The Mountain West's NCAA tournament struggles continue in 2022
Three games in, three straight L’s on the Mountain West’s 2022 NCAA Tournament resume.
Such disappointment on the big stage is, unfortunately, par for the course for the conference. Dating back to the 2014 tournament, the MW has not seen multiple members advance past the first round in the same year. In fact, only one team (Nevada in 2018) has actually won more than one game in the NCAA Tournament since the Xavier Thames-led San Diego State Aztecs in 2014.
Things are trending in a similar direction early in this 2022 NCAA Tournament. Wyoming stayed close, but was never quite close enough to put itself in a position to pull off a win over Mike Woodson’s Indiana Hoosiers in the play-in game.
Colorado State held multiple double-digit leads and led Michigan by as many as 15 points during the first half. Yet, the Rams fell 75-63 after never finding a solution for Wolverines big man Hunter Dickinson, and they completely let go of the rope in the second half once Caleb Houstan heated up from three.
And despite Abu Kigab’s second-half efforts, even the conference champion Boise State Broncos failed to advance, thanks to a surging Memphis team that got a surprise appearance from freshman guard Emoni Bates.
Now, San Diego State is the last hope for a conference that had optimism just a few days ago. The Aztecs face the Creighton Bluejays in the Midwest Region’s 8-9 matchup as the conference looks for its first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2018.