COLUMN: The first look at next year’s WAC b-ball
I have successfully made it an entire week without mentioning Utah State basketball, and that one week will be all we get. I could talk more about spring football, but if you can’t bring yourself to go out on a sunny Saturday afternoon in April and watch some college football, the problem is with you, not any win-loss records of a football team.
Not to mention, WAC basketball has had quite the shake-up in the past two weeks with Jahmar Young allegedly going all New Mexico State on a local police officer near his university, ultimately leading to him choosing to remain in the NBA draft. Nevada’s Luke Babbitt also announced his decision Tuesday to enter the NBA draft and hire an agent, which means the top of the Western Athletic Conference is no longer wide-open for competition. To many people it never really was anyway, despite New Mexico State’s WAC Championship game upset of Utah State.
This leaves plenty of questions surrounding next season, particularly as to who next year’s preseason WAC Player of the Year will be. Babbitt would’ve been a lock for the award had he remained in school, and if he had left, Young was the obvious next choice in the pecking order. Now there are just two returning members of the All-WAC first team in San Jose State’s Adrian Oliver and the Aggies’ very own Tai Wesley. Numbers-wise, the choice is Oliver by a landslide. Luckily, the WAC’s coaches are smarter than just numbers, so much that they will consider a team’s overall record in making these decisions, and by that logic, Wesley is the obvious choice.
The more burning question, however, is where the rest of the WAC ranks behind Utah State going into next season. For this reason, I’ll offer my very premature, and very chance-susceptible preseason prediction of the 2011 WAC basketball season, starting at the bottom.
9. Hawaii – This is simply a train wreck right now, and I feel that the Rainbow Warriors are essentially a lock for the No. 9 seed in the WAC Tournament. Translation, don’t expect to see them in Las Vegas for the tournament.
8. Idaho – I hate to have to say it, because I, personally, am pulling for former USU assistant and current Vandal head coach Don Verlin to bring some respectability to Idaho’s team, but they were a disappointment in 2010 and lose essentially every key piece that got them as high as No. 6 in the WAC by season’s end.
7. Boise State – I feel deep down that losing Anthony Thomas could be addition by subtraction in many ways for the Broncos, but I could be wrong. Aside from that, the graduation of athletic big man Ike Okoye is subtraction by subtraction, and the Broncos will struggle mightily in the paint because of it.
6. Fresno State – Steve Cleveland has brought in some serious athletes to Fresno in the past few seasons but has done essentially nothing with them. The graduation of Sylvester Seay and likely NBA departure of Paul George leaves them without the two best things they had going for them in their past two seasons, which could easily be described as underwhelming.
5. Louisiana Tech – The losses of Kyle Gibson and Magnum Rolle will sting, but, in my opinion, Kerry Rupp is the best coach in the WAC not named Stew Morrill and will have his team ready to play come next season. DeAndre Brown and Olu Ashaolu are two solid pieces to have to work around as well. Rupp’s coaching alone gets his team into the middle of the pack.
4. San Jose State – Adrian Oliver is far and away the best scorer in the conference, and along with Justin Graham and C.J. Webster, the Spartans could have a very dangerous three-headed monster. They’ve got some holes to fill like every other team, but they’ve got enough crucial parts returning to crack the top half of the WAC standings.
3. Nevada – Had their entire 2009 recruiting class not bailed on them after former head coach Mark Fox’s departure, the Wolf Pack would be right near the top with Utah State. Unfortunately the majority of the 2009 class bailed and left the Wolf Pack to offer scholarships to players who might not be the kind of players with whom you build a potential WAC champion team. They have a couple very solid transfers who will be making their impact felt by the time conference play starts, but it seems to be a stretch to think that any of them can match the production of Armon Johnson and Luke Babbitt.
2. New Mexico State – For a team that is all offense and little defense, losing two of the WAC’s top-six scorers will be tough to overcome. New Mexico State’s play last season was very impressive at times, and at other times they were just a bunch of athletes playing without structure. They look to return big-men Wendell McKines, Troy Gillenwater and Hamidu Rahman, which would give them a huge advantage in every game they play, but they have some back-court holes to fill that might be too much for them to have a shot at the top of the WAC standings by season’s end. Also, given NMSU’s track record, it is almost naive to think that their off-the-court issues are all finished for the summer.
1. Utah State – This is a no-brainer. Replacing Jared Quayle will be a tall order, but head coach Stew Morrill will look to arguably the two most high-profile recruits he’s ever landed to fill that void in Brockeith Pane and James Walker. Don’t forget the value of experience that comes with a veteran of the program like Jaxon Myaer. Every other position on the team returns from a team that won the WAC by three games last year. The Aggies aren’t done recruiting either, which means there could still be another substantial addition to next year’s roster as Utah State looks for a fourth-straight WAC Championship.
Matt Sonnenberg is a junior majoring in print journalism. Matt is an avid fan of Aggie athletics and can be found on the front row of every home football and basketball game. You can leave your thoughts at www.aggietownsquare.com.