Season 37 was a solid rebuilding year for the MWC with six teams making the post-season, including Utah and Wyoming playing in the National Tournament. Three teams won their first round matchups, but unfortunately the scoreboards for the MWC were quiet after the second round. Next year should be even better. To quote Wyoming’s coach, fatchance: “Other than TCU, there are no significant roster changeovers and even they should be alright. This conference should make a nice leap in NT qualifies and playoff wins come next season. Of course I have to bite my nails a bit over Palacio leaving early as does shqipta with a couple of studs, but if they are back all will be good here in the MWC.”
 

Everyone in the MWC is familiar with Darryl Palacio, the heart and soul of Wyoming’s team this past season. Palacio dominated teams both on offense and on defense. Palacio scored 18.5 ppg on .510% shooting and added 8.6 rpg. He was named the MWC Player of the Year and made 1^st Team All-American. With that kind of recognition fatchance isn’t just biting his nails, I saw him in the store buying a rabbit’s foot, a horseshoe, a four-leaf clover, and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t recognize. (And since I was there for the same reason, I bought all the stuff he bought). We’ll see if any of it works.

The new coaches all felt some of the pains of rebuilding, but each had some glimmers of hope that they will hope to build upon next season. Texas Southern started off very strong in non-conference play, but then only managed 3 wins against the conference. Trobone was forced to start 3 freshmen all year and in 4 games 5 freshmen started. That kind of experience will almost certainly pay off dividends as those players continue to grow. SDSU managed some impressive wins, including one over former coach glmarcum, when Mississippi St. came to town. That game alone convinced many in Southern California that wedcrasher is the right coach to come in an restore SDSU to its rightful place at the top of the MWC. All five of wedcrasher’s starters are returning for next season, so SDSU could start making some noise. Everyone knew that tmp741128 had the biggest job of any in the MWC this season, and while they only won 4 games all year, that was actually an improvement from last season when they only won 3. Tmp did it with three freshmen and one sophomore starting and a very short bench. J.Eastman is a particularly likeably player, despite the fact that he’s Canadan. If he can continue to improve his game, he’ll be a star for the Not So Mean Green.

If you look at my pre-season predictions I had Utah winning the East, with BYU, TCU, and New Mexico in a virtual tie for second, with Denver and Texas Southern pulling up the rear. I’d have to say that my predictions were spot on for the East, even though at the end of the non-conference games Utah was greatly underachieving while Texas Southern was overachieving. In the West I’d say my only mess up was UNLV. Unfortunately, mpate decided to make me look bad by underachieving this season. At the start of the season I gave Utah and Wyoming both a power rating of 620 (using my secret magical formula) and they finished the season with the 31 and 32 RPI. CSU was a little disappointing as I expected them to make the NT, and they managed only to make the PI.

All in all a pretty good year for the MWC and next season is looking like it might be a really big year, especially when you consider that last season the MWC only had 28 seniors and 47 freshmen.   

Top Players

(1)    Darryl Palacio, Jr. SF (Wyoming). Palacio dropped in 18.5 ppg, 8.6 rpg and led his team to the National Tournament.

(2)    D.Hash, Jr. PF (CSU). Donald Hash threw down 17.0 ppg, 7.1 rpg, and led his team to the Postseason Invitational.

(3)    R.Oliver, So. PF (Utah) Oliver contributed 14.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1 bpg, 1 spg, while leading his team to the second round of the National Tournament.

(4)    C.Ewing, Jr. PG (Utah) Ewing scored 13.7 ppg, while leading the MWC with 3.7 apg.

(5)    J.Bruton, So. PG (Wyoming) Bruton scored 10.0 ppg, with 3.6 apg, and led the MWC with 1.6 spg.