We’re in the final month of the season and these final weeks are just as much an opportunity to bolster a team’s resumé as they is to remove them from the bubble conversation. Wednesday night, New Mexico curbed its two-game skid and came back to beat the proven pesky hosts, Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. 

The Lobos are now on the wrong side of the bubble and will likely need to win one of their remaining matchups against San Diego State and Utah State and otherwise win out to get back into the tournament. The winner of the February 28th Aztecs and Lobos matchup could very well be the one allowed to get to the NCAA tournament.

For the WCC, it comes down to Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s and which school snatches more Quad 1 wins in their final four games. The Gaels are still looking for their first Quad 1 of the season, while the 

The Santa Clara Broncos could be sitting squarely on the bubble should they lose both of their remaining games between Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s. An electric final three weeks are ahead of us.

Herb Sendek finds another diamond in Allen Graves

If finding NBA-level talent outside of the top 100 of high school rankings was oil prospecting, Herb Sendek might just be Daniel Plainview. In his 32nd year as a head coach, Sendek has done it again with the meteoric rise of redshirt freshman big man Allen Graves this season. The 6-9 Louisianan wasn’t even ranked or evaluated on 247 his senior year of high school, despite being Mr. Louisiana and Mr. Basketball for his home state and a sibling to two other high major basketball players.

Graves’ redshirt development shows the honing of the skillsets he should in EYBL and high school ball, a stretch forward that has an ability to use his size and displays handles and body control that gets him past similarly sized defenders. Over the course of the season, he’s supplanted senior and preseason all-conference player Elijah Mahi as the second scorer on the team. 

In league play, Graves leads the WCC in offensive rating with a score of 150.1. Graham Ike is second in the category, trailing Graves by 11.4 rating points. He’s shooting 63.6% in the paint and 39.3% from three in conference play. But what may be most impressive is that 63% of the two-point field goals he made in WCC play have come unassisted.

Per Synergy, Graves is averaging an absurd 1.28 points per possession. He's equally efficient as a catch-and-shoot scorer from the outside as he is a post-up scorer on the low block. He's averaging 1.83 points per possession as a cutter. It doesn't get any more "pick your poison" than how you end up deciding to defend the forward.

The freshman is far more than a scorer, too. He’s well beyond his years in decision-making on ball at multiple levels of the offense. He holds an assist rate of 14.2% in conference play while leading the league in turnover percentage at just 5.2%. He leads the conference in steal rate at 5.2% and has a block rate of 5.4% on the season. He has the second-highest offensive rebounding rate in the conference despite being listed at 6-foot-9.

Graves posted 18 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 block when the Broncos played Gonzaga in Spokane. If he can replicate his production and the shooters trend towards their season averages, we could be looking at the Broncos punching their ticket to the tournament on Saturday.

Dave Smart flips Pacific into a top 4 team in the WCC

The Pacific Tigers closed out the 2024-2025 season as the 284th team in KenPom and 297th in the NET. They lost their last 5 games and won just 4 of their final 24. It was a hellish season for a luminary Canadian head coach who was making due with random pieces in his first year as a head coach in the United States.

Pacific finished 10th in the WCC last season with two squeaker one-possession games saving them from the basement of the league standings. Smart was at his wits' end with how last season went when talking to him in the preseason. Due to his start date in Stockton, he and his staff were well behind in the process of recruiting and hitting the portal and had to make do. 

“We were so far behind in the process last year,” Smart said. “We were begging guys to come. We recruited in a way that I refuse to.”

Just 16.1% of the minutes from last year’s team remain on the 2025-2026 roster, with the lone returner being preseason all-conference selectee Elias Ralph, who returned for a graduate season. The 6-foot-7 forward has developed into a confident and crafty scorer, averaging 15.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.

Ralph is third in the conference for 2nd chance points this season, a direct effect of Pacific’s dominance on the glass throughout league play. The Tigers lead the league in offensive rebounding rate this season at 36.6% and are the first team to finish ahead of Saint Mary’s in three seasons. They also lead the conference in limiting opponent offensive rebounding rate at 22%. 

Center Isaac Jack has been a perfect pairing to Ralph as a rebounder and interior piece. He’s averaging 8.6 paint points in WCC action and 2.8 offensive rebounds. But perhaps the secret sauce is gadget guard Justin Rochelin, who provides solid two-way basketball and grinds out 13 points and 7.1 rebounds as a 6-foot-5 wing.

Pacific currently sits at 103rd in KenPom and the NET and fourth in the WCC standings after being picked to finish 10th in the preseason coaches’ poll.

Dylan Andrews is showing signs of what Boise State envisioned

After not hearing their names called last season, this was supposed to be a bounce-back season for Leon Rice’s Boise State Broncos and a team that starts five upperclassmen. They had the returning pieces in Javan Buchanan and Andrew Meadow, and the additions of Drew Fielder and Dylan Andrews from the portal rounded out a rotation that should fight for the top of the MWC and get selected by the committee for the fourth time in five seasons.

But as we learned from the outset, a stunning loss to a Division II Hawaii Pacific, things weren’t going to go as planned. And senior Dylan Andrews’ season may be the best example of Boise State’s faltered path. The former UCLA Bruin was poised to be a key leader and improved performer moving out of the Big Ten and into the MWC, but Andrews has had one of the toughest offensive seasons in his career, navigating a new environment and system.

Andrews out of the gate was a non-scoring factor. He shot 31% from the field in nonconference play while ranking third on the team in shot attempts. In the first nine games of league play, Andrews shot just 30.3% from the field and had a collective plus-minus of -37.

But in his last four games, Andrews has looked like a different player. The point guard is averaging 19.8 points and 4.3 assists since January 27th. He’s scoring at all three levels, shooting 52.4% from the field. He’s excelled in maneuvering in the halfcourt, shooting 51.2% on those attempts and 57.1% on his midrange shots. He’s shooting 66.7% on two-point attempts in this stretch with just 8.3% of them coming from an assist.

Boise State won’t win their way into a bubble conversation but if they can have their senior guard play like this for a continued stretch, don’t deny the possibility of a miraculous stretch when the conference tournament convenes in Vegas in a few weeks.

Games to watch

  • Memphis at Utah State, Saturday at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET, CBSSN
  • Nevada at San Diego State, Saturday at 7 pm PT/10 pm ET, CBSSN
  • Gonzaga at Santa Clara, Saturday at 7:30 pm PT/10:30 pm ET, ESPN
  • Saint Mary’s at Pacific, Saturday at 7:30 pm PT/10:30 pm ET, ESPN2
  • Grand Canyon at San Diego State, Tuesday at 7 pm PT/10 pm ET, CBSSSN
  • Boise State at Utah State, Wednesday at 7:30 pm PT/10:30 pm ET, FS1