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It seems like the college basketball season just ended days ago, oh wait it did, and I guess it is time to look ahead to next season. This past season was not great for the Mountain West as Fresno State was the only team to from the league to make the NCAA Tournament, and they only made it because they won the conference tournament.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi has his extremely early bracket for next year and the Mountain West's reputation is not any better with only San Diego State earning a spot in the field of 68 as an 11-seed and matching up against Gonzaga. There are no other Mountain West teams even in consideration within the first eight out of the tournament.
Of course, things can change for the conference and there could be some teams that surprise to have a great season, but right now San Diego State is the only team that is poised to make the NCAA tournament next year.
Wyoming loses Josh Adams, Boise State's James Webb hired an agent and will not return and UNLV is a mess right now with three players off to the NBA Draft and other transfers. There is no way San Jose State will make a run at the tournament and Utah State is still far away, but maybe the surprise team could be Nevada who had a better than expected year under first-year head coach Eric Musselman.
As of now the league needs to step up all around to win as many non-conference games as possible and do their best to schedule up and get good opponents at home. This is glacially getting better and Colorado State scheduled a nice home-and-home with Arkansas to help boost their RPI and strength of schedule.
Also remember that we are still in the first 10 days of April so no one should really put too much stock into bracket projections at this time and the college basketball season is just over seven months away from tipping off.