Regular season finale could impact postseason plans
Lobos have a shot at NCAA, WNIT
Sometimes the standings don’t tell the whole story.
Consider the University of New Mexico women’s basketball team’s 54-48 victory over Colorado State on Tuesday night as a case in point. Neither the Lobos (21-9, 9-8 Mountain West) nor Rams (1910, 11-7) had any chance to improve their positioning for next week’s MWC tournament in Las Vegas,
Nev., and both teams will go in next week knowing they have to win it to advance to NCAA play.
All the same, the UNM-CSU matchup felt significant and it may well have been. By winning the Lobos maintained the third-best Ratings Percentage Indiex (RPI) in the Mountain West (87th), behind co-leaders Wyoming (73) and UNLV (83) but well ahead of CSU (120), Fresno State (132) and Boise State (141).
New Mexico also has the league’s best rating according to Jeff Sagarin’s ranking system.
Why are these numbers important? Because should UNM fail to win a Mountain West tournament title and secure an NCAA berth, solid RPI and Sagarin ratings could help the Lobos land a WNIT invitation.
UNM finishes the regularseason tonight at Fresno State (16-12, 11-6) — another game that won’t alter the MWC standings but could carry postseason implications.
“We’re playing to win,” Lobos coach Mike Bradbury said. “I feel like we’ve been playing well lately and we need to continue that going into next week in Las Vegas. We need every win and all the momentum we can get.”
The mood was upbeat at UNM’s Thursday practice, thanks in large part to Tuesday’s victory. Bradbury believes that win greatly enhanced the Lobos’ postseason hopes. UNM’s last NCAA appearance came in 2008 and it last competed in the WNIT in 2010.
“I felt like the Colorado State game was big for two reasons,” Bradbury said. “One, we need to be playing well at this time of the season, and I thought we did. Two, we needed to win that game to give ourselves a shot at the WNIT, and I think we did that. The NCAAs are always our No. 1 goal, but making the WNIT is a good accomplishment.”
UNM could further enhance its résumé with a win at Fresno State. The Bulldogs are led by standout junior guard Candice White but a young supporting cast has evolved since FSU visited Dreamstyle Arena in mid-January.
“They have more players scoring and they set more ball screens,” UNM’s Jaisa Nunn said.
“We still have to focus our defense on Candice White, but this will be a good test going into the tournament. We definitely want to win.”
UNM’s first-round tournament foe will be determined by tonight’s Air Force-at-San Jose State matchup. Both teams go in 4-13 in conference play. The loser will be the No. 11 seed and face UNM in Monday’s opening round.