two of the other top 4 it can definitely lead to multiple bids. If none of them can pull away from the pack, it could lead to 1 bid, mainly because the selection committee won't be able to find a quality win for USU, NMSU and FSU unless they beat Nevada or win a good bracketbuster game. If USU hadn't beat Nevada in Reno last year, they wouldn't have made the tournament. If Nevada does as well in the WAC as the last few years, the teams that beat the Pack will be the only ones with a chance at the tourney other than Nevada. If Nevada sweeps USU, FSU and NMSU, one of them will have to win the Conference Tourney to get in in my opinion.

Definitely slow out of the box. But I think I agree with CL that we're not too far off par.

Nevada - 9-1

Fresno - 9-2

USU - 8-2

NMSU 7-3

Hawaii 6-4

Boise 5-5

Definitely could be better. I don't expect much from Hawaii this year do to our coaching situation, but it looks like Boise's playing much better than in the past.

I think we could get two in the tourney this year...and I think it will be Nevada and NMSU.