CSU women rule MWC
Lobos still in hunt to finish in second
Down the stretch they come in the Mountain West women’s basketball race, with the place and show positions too close to call.
Colorado State, to the surprise of virtually no one, has once again pulled away from the MWC field. Barring a complete collapse, the Rams (20-6, 12-2) will justify preseason expectations with their fourth straight regular-season title and a No. 1 seed for next month’s league tournament.
The University of New Mexico (15-10, 10-5) visits CSU tonight, hoping only to delay the Rams’ eventual celebration.
“The race is over for first place,” University of New Mexico coach Mike Bradbury said. “Colorado State’s got that wrapped up.”
Indeed, CSU has a comfortable three-game lead in the loss column over its closest pursuers, but that’s where things get interesting. UNM is battling Wyoming (10-5 MWC) and UNLV (9-5) for second place with Boise State (8-6) still in striking distance. And there’s quite a bit at stake. Colorado State, with a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) ranking of 50, has the league’s only real shot at an NCAA Tournament at-large bid if it fails to win the MWC tournament. But the league’s best regular-season finisher that does not reach the NCAA field secures an automatic WNIT invitation.
UNM, Wyoming, UNLV and Boise State also have a shot at
WNIT at-large spots if they continue to win. In other words, the last two weeks of regular-season play figure to be interesting.
“We’re still in position to do some good things,” Bradbury said, “but we’ve got three really difficult games ahead of us.”
Colorado State has lost just one Mountain West home game over the last four seasons (to Boise State on Jan. 31). The Rams used a sizzling fourth quarter to defeat UNM 78-63 in the Pit on Jan. 14.
Bradbury conceded CSU, with its accurate 3-point shooters and mobile post players, presents matchup problems for UNM. Still, he sees tonight’s contest as a chance to bolster the Lobos’ conference standing and their postseason résumé.
“It’s a big opportunity for us,” Bradbury said. “It’s a chance to get another quality win against a top-100 (RPI) team, which would really help. We’ll probably have to play our best game of the year, though, just to have a chance.”
It doesn’t figure to be a highscoring contest as CSU and UNM rank 1-2 in defensive scoring average in MWC play. Nor does Bradbury anticipate the Rams matching the 18 3-pointers they made (hitting 9 of 10 at one point) in the Pit.
“You could probably not guard them at all,” Bradbury said, “and they might not hit that many. They just went off in the last seven minutes against us.”
The problem is, UNM still has to muster points against the nation’s third-ranked scoring defense.
“You watch their games,” Bradbury said of the Rams, “and it’s painfully hard to score against them. If we do get open looks, we have to capitalize.”
After tonight’s game, the Lobos face a key home contest against Wyoming on Saturday before finishing at San Diego State. The Cowgirls, who lost top scorer Liv Roberts to a torn ACL last week, still have to face CSU as well. UNLV does not have a game remaining against any of the other top contenders.
“We’ve played close to our ability level and even a little over our heads most of the season,” Bradbury said. “We’ll have to keep that up if we want to play in the postseason, but that’s the goal. Credit to the kids for getting us this far. We’ll see what happens.”