Western Athletic Conference Notebook
Entering the 2005-06 season, all of the focus on the Western Athletic Conference was on the team that was picked by everyone to at least represent the conference in the Big Dance this March. That team, the Nevada Wolf Pack, was well on its way to being just the second WAC team since 2000 to be seeded lower than 8th in the NCAA tournament. Tulsa was a 7th seed in the South Region in 2000 and advanced all to the Elite 8 that season. Before last week, Nevada was 10-1 with their only being to no. 18 UCLA in a game that was played in nearby Anaheim. However in their last three games, the Wolf Pack are only 1-2 with losses to St. Mary’s and Hawaii and are no longer ranked in either of the top 25 polls.
One constant for Nevada has been junior forward Nick Fazekas, the conference’s player of the year a season ago. Fazekas scored a career-high 35 points in Nevada’s upset win at Kansas in November. He is the top scorer among conference performers with 21.7 ppg and is one of six WAC players to lead their teams in scoring and rebounding so far this season.
Joining Fazekas are Coby Karl of Boise State (15.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg), Quinton Hosley of Fresno State (19.8 ppg, 10.2 rpg), Paul Millsap of Louisiana Tech (20.7 ppg, 11.9 rpg), Tyrone Nelson of New Mexico State (16.7 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and Nate Harris and Utah State (18.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg). Karl is the only player in the conference to lead his team in those two categories and assists as well.
Louisiana Tech junior forward Paul Millsap moved up to second nationally this past week in rebounding statistics with 11.9 per game. Arkansas-Little Rock’s Rashad Jones-Jennings is first with 12.1 per contest. Millsap was the nation’s leading rebounder in each of the past two seasons. As a freshman, he became the first WAC player to lead the nation in rebounding with 12.5 boards per game. Last year, he became the first player to lead the country in rebounding in back-to-back seasons since American’s Kermit Washington did it in 1971-72 and 1972-73. Millsap was also the first ever to take consecutive rebounding titles as a freshman and sophomore. No player has ever won three NCAA rebounding titles. He was also named conference player of the week after averaging 19.5 points, 15.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots in two road victories for the Bulldogs. It was Millsap’s second player of the week honor this season and fifth of his career.
Battle at the top of the standings this week – Both Hawaii and Louisiana Tech have started the season with 2-0 marks and the two teams meet in Ruston, La., this Thursday night. The Rainbow Warriors opened WAC play in mid-December with a win over Utah State and then beat Nevada at home last week. The Bulldogs won both of its games on the road last week at Boise State and Idaho. Hawaii is looking to go 3-0 for the first time since winning is first six WAC games of the 2001-02 season while Louisiana Tech has never been 3-0 in the WAC.
Team Notebooks
Hawaii (8-4 overall, 2-0 in conference)
The Rainbow Warriors opened the season with one of the biggest upsets so far in college basketball with their win over then No. 5 Michigan State 84-62 in Honolulu. That has catapulted them to a 7-1 home record and a good start to the conference season with wins over Utah State and Nevada, the teams projected to finish 1 and 2 in the conference standings. Senior forward Julian Sensley has led the team with his 15.7 points and 3.4 assists per game averages.
The Rainbow Warriors face a tough stretch to finish out January with four of six on the road. They face fellow 2-0 Louisiana Tech Jan. 12 and then travel to New Mexico State for a Jan. 14 contest. After two home games, they go to Nevada Jan. 28 and Utah State Jan. 31.
Louisiana Tech (9-6, 2-0)
After opening the season with a one-point loss at home to Yale, the Bulldogs have responded by winning their last five at home and enter this week 2-0 after two road wins at Boise State and Idaho. The Bulldogs had a tough non-conference road schedule playing and losing to three ranked opponents. They were defeated by then No. 18 Alabama 73-63 in late November and then last month lost to then No. 4 Memphis 76-58 and to then No. 22 Wisconsin 78-52. The Bulldogs have gotten great performances from Millsap as evident from his two player-of-the-week honors so far. The junior forward is the team’s only player averaging double digits in points.
After their two road wins, they get a break with three of the next four at home, including the conference’s two other undefeated teams in Hawaii and Fresno State. They then go to Utah State Jan. 18 in what should be another decisive game in the conference standings.
Fresno State (8-4, 1-0)
The Bulldogs opened the conference season last week with a big double-overtime victory over Utah State 99-96. They have opened the year 6-1 at home with their only loss being a one-point defeat to Iona. They have only two wins away from Fresno these being at Cal Poly and then against Iowa State who has an 11-4 record up to this point. The Bulldogs have three of the conferences best performers thus far this season. Junior swingman Quinton Hosley is one of two players averaging over 10 rebounds a game (10.2 rpg) and is third in the league in scoring his 19.8 ppg. They also have one of the more impressive backcourts with junior Ja’Vance Coleman who is fourth in the league in scoring with his 18.8 points and sophomore Kevin Bell is leading the conference in assists with his 6.7 average.
Fresno State has a tough stretch coming up with three of four on the road and they play some of the conferences best team in this stretch. After going to Las Cruces, N.M. to face New Mexico State, they play at Louisiana Tech Jan. 14 before a home game on Jan. 18 against Nevada, following that with a Jan. 22 road match-up against Hawaii.
Nevada (11-3, 1-1)
The Wolf Pack were the odds-on favorite to win the conference entering the season and even if they don’t win the conference tournament, they still have a good shot at getting in the field of 65 in March, but have been upset twice in the past few weeks. St. Mary’s upset them 89-80 in overtime, followed by a 73-69 loss in Honolulu. They are undefeated in Reno with a 6-0 record and have had some impressive wins over schools from bigger conferences. They won at UNLV and at Kansas in back-to-back games in November and last month defeated Georgia in Reno. Fazekas has showed that he is the conference’s best NBA prospect by averaging 21.7 ppg and 8.9 rpg thus far, but they have gotten help from Marcelus Kemp and Mo Charlo who are the only players averaging in double figures in points.
In the next four games, Nevada has three of them at home with a road match-up with Fresno State Jan. 18 followed by a Jan. 24 home game against Utah State.
Boise State (8-5, 1-1)
The Broncos were projected to be a team that would finish near the middle of the pack in the conference and that’s where they sit right now. They only played one team from a major conference in Arizona State and were defeated 64-49 in that game. They did play BYU and lost a close 80-77 game in Provo, Utah. They have two wins away from Boise in victories over Weber State and San Francisco. They did play seven of eight teams from the Big Sky with wins over Montana, Montana State, Weber, Sacramento State and Eastern Washington. Their top performer this year is junior guard Coby Karl who is making his push for conference honors being the only player in the WAC to lead his team in all three major statistical categories. He’s pacing the Broncos with 15.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists. Fellow guards Eric Lane and Matt Bauscher are their only other players averaging in double figures in points.
After opening conference play by splitting their two home contests (loss to La. Tech and win over New Mexico State) the Broncos will play five of their next seven on the road. They play two of the conference’s top teams each year in Utah State and Nevada this weekend, both games on the road, and will go to Hawaii Jan. 24.
New Mexico State (5-8, 1-1)
The Aggies were picked to finish in the bottom third of the conference and even though they’ve had some good performances they haven’t surprised anybody under new head coach Reggie Theus. They did split with interstate rival New Mexico, each team winning on its home court and they’ve won two games away from home including their conference opener at Idaho. A pair of sophomores has led the team so far. Forward Tyrone Nelson leads the team in both scoring and rebounding with his 16.7 and 8.3 averages and guard Mike Mitchell is second in both with 14.3 points and 4.0 rebounds.
This week, the Aggies get two of the top teams in the conference in Las Cruces with games against Fresno State and Hawaii. They then go on a three-game road trip highlighted by back-to-back contests against Louisiana Tech and Fresno State. They will play Fresno State twice over a four-game span.
Utah State (9-4, 1-2)
These Aggies would be the conference’s biggest disappointment thus far, but it’s only three games into the conference season and all of three of their games have been on the road. They lost to Hawaii 69-59 in mid-December before losing to Fresno State 99-96 in double overtime last weekend. The Aggies are 6-0 at home so far and will have plenty of chances to get back in the conference race with more home conference games left. They play their next three at home finishing up the home-stand with a big game with Louisiana Tech. They will face Nevada their next time out on Jan. 24.
Utah State is one of two teams in the conference with two guys averaging at least 18 points a game (Fresno State being the other) as Nate Harris and Jaycee Carroll are tied with the team lead at 18.1 ppg. Senior big man Cass Matheus is second on the team in rebounding and third in scoring. Those are the only three players averaging in doubled figures in points.
San Jose State (4-11, 0-2)
The Spartans and new head coach George Nessman were picked to finish towards the bottom of the conference but they have a chance to not finish in last place for the first time since 2002-03. The Spartans started the season 3-1 but have since lost 10 of their last 11 games. The lone win in that stretch came against Long Beach State. Surprisingly they are 1-6 at home and 3-5 on the road. They opened the conference season with two of the better teams at home with losses against Utah State and Nevada. After two road games this week at Boise State and Idaho they return for a three game home-stand with games against Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State and Boise State.
The top performer so far has been senior forward D.J. Brown. He’s leading the team in both scoring and rebounding averages (14.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg). Fellow senior Alex Elam is the only other player scoring in double figures with 12.5 points.
Idaho (3-9, 0-2)
The Vandals are in their first season in the WAC and after struggling last season in the Big West they are struggling once again this season. They do have three home victories over Southern Utah, Eastern Oregon and North Dakota State, but they haven’t faired very well against tougher competition. They opened the season with losses against the three top programs in the state of Washington. They lost at Gonzaga 69-60, to Washington 90-67 and to Washington State 63-37. Their only other road game was a loss at Portland State 81-48. They opened the conference season competitively with losses to New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech by only a combined 15 points. They will try to pull a major upset in their next four road games with games at Nevada, Utah State, Fresno State and Hawaii over the next month. They do have San Jose State and Boise in that stretch at home.
