Weber State Basketball Preview

The drive for Nineteen.

The WSU Men's Basketball team is the defending regular season champion.  They have been picked to do so again.  They missed out on the big dance last year because of a conference semi-final loss to Montana.  Weber then suffered a first-round NIT loss.  The chemistry of last-year's team took a while to gel.  In the second half against BYU, Coach Rahe found he had a special trio of freshmen.  This trio worked their way into the starting line-up by the time Big Sky play began.  This year, Damian Lillard, Kyle Bullinger and Darin Mahoney will work to lead this team into the NCAA tournament.

To bring some maturity to the team, Randy Rahe recruited from the junior college ranks.  This year, you can expect Lindsey Hughey, Josh Noble and Franlkin Session to be worked into the playing rotation.  Seniors Nick Hansen at shooting guard and Steve Panos at Center will round out the starting five.  Trevor Morris will likely be worked into the main rotation as well.

The strength of this year's Weber State team is a good outside shooting game and the athletic play of Lillard.  The guard from Oakland was last year's Big Sky Freshman of the Year.  He is expected to be the points, assists and three point leader in the Big Sky this year.  He is the real deal and if he plays a full four years, may end up breaking a few records before it is done. 

The weakness for Weber State is size.  Forwards Bullinger and Mahoney are big enough, but Weber will have some trouble playing teams with legitimate size in the low post.  At 6'9", Morris is the tallest man on the team.  If the outside game is not working for the Cats, there may be no inside option.  The athleticism of Lillard will have to make up for problems with the outside shot.

Schedule:

http://www.weberstatesports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8600&SPID=3470&SPSID=39378


Weber State has two games against Northern Utah rival, Utah State.  They open the regular season against the Aggies in Ogden on November 13th.  And close the non-conference schedule against Utah State in Logan on December 23.  Weber plays two other in-state games at the Dee Event Center.  The Utah Utes visit Odgen on December 2.  The Thunderbirds of Southern Utah drive up I-15 on December 12.  The Wildcats travel to Provo, where they have never won, on Black Friday.

Outside of the in-state games, the toughest game on the schedule is a December 17 trip to Las Vegas to take on the UNLV Rebels.  Otherwise, the schedule is fairly soft, even by Big Sky standards.  Western State and Montana Tech come to the Dee Events Center.  Both are Division II schools.  While Weber will also take a west coast trip to take on UC Santa Barbara and Seattle of the Big West and West Coast Conference respecitively.  Also in Logan, WSU will play games against Cal State Fullerton and Morehead State.  Also, there is a rare December Big Sky game at Sacramento State on December 5th. 

The conference schedule is balanced with no more than 3 games in a row at home or on the road.  Both of those are early in the conference schedule.  Expect the talk of an undefeated conference campaign to heat up if WSU is still unbeaten after the Montana trip.

Weber will likely earn a 8-4 record in non conference play.  I expect losses in both Utah State games and the road games at BYU and UNLV.  In conference, 13-3 is realistic.  The Cats should go unbeaten at home in conference play and will need to in order to stay ahead of Montana, Idaho State and Portland State.  The key for WSU to get into the NCAA tournament is to host the conference tournament. 

If they do not win the Big Sky tournament, 26-4 or better might still get them into the NCAA tournament, especially with a win over BYU or UNLV or both, but that would be unprecedented.  The Big Sky Conference has never had an at-large tournament bid.  It would be best not to leave that to chance.  23-7 with a conference tournament victory should get Weber State into the NCAA tournament as a #12 seed.

Probable Starting Line-up

PG: #1   Damian Lillard, 6'2", Sophomore, Oakland, CA
SG: #12 Nick Hansen, 6'4", Senior, Pocatello, ID
SF: #3    Kyle Bullinger, 6' 6", Sophomore,  Mountain View, WY
PF: #30  Darin Mahoney, 6' 8", Sophomore, Heber City, UT
C: #45    Steve Panos, 6' 8", Senior, Salt Lake City, UT

Best of the bech:

C: #55     Trevor Morris, 6'9", Junior, Nampa, ID
G: #15     Lindsey Hughey, 6'3", Junior, Grand Prairie, TX (JC Transfer)
G/F: #21 Josh Noble, 6'2", Junior, Brooklyn, NY (JC Transfer)
G/F: #23 Franklin Session, 6'2", Los Angeles, CA (JC Transfer)