Mountain West basketball: Media predicts San Diego State to win the conference

Mountain West held its annual media day and the awards came out on Thursday morning and it started with the media predictions of the order of finish and it should come as no surprise that San Diego State was predicted to be the league champion.

They bring back the most talent from last year’s team that won the regular season which returns three starters, including last year’s Freshman of the Year in Jeremy Hemsley.

There is a lot of pressure on the predicted second place team Nevada with head coach Eric Musselman bringing in talent and out performing expectations in his first year as the Wolf Pack head coach.

The teams that did receive the other first-place votes were the third and fourth teams in New Mexico with three and last year conference tournament Fresno State earned the other first-place vote.

At the other end of the spectrum has San Jose State at the bottom spot and deservedly so as they have struggled for years. Seeing the Spartans at the bottom is not a surprise but seeing UNLV eighth out of 11 is a bit of a shocker.

The Rebels did lose a number of players to transfer and the NBA and then include they have a new head coach in Marvin Menzies and this could be a tough year for UNLV.