The Mountain West Conference earned an historic six bids to the 2024 NCAA Tournament — one automatic bid for the New Mexico Lobos and five at-larges. It’s the most MWC teams ever in March Madness, and the league that was the darling of hoops fans across America this season did manage to go 1-1 in First Four games, and 2-4 in the Round of 64.
That’s much better for a league has been underperforming in the postseason for several years now, no matter how many bids they’ve earn. Since 2019, the MWC is now 3-11 in Round of 64 games after the 88-72 win by No. 8 Utah State over No. 9 TCU. It’s also the first victory for a non-SDSU school in the NCAA’s since 2018 when Nevada reached the Elite Eight.
This season Nevada came oh-so-close before allowing Dayton to rally from a 17-point deficit late and lost by three. Colorado State smoked Virginia in a First Four matchup before losing badly to Texas, putting together an 11-point first half. But that’s still better than Boise State, who lost to mid-tier Pac-12 Colorado in their play-in game.
No. 11 seed New Mexico, who actually entered as a 2.5-point favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook for their matchup against No. 6 Clemson, went down early and never got closer than 14 points in the second half in their 77-56 loss.
And then No. 5 San Diego State barely pulled out a victory over No. 12 UAB, winning by just four points as they shot free throws to go up by two scores while time expired. But there are still two MWC teams remaining of the six, and that’s certainly progress for a league that continues to improve.
The Pac-12 is now but a basketball memory, and college basketball to be relevant west of the Rockies, the MWC needs to have success in the NCAA Tournament to prove they belong with the big boys.
For a league with plenty of passion and outstanding fan bases (see the fans of a game at The Spectrum or The Pit for context), the hype simply hasn’t translated to wins on the floor when it matters. The on-court results desperately need to change if the conference is to have any credibility with recruits or the NCAA Selection Committee going forward.
Hopefully the first Friday of 2024 March Madness is a step in the right direction.