BYU Cougars

The boys from Provo lost a lot of top-tier talent from their NCAA Tournament team from a year ago?MWC Player of the Year Mekeli Wesley, First Team All-Conference Terrell Lyday and Second Teamer and U transfer Trent Whiting. But they still don’t seem to be missing a step.

Thus far ignoring a meager sixth-place preseason standing, BYU owns a 10-3 record heading into its conference opener with San Diego State on Saturday.

The Y had an eight-game winning streak, its longest since the 1992-93 season, stopped with an overtime loss at Pepperdine Jan. 5. The Cougs also have losses to Utah State and UC-Santa Barbara.

During the winning streak, the Y upset then-No. 12 Stanford 81-76 at the Las Vegas Showdown. The team also has wins over Arizona State, Creighton and Weber State to its credit.

LDS mission returnee Mark Bigelow has regained his game from the 1998-99 season. Bigelow has reached double digits in points 12 straight games, and owns a 17.8 average (tied for second in the MWC).

Junior Travis Hansen has also picked up some of the scoring slack. He ranks seventh in the MWC with 15.7 points per game, and he adds 7.7 rebounds per. Hansen is coming off the MWC Player of the Week award after a 32 point, 17-rebound performance vs. Pepperdine.

Senior guard Matt Montague, a seldom-used guard a year ago, leads the conference in assists (7.23 a game), including a career-high 15 assists against Idaho, Dec. 15.

As a team, the Cougars lead the conference in free throw shooting. At a 79-percent clip, the Cougs are primed to repeat as the best free throw shooting team in the country. Last year, the Y shot 78 percent as a team.

Air Force Falcons

The Air Force Academy has never been a force in the Mountain West. They are looking to change that this year.

After going 8-21 overall, 3 11 in the MWC last year, the Falcons can only go one place?up.

Already Air Force has won six games against seven losses. A loss to UNLV dropped them below .500, but they are looking to get on a winning track.

In his second year, Joe Scott has brought something to the Academy. A very disciplined coach will work well among very disciplined athletes. They will respond. His team improved last year. Scott took over for Reggie Minton and the change helped the Falcons.

Despite losing their leading scorer, Jarvis Croff, to graduation, the other four starters from last year are returning. Center Tom Bellairs is a good scorer and can rebound well, as he is averaging 11 points and 5.3 rebounds this year. Lamoni Yazzie is making noise last year at guard, averaging 13.8 points a game this year. Joel Gerlach, meanwhile, contributes 12.7 ppg and was MWC Player of the Week the first week of the season.

Six other letter winners are coming back, as well. Experience should help the Falcons fight their way out of the cellar of the MWC.

The Academy’s three conference wins last year all came at Clune Arena in Colorado Springs, Colo., one of which was an 11-point win against the Utes.

Colorado State Rams

With only one senior on the team, the Colorado State Rams have had to deal with many problems, the main one being lack of experience.

However, the Rams looked to prove the nation wrong, as they reeled off four straight wins to start of the season.

Then the trouble began, and the wheels began to fall off as Colorado State started to face quality teams and dropped five straight games, including losses to rival Colorado and Weber State.

The Rams have managed to beat up on weaker opponents, such as Morris Brown, to pad their record to a respectable 8-6.

Colorado State is led by junior forward Brian Greene, who is averaging 14.9 points per game.

He has also shown his great versatility, as he is also leading the team in rebounding with 7.5 rebounds per game.

The secondary scoring effort has come from the shooting guard position, as Ronnie Clark has provided the Rams with 14 points per game

The center play has been average, with Matt Nelson averaging 11.4 points per game but only 2.6 rebounds per game.

Colorado State opens the conference season against what many predict to be the best team in the conference, the Wyoming Cowboys, and the Rams will have to make the trip to Laramie, Wyo., for their conference opener.

Without one quality win so far, and lack of talent, Colorado State may be fighting with Air Force for who gets to not be the cellar dweller in this year’s race for the conference title.

New Mexico Lobos

Entering the conference season, the New Mexico Lobos have a good chance at competing for the conference title, but they may not have enough firepower to overtake conference leaders such as Wyoming, BYU and Utah.

New Mexico has won nine of its last 10 games, with the lone loss coming against No. 18 Gonzaga. However, the teams the Lobos have beaten have been far from stellar.

New Mexico has defeated opponents such as Tennessee Tech, Alcorn State, St. Mary’s, Dartmouth and Northern Arizona, among others.

Guard play is what the Lobos have relied on thus far. Junior guard Ruben Douglas is the leading scorer on the team, as he averaged 16 points per game in non-conference play.

The other junior guard, Marlon Palmer has been averaging 13.7 points per game, which is second-best on the team.

The middle has not been as productive for the Lobos. They do not have a real scoring threat down on the blocks, with Patrick Dennehy, the leading post man for New Mexico, averaging 9.6 points per game and leading the team with 7.8 rebounds per game.

Eight players usually handle the bulk of the play for coach Fran Fraschilla, though he sometimes decides to put in Tim Lightfoot and 7-footer, Moustapha Diagne for a quick spark.

New Mexico’s lack of quality players in the middle, and its lack of quality wins will put the team at a definite disadvantage in the Mountain West Conference, though the solid guard play of the Lobos may allow them to sneak past a couple teams and make things interesting in the run for the conference title.

San Diego State Aztecs

Finishing seventh in the Mountain West Conference isn’t the best year Steve Fisher has had. The 1992 Basketball Times Coach of the Year with the University of Michigan has won an NCAA Championship. He has had several players make it very big in the NBA.

Now Fisher is in his third year of rebuilding a near-dead Aztec basketball program. Last year was much better than 1999-2000, when the Aztecs went 5-23 and didn’t win an conference game, going 0-14. A year ago, they improved to 14-14 overall, and climbed out of the MWC cellar by going 4-10, one game better than the Air Force Academy.

So far this year, the Aztecs are rolling. They are 10-4 heading into conference play this weekend against BYU.

With four of their five starters from last year returning, the Aztecs are ready to shake things up in the conference. All of their leading scorers are returning.

Senior forward Randy Holcomb is the player to watch for SDSU. Holcomb is the conference’s leader in scoring (18.1) and rebounding (9.9). A 6-foot-9-inch Chicago native, Holcomb scored 22 points last week against IPFW and has 8 double-doubles on the year.

Teammate Tony Bland, a transfer from Syracuse, is second in the league in scoring, at 17.8 ppg.

This weekend’s two-game road trip will be crucial for the Aztecs when they play conference powerhouses BYU and Utah. Two wins would propel them even higher than their No. 4 preseason conference rank.

UNLV Rebels

UNLV missed out on the Rick Pitino lottery, so instead, former St. Louis coach Charlie Spoonhour inherits the team with two starters and nine letterwinners returning from a fourth-place team that finished 16-13 in 2000-01.

UNLV said goodbye to departed All-MWC First Team monster Kaspars Kambala (16.9 p
oints, 9.1 rebounds last year), but it has a pair of dandies in Dalron Johnson and Dixie College transfer Marcus Banks.

Both players already own MWC Player of the Week honors, and both are in the top five in scoring in the conference.

Johnson has recorded three double-doubles thus far, and leads the team in scoring (17.7) and rebounding (8.0). Johnson is second in the league in blocked shots (1.92 bpg), and sixth on the all-time UNLV career shot blocks list. He needs two more blocks to surpass Stacey Augmon’s 128 for fifth place on the list.

Banks has five games with 20-plus points, and averages 16.2 a game. His 31 points against Old Dominion is tied for the fourth-highest output by an MWC player this year.

Senior guard/forward Lou Kelly adds 13.2 points, and he leads the team in 3-point field goals.

The athletic, run-and-gun style has them first in the MWC in steals (10.15 a game), but last in points allowed per game (71.1).

Picked to finish fifth in the conference, UNLV stands in the middle of the pack at 8-5. Their game with the Utes Saturday will mark their third conference game, as the Rebels have a 69-59 loss to Wyoming and a 66-54 defeat of Air Force.

Prior to the MWC schedule, the Rebels downed OD and Big Ten member Wisconsin, but lost to Cincinnati, Washington and Texas.

Wyoming Cowboys

On the heels of their first conference championship since 1993, the Wyoming Cowboys were chosen as the top team in the MWC preseason poll.

Coach Steve McClain returns all five starters from a team that captured a share of the MWC crown and an NIT berth.

Back for the Cowpokes are All-MWC First Teamers Marcus Bailey and Josh Davis, and conference Freshman of the Year mouthful Uche Nsonwu Amadi.

The trio brings with them a load of production from a year ago. Bailey led the MWC in scoring (17.4 ppg), Josh Davis led the MWC in rebounding (9.4 rpg) and Nsonwu-Amadi led the conference in field goal percentage (.602).

Thus far in 2001-02, the Cowboys are 10-4 after a weak non-conference schedule. With their biggest wins coming over Cal-State Fullerton, Indiana State and Eastern Kentucky, the Cowboys have not won a quality game except in their MWC opener.

Wyoming kicked off its conference schedule a week early, defeating UNLV in Las Vegas for the first time since 1981, 69-59.

The Cowboys fell in respectable single-digit losses to Texas Tech and USC, but were ripped 73-57 by Detroit Mercy.

Davis is tops in rebounds and points so far, scoring 13.1 points and snagging 8.1 boards a game.

This weekend, Wyoming hosts conference foe Colorado State in the “Border War.”