The 2024 Mountain West Conference Tournament will take place from Wednesday, March 13 through Saturday, March 16 from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. All 11 of the conference’s programs will participate in this single-elimination bracket and the winner will receive the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The MWC once again proved to not just be the best mid-major league in the nation, but the best west coast league with the Pac-12 being mediocre in its final year. Utah State managed to emerge from the battle royal of top contenders as the regular season champions and earned the No. 1 seed for the MWC tourney. The Aggies were led by junior forward Great Osobor, who earned MWC Player of the Year honors by averaging 17.6 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.
Below we go over the MWC Tournament odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook and make our predictions.
2024 MWC Tournament predictions
San Diego State +260
Utah State +425
Nevada +500
UNLV +550
New Mexico +600
Boise State +600
Colorado State +750
Wyoming +25000
Fresno State +35000
San Jose State +50000
Air Force +50000
Utah State has the second-shortest odds to win the MWC tourney with oddsmakers showing respect to a San Diego State program that cut down the nets in Vegas last year.
No. 2 Nevada, No. 3 Boise State, No. 4 UNLV, and No. 5 San Diego State were among the teams who were right on the heels of USU for the league crown deep into the final weeks of the regular season and are understandably among the contenders to cut down the nets on Saturday.
Favorite pick: San Diego State +260
San Diego State walks into Vegas as the defending MWC Tournament champions and is understandably the favorite with their experience. Good defense travels and the Aztecs will bring the top ranked ranked unit in the conference led by MWC Defensive Player of the Year Lamont Butler. They held league opponents to just 47.1% in eFG% and that could play a huge factor in them cutting down the nets.
Darkhorse pick: Colorado State +750
For those looking for a good dark horse candidate, Colorado State fits the bill. The Rams managed to secure five Quad 1 wins in the regular season and with the third-highest average possession length on defense in the entire country, they are built to stop opponents in their tracks.
Straight-up pick: Utah State +425
Even though they aren’t the outright favorites, I still like the Aggies’ chances of grinding out a tournament championship, even with the Aztecs and UNLV on their side of the bracket. They are 4-0 in neutral site games this season and are either at or near the top of the league in differential stats like points (+10.2) and field goal percentage (+6.2%).