Mountain West has respect, now needs NCAA Tournament wins

Then there were three.

Mountain West Conference basketball got a nod of respect from the NCAA selection committee when four teams received bids to the field of 68 this week, but now the wins have to follow.

Teams representing the league that wants to break free of the term “mid-major” and be considered among the heavyweights of the sport have lost four straight NCAA Tournament first-round games. Ten of the last 12 MWC teams to make the field have been sent home after their first game.

That includes Tuesday night’s First Four game that saw Wyoming eliminated by Indiana, giving the conference just three remaining teams as the tournament kicks into full gear on Thursday.

“The league’s gotten a ton of attention this year, and it should,” Colorado State coach Niko Medved said in Las Vegas over the weekend. “The league has played at a very high level. But we now have an opportunity to go out there on the big stage and find a way to win. I’m confident that we can do that. But it is big for the brand of the conference.”

Medved’s Rams got a No. 6 seed, the best of any of the four entrants. They will open tournament play early Thursday morning when they take on No. 11 Michigan at 9:15 a.m. on CBS.

“I think it would be huge for the Mountain West to try to go out there, make some noise and continue to get everybody who maybe is not staying up (late to watch the conference’s games) to realize that this is high-level basketball being played here,” Medved said. “I think it’s only going to get better.”

San Diego State was one of two Mountain West teams to make the field last year, but the Aztecs were blown out by Syracuse. Utah State was never really in their game against Texas Tech down the stretch, either.

The Aggies got routed at home in the opening round of the NIT on Tuesday night, while the Aztecs return to the NCAA Tournament looking for their first win in the event since 2015.

“We have to find a way to win games,” San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher said of the league.

The Aztecs are seeded eighth and will play No. 9 Creighton on Thursday at 4:27 p.m. on Tru TV.

Dutcher said one of the keys to having more success in the tournament is to get better seeds and more favorable matchups. The games between teams in the middle of the pack are such toss-ups.

“But we had a high seed last year (6) and I thought we had a favorable matchup with Syracuse because we shoot the ball so well,” he said “And no one zoned us all year, and then we ran into their zone and we couldn’t make a shot. So sometimes you’ve got to just be careful what you wish for.”

San Diego State is the only one of the three remaining teams from the league that is favored in its first-round game. The Aztecs are a 2-point favorite over the Bluejays.

Colorado State is a 1-point underdog to the Wolverines despite being five seed lines ahead of their Big Ten opponent.

Boise State, the champions of the Mountain West both in the regular season and tournament, drew an 8-seed. The Broncos will open tournament play as a 3-point underdog to Memphis at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday.

A win could mean a lot more to Boise State, a program that has never won an NCAA Tournament game.

““We’ve wanted to win every game the same way, and they competed that same way,” coach Leon Rice said. “Our mission is the same, our job is the same. It’s business as usual with these guys.”

Business as usual has not been good for the Mountain West this time of year. Three teams will be looking to change that on Thursday.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.