1) Hawaii (5-0)-Still only played one game away from the islands but Saint Mary's and S. Illinois are 2 solid victories.

2) Rice (4-1)-Harris had one monster game against Grambling State. Too bad UMASS beat UCONN because i don't think the Owls will catch the Huskies napping on Sunday.

3) Fresno (6-0)--Expect them to fall back to earth after the next 4 games but have to give them kudos for the win @USC. (Oregon, Pacific, USF, Hawaii)

4) UTEP (4-2)--Just seems like something's different this year. They're still beating the Panhandle States but it doesn't seem to be complete domination like it was last year.

5) Nevada (4-3)--Nevada is going to enjoy their next 3 cupcakes after an absolutely brutal 5 game stretch.

6) SMU (3-3)--I'm not sure how I'll react next year to not seeing SMU in their usual place right in the middle of the WAC pack.

7) LaTech (3-4)--Sure Texas-San Antonio was in the tourney last year but it still should have been a win for the bulldogs

8) Boise (4-3)--Has gone 4-3 in a stretch of games that should have been 6-1 at worst for an upper echelon WAC team.

9) Tulsa (2-3)--2 wins are Northwestern State and Prairie View A&M

10) SJSU 3-4--They're better than last year and will steal a few WAC wins but they'll still finish in the cellar.

<!--QuoteBegin--renopack+--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (renopack)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Too bad UMASS beat UCONN because i don't think the Owls will catch the Huskies napping on Sunday.[/quote]

Dang it, I sure was wishing we could. :crying: This could be a brutal road trip up north... but if the Owls can't pull out a shocker of an upset at either U Conn or Syracuse, then I hope we can brush off the losses and keep on truckin'.

Now, about that Grambling State game -- it sure is nice to set a scoring record and actually WIN the game this time. :D

Broncos beat defending BWC champ Eastern WAshington last night by 11, but you are right. They should be 7-1 right now. It may take a few more games before the new guys get in the groove and learn Grahams system. They should still finish in the top half of the WAC!!!!

WAC looks tough in basketball this year.

Utah State will make them even better next year.

Copied from my yesterday post on WAC Fan Forum....

Note: All records include games against D1 teams only

WAC
Record: 33-23 (58.9%)

In 4 of the 5 years since the split, the conference has won between 60-70% of its OOC games. So this year is lagging a little right now, but its not like its way below what might be expected. In those 4 years we also have also received two bids to the NCAA’s. We didn’t always have two at-large candidates, but we always got two bids because someone who wouldn’t have gotten in came in and won the tourney and auto-bid. The key for a conference like the WAC is its top teams doing enough to be a viable at-large candidate.

Through yesterday’s games, here is a look at the teams and where I think they might stand in a ranking. This isn’t where I think they’ll end up necessarily, just where they’d rank right now based on games played to date.

1. Hawaii
Record: 5-0
RPI: 35
Couple good wins over StMary’s and S.Illinois. May or may not end up being quality wins (Top50), but still good Top100 wins. If they can run through the Rainbow Classic, will put themselves in pretty good shape entering conference play.

2. Fresno St
Record: 5-0
RPI: 116
Ray Lopes already won coach of the year in my book. This team had nothing coming back. 3 players total and one is Bouldin who I don’t believe has even played yet. I had them penciled in at 9th or 10th. Just and incredible job molding a bunch of new faces. The schedule hasn’t been brutal, but a couple tough road wins. Chance to really move up the RPI ladder with a couple good games record wise (Oregon 5-1 and Pacific 4-1) coming up at home.

3. UTEP
Record: 4-2
RPI: 76
Tough not having Rivera for Texas Tech game. That was a home game they really could have used. They obviously need to sweep through their remaining OOC games and hope Arizona St continues to win and give the Miners a quality win.

4. Rice
Record: 3-1
RPI: 58
I guess their RPI might be somewhat surprisingly high, considering they haven’t played any big name teams. But they haven’t played anybody with a really bad record either. ULL loss hurts, but the Owls still can play themselves into good shape because of games at Syracuse and UCONN. I think they’ll need at least one to have an OOC resume worthy of at-large consideration.

5. Nevada
Record: 3-3
RPI: 96
As I said in preseason this was a great schedule. With Trent, Snyder and Kemp all there, this is the type of OOC schedule that gets you a good seed. Of course, UNLV and Toledo haven’t done as well record-wise to date as predicted in the pre-season. There is a good chance to win the next 3 and go into conference season 6-3. I saw the Pack against KU and it looked like they had some good, but inexperienced, guys out there.

6. SMU
Record: 2-3
RPI: 99
Beaten a couple of bad teams, lost to 3 pretty good teams. I guess the only concern would be they haven’t been competitive in the losses (21, 38, & 14pts). I saw the Ponies against OSU and it really seemed liked they were struggling to adapt to Lopes more structured offense (any structure at all would be a change from Dement). May not fit Hopkins strengths. This team still has a load of talent and I have to admit I am a little surprised they haven’t done a little better out of the gate.

7. Tulsa
Record: 2-3
RPI: 163
Beaten a couple bad teams, lost to 2 pretty good teams and one decent team. Hot seat firmly on Phillips with a lot of “not if but when

Saw that over there too. Broncos have an RPI rank of 325. I did not know you could go that low!!!!!

Ya, teams jump on the D1 bandwagon at the rate of about 10 per year it seems. It seriously wont be long till there are over 400 teams.

I knew Boise's schedule was bad but I didn't realize it was that bad. Wow!

It was good to see Boise and SMU both get wins this week in games that I thought could have gone either way.

A SJSU win over an Irvine team that just beat Santa Clara is next on mywish list.