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Thoughts on the WAC in terms of basketball?

Potomac Griz

Potomac Griz

Well-known member
So what do all of you basketball fans think about the possibility of the Griz being in the WAC?

I'm somewhat excited by that possibility, since I think it would really help recruiting, and exposure for the Griz BB program.

Forgetting football for a minute...what are you thoughts on the WAC for the BB teams?
 
Sounds good to me! :D Maybe the WAC has a rule against scheduling weekday games against conference opponents! ;)
 
I love it how the football fans are freaking out over joining the WAC and the basketball fans are remaining chilled. another reason why basketball owns. but yeah, WAC would be better in recruiting as well as more bids to the ncaa tourney..I say do it.
 
IronMountainGriz&Cat said:
What's wrong with the current recruiting?
Click to expand...

I think Tinkle is doing a great job recruiting. He's bringing in some very talented players that I'm excited to see play for the Griz.

Moving to the WAC though can only help recruiting. Even though the Big Sky has improved quite a bit over the past several years to narrow the gap, it's still a step up going to the WAC.

In men's basketball the WAC gets more than 1 team in the NCAA tournament fairly frequently. I'm not sure when the last time was that the Big Sky got more than 1 in the NCAA tournament.
 
After Boise State and Nevada leave the WAC, the strength of that conference will certainly decline unless the replacements are better. Nevada I think are better than any of the mentioned replacements that may join. With the loss of these two teams, it may become a 1 bid conference.
Still, I think WAC will still be better than the Big Sky, and may open recruiting into other areas for recruits. While the loss of Boise State and nevada may weaken the conference enough to become a 1 bid conference, it will still have better odds of having more than 1 over the Big Sky Conference.
 
Nevada is a big loss, but Boise State and Fresno State are not that strong of teams. Neither has made the NCAA's in the last several years that I know of. They are addition by subtraction, as far as Sagarin ratings go.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/bkc0910.htm
 
Losing Nevada definitely sucks. I hope one day we can follow them into the MWC :D
Louisiana Tech had a pretty good year last year as did New Mexico State, and Utah State was in the tourney again (they are always good it seems).

I was a little curious about the recruiting stuff, so I figured I'd check out Scout.com, Rivals, and ESPN to see how the Griz and a couple other of the usual top Big Sky teams (Weber and Portland State) stacked up against some of the WAC teams in terms of recruiting. As I said on the football forums (I did the same thing there) I realize these recruit rating sites don't mean the player is going to come in and kick ass..but it's the only rating system us fans have to go by :)

Here are the various commits for Utah State, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, Nevada (I know they are leaving, but they are WAC right now), the Griz, Weber, Portland State.

Lots of links here... kind of interesting though. Seems the Griz are doing very well recruiting according to the rating sites!

I put this together mainly because I was curious...figured I'd post the links and save anyone else who was curious some time:

Griz
2010 Scout.com Griz - Two "2 Star" - Two "Not Rated"
2010 Rivals Griz - One "2 Star" - Three "Not Rated"
2009 Scout.com Griz - Two "2 Star" - One "Not Rated"
2009 Rivals Griz - One "3 Star" - Two "Not Rated"
2008 Scout.com Griz - One "2 Star" - One "Not Rated"
2008 Rivals Griz - Two "2 Star" - Three "Not Rated"
Scout.com Total in the past three years: Five "2 Star" - Four "Not Rated"
Rivals.com Total in the past three years: One "3 Star" - Three "2 Star" - Eight "Not Rated"

Weber
2010 Scout.com Weber - One "Not Rated"
2010 Rivals Weber - Three "Not Rated"
2009 Scout.com Weber - None Found
2009 Rivals Weber - Five "Not Rated"
2008 Scout.com Weber - Three "Two Star"
2008 Rivals Weber - Two "2 Star" - Three "Not Rated"
Scout.com Total in the past three years: Three "2 Star" - One "Not Rated"
Rivals.com Total in the past three years: Two "2 Star" - Eleven "Not Rated"

Portland State
2010 Scout.com Portland State - One "2 Star"
2010 Rivals Portland State - One "Not Rated"
2009 Scout.com Portland State - One "Not Rated"
2009 Rivals Portland State - One "2 Star" - Three "Not Rated"
2008 Scout.com Portland State - One "2 Star"
2009 Rivals Portland State - One "2 Star" - Three "Not Rated"
Scout.com Total in the past three years: Two "2 Star" - One "Not Rated"
Rivals.com Total in the past three years: Two "2 Star" - Seven "Not Rated"


Nevada
2010 Scout.com Nevada - Three "2 Star"
2010 Rivals Nevada - One "3 Star" - One "2 Star" - Three "Not Rated"
2009 Scout.com Nevada - One "3 Star"
2009 Rivals Nevada - One "3 Star" - One "Not Rated"
2008 Scout.com Nevada - One "5 Star" :shock: - Two "3 Star" - Three "2 Star"
2008 Rivals Nevada - Two "4 Star" - Three "2 Star" - One "Not Rated"
Scout.com Total in the past three years: One "5 Star" - Three "3 Star" - Six "2 Star"
Rivals.com Total in the past three years: Two "4 Star" - Two "3 Star" - Four "2 Star" - Five "Not Rated"

Utah State
2010 Scout.com Utah State - Two "2 Star"
2010 Rivals Utah State - One "2 Star" - Four "Not Rated"
2009 Scout.com Utah State - None Found
2009 Rivals Utah State - One "Not Rated"
2008 Scout.com Utah State - Two "2 Star"
2008 Rivals Utah State - Two "2 Star" - Three "Not Rated"
Scout.com Total in the past three years: Four "2 Star"
Rivals.com Total in the past three years: Three "2 Star" - Eight "Not Rated"

New Mexico State
2010 Scout.com New Mexico State - One "2 Star"
2010 Rivals New Mexico State - One "3 Star" - One "Not Rated"
2009 Scout.com New Mexico State - One "Not Rated"
2009 Rivals New Mexico State - One "Two Star" - Two "Not Rated"
2008 Scout.com New Mexico State - Three "2 Star"
2008 Rivals New Mexico State - Three "3 Star" - Five "Not Rated"
Scout.com Total in the past three years: Four "2 Star" - One "Not Rated"
Rivals.com Total in the past three years: Four "3 Star" - One "2 Star" - Eight "Not Rated"

Louisiana Tech
2010 Scout.com Louisiana Tech - None Found
2010 Rivals Louisiana Tech - Two "3 Star" - Four "Not Rated"
2009 Scout.com Louisiana Tech - One "3 Star" - One "2 Star"
2009 Rivals Louisiana Tech - One "3 Star" - Two "Not Rated"
2008 Scout.com Louisiana Tech - Three "2 Star" - Four "Not Rated"
2008 Rivals Louisiana Tech - One "Three Star" - One "2 Star" - Five "Not Rated"
Scout.com Total in the past three years: One "3 Star" - Four "2 Star" - Four "Not Rated"
Rivals.com Total in the past three years: Five "3 Star" - One "2 Star" - Eleven "Not Rated"

ESPN Recruit Ratings (Entire Conference)

Big Sky:
2010 Ratings
90-99: 3
80-89: 7
70-79: 15
Not Rated Yet: 6

2009 Ratings
90-99: 0
80-89: 5
70-79: 14
Not Rated Yet: 1

WAC:
2010 Ratings
90-99: 2
80-89: 14
70-79: 8
Not Rated Yet: 4

2009 Ratings
90-99: 0
80-89: 16
70-79: 5
Not Rated Yet: 1
 
GrizDDS said:
Nevada is a big loss, but Boise State and Fresno State are not that strong of teams. Neither has made the NCAA's in the last several years that I know of. They are addition by subtraction, as far as Sagarin ratings go.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/bkc0910.htm
Click to expand...

Nevada is a loss for the WAC, but I think Utah State is year in and year out a 20+ win program. It's not like the WAC is left with nothing as far as men's basketball goes...
 
GrizWhiz said:
Sounds good to me! :D Maybe the WAC has a rule against scheduling weekday games against conference opponents! ;)
Click to expand...

Or at 1:00pm during a weekday so us Working Folk can't go!
 
Well when Fresno was here recently, Tinks was trying to convince us that they had a potential lottery pick or 2. The WAC will never be the respected league it once was. With Boise, Fresno, Nevada and Hawaii gone, you're left with Idaho, San Jose, La Tech, Texas State? U of Denver? U of Seattle? Texas-San Antonio? Montana? That's the bulk of the future WAC BB league. That leaves NMSU and USU with about the only national respect the league has left. Let's not kid ourselves. It's a small step up from the Sky, not a mighty leap.
 
Zirg said:
Well when Fresno was here recently, Tinks was trying to convince us that they had a potential lottery pick or 2. The WAC will never be the respected league it once was. With Boise, Fresno, Nevada and Hawaii gone, you're left with Idaho, San Jose, La Tech, Texas State? U of Denver? U of Seattle? Texas-San Antonio? Montana? That's the bulk of the future WAC BB league. That leaves NMSU and USU with about the only national respect the league has left. Let's not kid ourselves. It's a small step up from the Sky, not a mighty leap.
Click to expand...

In Basketball Boise wasn't great.. Fresno wasn't too good either, but that George guy (the one Tinkle thought might be a lottery pick) was very good.

LA Tech was pretty good last year, as was NMState. USU is always good it seems. U of Seattle is rebuilding their BB program which has quite an impressive history, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them putting together some good seasons soon.

Last year the WAC was the #10 rated conference based on their RPI score (PAC-10 was #9).
The Big Sky was #19

I know that was with Nevada (who is always good it seems). Fresno and Boise weren't great last year, so it didn't have much to do with them.

Here are the RPI ratings for the WAC teams and for the Big Sky teams. I'm counting Hawaii in there since they haven't left yet (as far as I know), and it sounds like they may be waiting to see if Montana joins before they decide on whether they are going to leave. You can see that even without Nevada, Boise, and Fresno, there are some teams that had pretty high rankings last year, and overall much better than the Big Sky in terms of RPI ranking.

WAC:
#40 - Utah State
#57 - NM State
#60 - Nevada
#81 - LA Tech
#175 - Idaho
#177 - San Jose State
#188 - Fresno State
#202 - Boise State
#257 - Hawaii


Big Sky:
#94 - Weber State
#99 - Montana
#128 - Northern Colorado
#203 - Montana State
#206 - Northern Arizona
#221 - Portland State
#283 - Eastern Washington
#297 - Sac State
#308 - Idaho State


Possible New WAC Teams:
#165 - Denver
#187 - Texas San Antonio
#192 - Seattle University
#243 - Texas State
 
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