(03-10-2018 04:07 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  

(03-10-2018 03:32 PM)SoCalBobcat78 Wrote:  

(03-10-2018 01:34 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  The West is a struggling basketball region. Things do cycle but the Western-based conferences need help. It’s tough having such a sparse region. Consolidation of strong basketball schools may be a must down the road but I have no idea what that would look like.

No it is not. The west had four teams in the sweet sixteen last year (UCLA, Arizona, Oregon and Gonzaga) and two teams in the final four (Oregon and Gonzaga). The MWC has been down the past few seasons, but there are good basketball schools in the Mountain West that will eventually get things fixed. Gonzaga lost a couple of key players to the NBA draft.

The PAC-12 has had a scandal filled season. UCLA lost three key reserves due to shoplifting in China and three freshman to the NBA draft in 2017 (Lonzo Ball, TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu). Arizona and USC have been dealing with the FBI investigations this season. All three schools will make the tournament, but they are not as good as hoped.

The WAC has looked good. Four of the eight schools in the WAC have won twenty or more games this season. There is plenty of talent out west.

Yeah you have several things happening at once: PAC is down. MWC is down. Traditionally solid basketball schools like UTEP and BYU are down. New Mexico St needs a decent conference. When all these things get corrected the West will be ok..
Look as recently at the 90’s with a good PAC 10, a WAC with UTEP, Utah and BYU and a Big West with UNLV, New Mexico St and Utah St. plenty of final 4, sweet 16 teams from those 3 leagues n the 90’s and even some NCAA championships and finalists in Arizona, UCLA, UNLV and Utah.

The Pac-12 had seven teams in the NCAA Tournament in 2016 on top of the success they had in 2017. They are down this season for the reasons that I mentioned. The MWC had five teams in the tournament in 2013. This is the reason they are having "exploratory talks" with Gonzaga. Schools like UNLV, San Diego State and New Mexico have struggled the past few years, but that could turn around next season.

UTEP has not made the tournament since 2010. They have been to the tournament three times in the last 25 years. They have been down for a quarter of a century. BYU is still a good team. Under Dave Rose, they have won 20 games or more thirteen straight years. Rose is a very good coach, but they have a talent ceiling at BYU. It is not an easy place to recruit to.