2008 WAC NCAA Basketball Tournament Predictions
Jimmy Boyd’s 2008 Western Athletic Conference tournament predictions will steer you in the right direction as you tackle this mid-major conference ball.
Action gets underway Tuesday March 11th and extends through Saturday March 15th at the Pan American Center in New Mexico where the New Mexico State Aggies play their home games. If you’re a big WAC fan, you’ll have to head to New Mexico to watch the tournament as the opening round, quarterfinal, and semifinal games will not be televised. ESPN 2 will pick up the championship game however.
It’s a down year for the WAC. The lesser known Southland Conference actually has a higher RPI this season. So what does this mean? It means that the WAC is going to be a one-big NCAA tournament conference with that bid going to the conference tournament champion which inherits automatic entry. Boise State, Utah State, Nevada, and New Mexico State appear to have the best chances at emerging as WAC tournament champs.
One has to like New Mexico State’s chances with the Aggies enjoying home court. New Mexico State is the defending WAC tournament champs and they are an impressive 14-3 at home this season with only one home loss to a conference school.
Some might consider Utah State the top challenger, but New Mexico State beat Utah State by 30 points on its home floor. Boise State lost by 19 points at the Pan American Center. Nevada is the team which has caused the Aggies the most problems as it swept the season series and was the only conference team to win on New Mexico State’s home floor. But as close as this league has been with four teams ending the season knotted at 12-4 in conference play, I think it will be extremely difficult for Nevada to beat the Aggies three straight times, especially at the Pan American Center. We’ll play the home court advantage in the WAC tournament.
2007 Recap:
New Mexico State won the WAC Tournament title on its home floor last season as the number two seed. They had an easy road to the final with wins over Louisiana Tech and Boise State, the six and seven seeds respectively. They beat Utah State 74-72 in the final behind big games from Elijah Ingram and Justin Hawkins. The fourth seeded Utah State Aggies ran out of gas after two close games with Hawaii and the number one seeded Nevada Wolfpack. New Mexico State advance to the NCAA Tourney as a 13 seed and made a quick exit as they took on Kevin Durant and the Texas Longhorns in the first round.
Previous Winners:
2007 – New Mexico State
2006 – Nevada
2005 – UTEP
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