Mountain West earns 2 NCAA Tournament bids for first time since 2015

No. 22 UNR got in and No. 20 Saint Mary’s didn’t, and while that fact alone won’t determine whether Gonzaga joins the Mountain West, it’s another argument in the conference’s favor.

The Mountain West has been in discussions with the Bulldogs about making the leap from the West Coast Conference. Gonzaga, which has dominated the WCC, received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after winning its league title Tuesday at Orleans Arena.

Their West Coast brethren, Saint Mary’s, wasn’t invited as an at-large team Sunday to the field of 68 despite going 28-5 with rankings of No. 28 in Kenpom and No. 40 in RPI. The Gaels were penalized for their weak nonconference schedule, and late-season losses to San Francisco and Brigham Young didn’t help.

UNR (27-7) won the Mountain West regular-season title, but fell to San Diego State (22-10) in the conference semifinals. The Aztecs went on to win the Mountain West tournament title and they are a No. 11 seed in the NCAAs and will face No. 6 Houston (26-7) on Thursday in Wichita, Kansas, in the West Region.

“I think the 11 seed was pretty good,” San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher said. “I think they looked at the fact that we had beaten Gonzaga early in the year, that we had just beaten Nevada basically in back-to-back weeks, a ranked team, so we had some very good, quality wins. I think they also looked at the fact that we have won nine in a row, so to go from nowhere in the conversation to an 11 seed is a credit to my team and how hard they played down the stretch to put themselves in this position.”

The Wolf Pack were given a No. 7 seed as an at-large team and will play No. 10 Texas (19-14) on Friday in Nashville, Tennessee, in the South Region.

“Obviously, there are a lot of quality teams that aren’t in this tournament, teams that have had unbelievable years, power conference teams,” UNR coach Eric Musselman said. “It’s really hard for a midmajor to get an at-large bid. I couldn’t be prouder of our team. The selection committee gave us a lot of respect as a seven seed. We’re excited. We thought we were in, but you never know until you see your name called.”

This is the first time since 2015 the Mountain West will send multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament.

Though UNR lost twice in six days to San Diego State, the Wolf Pack played a more difficult schedule than Saint Mary’s, and the Mountain West as a conference presented a tougher league to navigate from top to bottom than the WCC.

“We scheduled road games,” Musselman said. “I’m so happy that the committee talked about road games and talked about scheduling up and talked about playing really good teams like TCU and Texas Tech and we played six teams in the (NCAA Tournament) field. Six is a lot, a tremendous amount. I’m just so thankful our group was rewarded for that. We didn’t catch lightning in a bottle over a short period of time. This thing was earned by our guys.”

The NCAA Tournament selection committee left out teams such as Louisville, Southern California and Oklahoma State. Tournament chairman Bruce Rasmussen, who is Creighton’s athletic director, pointed to the holes in various resumes as reasons for omitting those teams.

Oklahoma was a controversial admission to the tournament. The Sooners, led by former UNLV coach Lon Kruger, went 18-13 and lost 11 of their final 15 games. They were seeded 10th, and will play No. 7 Rhode Island on Thursday in Pittsburgh.

“Every game on the schedule counts the same as far as the committee is concerned,” Rasmussen said. “Oklahoma had some great wins early. They had six quadrant one (upper-level) wins, all in the top 35 RPI. And while they didn’t play well down the stretch and it did cost them in seeding, there was enough on their resume to put them in the tournament.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.