Mountain West Basketball 2022: Aztecs Huge Favorites
Wyoming Looks Like Best of the Rest
The Mountain West Basketball 2022 have San Diego State as prohibitive favorites to capture the conference title. The Wyoming Cowboys are next and then it’s pretty much up for grabs.
The Mountain West is a good conference but not a great one. The Sagarin college basketball ratings have the conference as the ninth best. The Aztecs are the only team in Sagarin’s top 60. But San Jose State and Air Force are the only teams lower than No. 153, which helps the overall conference strength.
San Diego State
The Aztecs are -150 in the Mountain West basketball odds and it’s hard to say that isn’t warranted. With a suffocating defense that was near the top of many of the defensive college basketball stats from last season, the Aztecs are tough. San Diego State doesn’t need to score a lot to win and that’s a good thing, as the Aztecs averaged just 65.4 points per game. But when you hold your opponents to 58.1 points a game, you’ll be fine.
The leading scorer for San Diego State, Matt Bradley, is back for his senior season. He averaged 16.9 points a game, accounting for a good portion of the team’s offense. The Aztecs return three other NCAAB players who averaged 7.0 or more points. That doesn’t sound like much, but San Diego State doesn’t score much. Even though the sportsbooks know San Diego State will play strong defense, the Aztecs were 13-19 in totals last year.
The Aztecs didn’t have a great recruiting year, but did land talented guard Darrion Trammell from Seattle University. He averaged 17.3 points and 5.0 assists for the Redhawks last year. But with Trammel in the backcourt, the Aztecs may play at a quicker pace, something to keep in mind when viewing scores and odds NCAAB.
Trammell is that good, while fellow guard transfer Micah Parrish averaged 12.1 points for Oakland last year. He’ll give the team some quality minutes. Playing tough defense takes a lot out of a player. But the Aztecs have a roster where they can go eight or nine deep and not lose that much.
The Rest
Wyoming (+600): The Mountain West basketball odds have Wyoming at +600, which might be a bit high for last year’s NCAA Tournament squad. Big man Graham Ike is going to miss significant time with a lower leg injury and the Cowboys are in no hurry to rush him back. That’s the correct thing to do but can hurt if you’re trying to win a regular season conference title. But Wyoming is probably more concerned with the conference tournament. Without Ike, Wyoming still returns Hunter Maldonado and his 18.5 points, along with Jeremiah Oden, who scored 7.8 points and grabbed 4.5 rebounds.
The Cowboys landed Max Agbonkpolo and Ethan Anderson from USC in the transfer portal. Wyoming went to the other school in Los Angeles to snag Jake Kyman from UCLA. All three should make contributions this season. Wyoming has a decent team but Ike’s injury is a big one, especially for those betting on the regular season conference title.
Utah State (+900): Utah State is +900 in the Mountain West basketball odds and the Aggies lost their top two leading scorers from last year’s NIT squad. But Utah State landed a big transfer in Taylor Funk from St. Joseph’s. Funk is a strong outside shooter who can help on the boards. He averaged 17.4 and 13.2 points per game his last two years with the Hawks. The Aggies were tied for No. 152 in 3-point shooting last year and Funk will help there.
Dan Akin comes in from Cal Baptist where he averaged 10.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. Steven Ashworth returns at point guard and is a decent playmaker who can score when needed. The Aggies have a decent team that should be playing in the postseason somewhere.
Colorado State, Boise State: (+950): The Mountain West basketball odds have the Rams and Broncos both at +950 and the Rams are probably the better of the two. David Roddy is gone for the Rams and Isaiah Stevens will miss some time with a foot injury. But the Rams brought in forward Patrick Cartier and Josiah Strong transferred in from Illinois State. The Rams have good depth and that’s key over the course of a season.
The Broncos could be tough when the conference tournament rolls around, but it will be difficult for them to win the regular season conference title.
Boise State won the Mountain West conference tournament last year but lost four of its top six scorers from that team. The Broncos do return Marcus Shaver and he’s a good one. But he’ll need some help from transfer Chibuzo Agbo (Texas Tech) and freshmen Jace Whiting and Sadraque Nganga. The Broncos could be tough when the conference tournament rolls around, but it will be difficult for them to win the regular season conference title.
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