By Aidan Joly
The 2023-24 season was a banner year for the Mountain West, easily the best in the current iteration of the league. It sent six teams to the NCAA tournament and seven finished with 21 or more wins.
This year, the league will have an opportunity to follow up on that big year. That being said, let’s take a look at each of the 11 teams heading into the 2024-25 season.
Utah State Aggies
2023-24: 28-7 (14-4 Mountain West), lost in NCAA second round
28 wins marked the most for the program since the 2018-19 season, and the Aggies won an NCAA tournament game for the first time since 2011 before falling to Purdue in the first round.
This year it will have a new head coach in former Youngstown State coach Jerrod Calhoun after Danny Sprinkle departed for Washington after just one season in Logan. The Utah State job has been a springboard gig in recent years, after Craig Smith lasted three seasons to take the job at Utah, Ryan Odom left after two to go to VCU, and now Sprinkle leaves after one year.
Calhoun will have some pieces to work with from last year’s team, including Ian Martinez, who averaged 13.3 PPG last year, and Mason Falslev, who averaged 11.3 PPG.
From the portal, Calhoun got six players who averaged in double figures last season. Dextar Akanno is the only one that comes from a power league after he averaged 10.9 PPG at Oregon State. The rest include Deyton Albury (17.0 PPG at Queens), Tucker Anderson (14.5 PPG at Central Arkansas), Drake Allen (11.9 PPG at Utah Valley), Aubin Gateretse (11.6 PPG at Stetson) and Braden Housley (10.8 PPG at Southern Utah). An underrated pickeup is Pavle Stosic, who played sparingly at Gonzaga.
Three-star recruit Isaac Davis joins as a freshman.
The Aggies have been in the tournament five of the past six seasons. On paper, they have the talent to do it again.
Nevada Wolf Pack
2023-24: 26-8 (13-5 Mountain West), lost in NCAA first round
The Wolf Pack turned in another good season and was on the way to winning a tournament game before a second half collapse against Dayton that sent them packing.
Nevada returns a healthy dose of talent for coach Steve Alford. That includes Nick Davidson, who averaged 12.2 PPG, Tre Coleman, who averaged 8.5 PPG, along with depth pieces in K.J. Hymes, Daniel Foster and Tyler Rolison.
They also loaded up with a couple good portal additions, including Kobe Sanders, who had 19.6 PPG at Cal Poly, Xavier DuSell, who had 11.5 PPG at Fresno State, and Brandon Love, who had 10.4 PPG at Texas State. Yuto Yamanounchi-Williams (Wyoming) and Chuck Bailey III (Evansville) should provide depth as well.
Nevada has good depth, but seems to have a lack of top guys. Still, they should be able to compete in the top half of the league.
Boise State Broncos
2023-24: 22-11 (13-5 Mountain West), lost in NCAA First Four
Boise State was a team that felt underseeded in the NCAA tournament, but failed to make it out of the play-in round in Dayton.
This year’s addition of the Broncos should be back at the top of the league. Leading scorer Tyson Degenhart is back after he averaged 16.7 points per game last year, as is O’Mar Stanley, who had 12.7 PPG. Those two should create one of the best, if not the best, duo in the league.
Coach Leon Rice got them a third guy in the portal to create what may end up being a great trio. That new add is Alvaro Cardenas, who averaged 13.2 PPG at San Jose State last season. He also added Javan Buchanan, who averaged 20.5 PPG at the NAIA level last year, Dominic Parolin, who had 11.5 PPG at Lehigh, and Dylan Anderson, who last played for Arizona in 2022-23. Anderson, a seven-footer, is a breakout candidate.
The Broncos have the size – every player except Cardenas is six-foot-four or taller – to be one of the better teams in the country. Second weekend may be the goal in Boise.
UNLV Runnin’ Rebels
2023-24: 21-13 (12-6 Mountain West), lost in NIT quarterfinals
UNLV was the odd one out of the top seven in the Mountain West to miss the NCAA tournament, but still made a nice run to the quarterfinals of the NIT.
This year’s edition of the Runnin’ Rebels will be an interesting team. It has to replace the production of the Boone brothers as well as Luis Rodriguez. It does return leading scorer Dedan Thomas Jr., who had 13.6 PPG, as well as Jalen Hill, who had 10.7 PPG. Rob Whaley Jr. also returns and will look to take a step up this season.
Coach Kevin Kruger went out and got Oral Roberts transfer Jailen Bedford, who averaged 14.6 PPG for the Golden Eagles, as well as DePaul transfer Jaden Henley, who averaged 8.6 PPG. JUCO transfer Jeremiah Cherry will have a shot at good minutes as well.
Four-star freshman James Evans joins the fold, as well as a pair of three-stars in Papa N’Diaye and Jacob Bannarbie.
The Runnin’ Rebels likely won’t finish in the top three, but could certainly be in the conversation for the program’s first NCAA tournament bid since 2013.
San Diego State Aztecs
2023-24: 26-11 (11-7 Mountain West), lost in Sweet 16
Out of the six from the league to make the NCAA tournament, SDSU was the only one to make the second weekend, which followed up a trip to the national championship game in 2023.
It’s also a team that lost its entire core, forcing coach Brian Dutcher to bring in a ton of new players.
He brought in three very solid transfers in Wayne McKinney III, who averaged 13.5 PPG at crosstown San Diego, Jared Coleman-Jones, who had 11.0 PPG at Middle Tennessee, and Nicholas Boyd, who had 9.7 PPG at Florida Atlantic. Finally, Kimo Ferrari was a role guy at Brown.
The only notable returners are Reese Waters, who had 9.6 PPG, and role player Miles Byrd. Keep an eye on BJ Davis, who played sparingly last year but is poised to take on a much larger role.
SDSU brings in a pair of four-star recruits in Pharoah Compton and Taj Degourville, as well as three-star Thokbor Majak. Redshirt Magoon Gwath did not play last year, but should have a role as well.
The rebuild was handled quite well. Expect the Aztecs to be right back in the tournament next March.
New Mexico Lobos
2023-24: 26-10 (10-8 Mountain West), lost in NCAA first round
New Mexico was one of the main characters in the bubble conversation last year before ripping off four wins in four days at the conference tournament and getting the auto-bid. It was a sexy upset pick in the first round, but lost to Clemson.
This year, Richard Pitino’s Lobos could be the best team in the league. New Mexico returns Donovan Dent, who averaged 14.1 PPG last year and may end up being the best player in the conference. Also returning is Nelly Junior Joseph, who had 8.9 PPG and Mustapha Amzil and Tru Washington, who had 6.7 and 6.6 PPG respectively.
Pitino brought in CJ Noland, who averaged 10.9 PPG at North Texas last year, and three high-major transfers in Atiki Ally Atiki (BYU), Filip Borovicanin (Arizona) and Ibrahim Sacko (Georgia Tech).
Jovan Milicevic highlights a decent freshman class. Milicevic should have a big role from the start.
With all of this talent, the Lobos should be the clear favorite to win the league. The level of talent is exactly why.
Colorado State Rams
2023-24: 25-11 (10-8 Mountain West), lost in NCAA first round
The Rams lost a good amount of talent from last year, including Isaiah Stevens, who was probably the second best player in the conference. He was one of 10 players to depart.
That forced coach Niko Medved into rebuilding nearly the full roster.
The biggest piece back is Nique Clifford, who averaged 12.2 PPG. Jalen Lake (6.1 PPG) is the only other notable guy back.
It’ll be a young team that includes five freshmen and two of the transfers being sophomores. Two of the new transfers averaged in the double digits at their last stops, those being Keshawn Williams, who had 17.9 PPG at Northern Illinois in 2022-23 but didn’t play last year. Bowen Born had 13.3 PPG at Northern Iowa last year. Jaylen Crocker-Johnson had 9.1 PPG at a freshman at Little Rock.
There is talent here. But with how young it is and how deep the league is, winning consistently may be a challenge.
Wyoming Cowboys
2023-24: 15-17 (8-10 Mountain West), no postseason
This is where the pretty emphatic divide starts between the top seven and the bottom four.
This year’s edition of the Cowboys will have a new head coach in Sundance Wicks, who comes in after one season at Green Bay to replace Jeff Linder, who left to become the top assistant at Texas Tech.
It’ll be a big rebuild. The only notable returners are Oleg Kojenets, who averaged 3.7 PPG, and Kobe Newton, who had 4.5 PPG.
It’s not exactly clear who will be the number one. The leader of the nine transfers is Touko Tainamo, who had 15.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game at Denver last year, while Jordan Nesbitt averaged 10.2 PPG at Hampton. Dontaie Allen once played at Kentucky and averaged 8.2 PPG at Western Kentucky last year.
Jehvion Starwood is a three-star recruit.
It’s an older, experienced roster for sure. However, it’s tough to build a winning team with a first-year coach who is behind the eight ball in resources with the rest of the league.
Fresno State Bulldogs
2023-24: 12-21 (4-14 Mountain West), no postseason
After another lackluster season for the Bulldogs, they parted ways with former coach Justin Hutson after six seasons with the program.
Vance Walberg, a successful area high school coach who was once the coach of Pepperdine and served as an assistant on NBA staffs, takes the reigns to lead the program.
Walberg has already shown an eye for getting talent, particularly from the JUCO ranks. He picked up Amar Auguillard, the Division I JUCO player of the year from Triton College, where he averaged 22.7 PPG on a team that went 34-3 and went all the way to the JUCO national championship game. Jasir Trimble and Alex Crawford are also both talent JUCO pickups that should have a role. New addition Mor Seck averaged 4.0 PPG at Hawaii, and Elijah Prince redshirted at Drake.
The only notable returner is Jalen Weaver, who averaged 7.4 PPG.
Freshmen Makham Diouf and Brian Amuneke join the fold.
The talent here is promising. Fresno likely won’t be a true contender, but has a great chance to improve on last year’s campaign.
San Jose State Spartans
2023-24: 9-23 (2-16 Mountain West), no postseason
It’s going to be a tall task to replace much of your top talent after winning just two league games a year ago.
But that’s what San Jose State and coach Tim Miles will attempt to do after barely returning any of the roster. All that is back is Latrell Davis, who averaged 5.7 PPG, Adrame Diongue, who averaged 4.8 PPG, and Robert Vaihola, who averaged 7.6 PPG in 2022-23.
Some decent transfers come in, led by Jose Uduje, who averaged 8.7 PPG at Utah State and won the league’s sixth man of the year award. Sadaidriene Hall had 10.7 PPG at Stephen F. Austin and Donovan Yap had 9.0 PPG at Fresno State. Three players have high-major experience, including Will McClendon (UCLA), Chol Marial (Oregon State) and Sadraque NgaNga (Seton Hall). No notable freshmen come in.
There is experience on this year’s team, but the talent and wins may not be there. It’s a worrying situation for Miles, who is 38-60 in three seasons at San Jose State.
Air Force Falcons
2023-24: 9-22 (2-16 Mountain West), no postseason
It is obviously excruciatingly difficult to bring in talent and win at a service academy. Air Force has only made the NCAA tournament four times in its history and has not made it since 2006.
It’s a challenge task that Joe Scott has dealt with for 15 years now. This time around, he will need to replace the production of Rytis Petraitis, his leading scorer who transferred to California.
Beau Becker (13.8 PPG), Ethan Taylor (13.5 PPG) and Jeffrey Mills (9.1 PPG) are in the position to be the go-to guys for the Falcons. Other than that, not much there.
It’s unlikely, to say the least, that Air Force will get to double digit wins total this year.
AJ Hoops 