Entering the week, the Mountain West had a highly anticipated slate of mid-week games and a somewhat dull slate of weekend games. Tuesday and Wednesday night lived up to the hype, but Saturday’s competition clearly caught Colorado State and New Mexico off guard. With the Rams slipping and the Lobos taking an ugly resume hit against Air Force, the quest for #SixBidMW stands on the edge of a knife. Let’s get into it!
Team of the Week: Utah State
First place was on the line in Logan last Tuesday as #19 San Diego State visited a slumping Utah State squad. The Spectrum was rocking, Great Osobor found a new gear against conference POY frontrunner Jaedon LeDee, and the Aggies led the whole second half en route to a 68-63 win.
On Saturday, USU had a much-needed bye week, where they got to sit at home while conference heavyweights crumbled all around them. Most notably, New Mexico’s loss drops the Lobos two games back of USU in the conference standings, so the Aggies could drop their season finale against UNM and still remain ahead in the standings.
As it stands, USU controls the top seed thanks to their tiebreaker over Boise State. Win out and the Aggies can open up the conference tournament against (likely) Wyoming or Fresno State. All that’s left to do is take care of business against the bottom three teams in the league and defend home court against New Mexico.
Player of the Week: Darius Brown II
It’s not easy for a player to win a conference Player of the Week award while only playing one game that week. Such awards tend to go to players who put together two dominant performances in a given week. In the case of USU’s Darius Brown II, he put together two such performances in one game against San Diego State on Tuesday. Offensively, Brown went off for a game-high 25 points on 8/13 shooting in the Aggies’ big home win. On the defensive end, Brown took on the Aztecs’ Lamont Butler and held the Final Four hero to zero points on five shot attempts.
Game to Watch: New Mexico at Boise State
3/2, 6 PM MT (CBSSN), Boise, ID
New Mexico suffered a devastating Quad 4 home loss to Air Force on Saturday, and will have a full week to stew over that defeat before going to ExtraMile Arena to take on Boise State. The Broncos have played themselves into a safer NCAA tournament position over the last few weeks, and have their eyes on a Mountain West regular season title. This is a vital game for the Lobos to get safely into the tournament field, and the Broncos can’t afford to drop a game behind Utah State. The calendar says that this is March and the excitement of this game should say the same.