San Diego St

NO. 14 SAN DIEGO STATE (20-3, 6-1 MWC) AT NO. 16 UNLV (21-4, 5-2 MWC)

 

Time: 4 p.m. (1 p.m. PT)

 

Tony Bennett (Virginia)

Tom Crean (Indiana)

Mick Cronin (Cincinnati)

Steve Fisher (San Diego St)

Frank Haith (Missouri)

Fred Hoiberg (Iowa St)

Ron Hunter (Georgia St)

Steve Prohm (Murray St)

Bill Self (Kansas)

John Thompson (Georgetown)

Each week, CollegeHoops.net's Greg Mengelt presents a different College Basketball List. This week, Greg takes a look at the top candidates for Coach of the Year:

 

It's been an interesting couple of days in college basketball when it comes to travel issues, with Purdue having to bus to Michigan State in the early hours of Saturday for a noon tip. While the Boilermakers hung tough in the first half they lost their legs in the second as the Spartans rolled. So what was going to happen to San Diego State, whose trek to Laramie for an important Mountain West game against Wyoming took 20 hours, not to mention the fact that they'd be playing more than 7,000 feet above sea level?

NO. 12 SAN DIEGO STATE (17-2, 3-0 MWC) AT WYOMING (16-3, 2-1 MWC)

 

Time/TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, 6:30 p.m. local/The Mtn.

It's been a while since there's been the ability to say "Wyoming" and "NCAA Tournament" in the same sentence, but in the first season of Larry Shyatt's second run in Laramie the Cowboys (16-3, 2-1) have turned some heads. With first-place #12 San Diego State (17-2, 3-0) visiting, not only can the Pokes pull into a tie atop the Mountain West with a win but they can also lend the NCAA talk a little credibility with a win.

Following Shabazz Napier's game-tying three-pointer most coaches would choose to call a timeout to draw up a play, risking the chance of the defense aligning and taking away the primary scoring option. But with the man he wanted to take the final shot already in possession of the basketball, Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin decided against calling a timeout and as a result his Bearcats are now 5-1 in the Big East.

It looks as if the schedule-makers in the Mountain West wanted to spark some serious national conversation about the conference from the beginning of league play because the first full week of play will feature all three expected contenders facing each other. Wednesday's slate features #16 San Diego State (15-2, 1-0), fresh off of their two-point win over UNLV, visiting The Pit to take on a New Mexico (15-2, 1-0) squad that's quietly won thirteen in a row.

There weren't many opportunities to watch ranked teams play each other (there was just one, which is discussed below), but Saturday's slate provided many teams the chance to improve their resumes. Florida State and Northwestern took full advantage of their opportunities as they both knocked off Top 10 opponents at home, albeit in different ways.

The Mountain West, similar to the Ivy League and Great West, had to start conference play later than other conferences due to the fact that they've got just eight members. Saturday marks the beginning of conference play and there are two key games to keep an eye on, most notably #22 San Diego State (14-2) hosting #12 UNLV (16-2) in the day's lone matchup of ranked teams.