Bern’s-Eye View: Forecasting Mountain West Basketball Week 9

By Taylor Bern

Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 | 3:30 p.m.

Mountain West play is a little more than a week old and already it appears that the suspicions of a wide-open league race are true. Through at least two games for most teams, only three teams are still undefeated and all three of them are underdogs tonight.

That includes Wyoming (13-2, 2-0) at Colorado State (14-1, 1-1), Utah State (9-5, 2-0) at Fresno State (6-9, 1-1) and UNR (5-8, 1-0) at UNLV (9-5, 0-1). The other game tonight features San Jose State (2-12, 0-2) at Air Force (7-6, 0-2) with both teams looking for their first conference victory.

Protecting home court is always important in league play, especially in this conference, where pretty much every team except maybe San Jose State is at least a little threatening in its home arena. It’s going to be very interesting to follow along week to week, and hopefully that comes with some improvement from my picks, too.

Note: UNLV picks will appear in the live blog on the day of games.

TODAY

Wyoming (plus-5) at Colorado State

6 p.m., Mountain West Network/Campus Insiders

• This is the game of the night and, thanks to the often dreadful offensive basketball at Viejas Arena on Tuesday night, it’s also the game of the week. I think the Cowboys will be a bet-against team on the road in most games, but this is a short drive (watch out for deer!) and a big rivalry for both schools.

Pick: Wyoming

San Jose State (plus-13.5) at Air Force

6 p.m., Mountain West Network

• Obviously going against the Spartans didn’t turn out so well last weekend, when I laid 18.5 points with Wyoming, which only won by five. The obvious reason for this is that SJSU got a couple of its suspended players back, including Bishop Gorman grad Rashad Muhammad, but the Spartans weren’t very good before they were depleted either, so I’m going with the home team.

Pick: Air Force

Utah State (plus-3.5) at Fresno State

8 p.m., Root Sports/Mountain West Network

• It’s possible that Fresno State’s home victory against San Diego State will go down as one of the most bizarre scores of the conference season, though with the way the Aztecs shoot they were bound to have a loss or two like that on the road. I’ve gone back and forth on this because it really feels like Utah State is primed for a loss, possibly a big one, but I’m going to stick with my first gut instinct and take the Aggies to cover.

Pick: Utah State

Last week: 6-6

Season: 65-53-1

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.