Boise State is heavy favorite to win hoops title
Nunn, UNM pegged to finish 5th according to preseason poll
The Mountain West preseason women’s basketball poll and awards can easily be summed up in four words:
It’s all about Boise. Boise State’s Broncos didn’t sweep all the accolades announced by the MWC on Thursday but they certainly took the lion’s share. Based on the preseason poll, Boise State is an overwhelming choice to repeat as league champion and the Broncos dominated the preseason honor roll.
“I don’t think there’s any question that Boise’s the team to beat,” University of New Mexico coach Mike Bradbury said. “It’s up to the rest of us to try to beat them.”
UNM was ranked fifth in the poll of the Mountain West’s 11 coaches and 12 media members, and Lobos senior post Jaisa Nunn was named to the five-player All-Mountain West Preseason Team.
Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own teams or players but they do nominate players for individual honors. Bradbury’s nominations began with Nunn, who averaged 17 points and 10.2 rebounds per game as a junior last season.
“I would’ve been shocked if Jaisa wasn’t on there,” Bradbury said. “She had an unbelievable year and we don’t expect her to take a step back this season. She’s ready to go.”
Nunn smiled when asked about her inclusion on the preseason team.
“It’s exciting to get noticed because I think of myself as someone who works behind the scenes,” she said. “But honestly my only focus is on the team. I want to win the Mountain West tournament and play in the NCAAs this year. Those are my primary goals.”
Neither Bradbury nor Nunn seemed overly disappointed by UNM’s fifthplace ranking.
“If you just look at it on paper, we could’ve been See the order of finish and preseason all-league picks on B4.
ranked sixth or seventh,” Bradbury said. “We lost four starters from last year. That’s what people notice, but our one returning starter is Jaisa Nunn and I really like what we’ve added around her.”
Boise State, meanwhile, returns four starters from a team that won both regularseason and MWC tournament titles last season. That group includes Preseason Player of the Year Riley Lupfer and all-conference pick Marta Hermida. Boise State also added preseason freshman of the year Jade Loville and Kansas transfer Jayde Christopher to its roster.
The Broncos received 19 of 23 first-place votes in the poll to rack up 229 points. UNLV got the remaining four first-place votes and was second with 208 points, followed by Fresno State (175 points), Wyoming (158), New Mexico (150) and Colorado State (128) among the top six.
UNLV’s Katie Powell and Fresno State’s Candice White joined Lupfer, Hermida and Nunn on the preseason all-conference team.
Bradbury said he voted Boise State and UNLV one-two in his poll. He diplomatically declined to say where UNM might have landed had he been allowed to vote for his own team.
“We’ll know a lot more at the end of December when league play starts,” Bradbury said with a smile.
Nunn was willing only to predict the Lobos will defy preseason expectations.
“Fifth place is a good place to start,” she said. “It matters a lot more where you finish, and this team has so much talent and potential. We’re not going to finish fifth.”