Nevada at San Diego State, 4:00 PM Eastern, CBS Sports Network
With the Mountain West conference well on its way to being a single-bid league for the second straight season, we have relegated the conference down to “Under the Radar” level and therefore cannot skip the chance to feature it a few times this season. This afternoon, our Under the Radar Game of the Day heads to Viejas Arena in San Diego, California as the Nevada Wolfpack (19-5 overall, 8-3 in conference) are in town to try to knock off Steve Fisher’s Aztecs and move back into a first place tie with Boise State. Nevada has put together the best overall resume so far out of the MWC, though wins at Boise State, at Washington and at New Mexico do not exactly make their profile close to being at-large bid worthy. Nevada knocked off UNLV at home earlier this week behind 37 points from DJ Fenner and 25 from Cameron Oliver. Jordan Caroline added a double-double and Lindsey Drew dished out 7 assists. If the Wolfpack can have anything close to as good of a team effort again today, they have a great chance to win in one of the toughest arenas historically to pick up a road victory.
To call San Diego State’s 2016-17 season so far a disappointment would be an understatement. The Aztecs, who had been favored by many to finish at the top of the conference standings, enter play today at 13-10 overall and 5-6 in conference play. They suffered a loss at San Jose State earlier this week by 5 points. Trey Kell did have 13 points and 9 rebounds in the losing effort, but he and his teammates will need to bring more to the table today to knock off Nevada. Jeremy Hemsley had a huge 30 point effort for the Aztecs when these two teams met for the first time, back in early January. Despite that effort, San Diego State still fell by 3 points in Reno. A similar game tonight may be enough to lead the Aztecs to the upset win in front of their home crowd.