St. Mary's Bursts Utah State's Bubble

St. Mary's might have been the biggest winner in Saturday's BracketBuster following a huge 75-64 win over Utah State. The Gaels had been adrift in recent weeks, seemingly rudderless without star Patrick Mills.

But St. Mary's has been solid in recent weeks, fattening up on the weaker teams in the West Coast Conference. Saturday's win over the Aggies was a big exclamation point on the season, letting people know that the Gaels are still in the hunt for an at-large bid.

Not to say that St. Mary's is in right now; the Gaels still have a lot of work to do. But the team is squarely on the bubble right now.

Utah State, not so much. It is on the bubble -- possibly. But after its own and the WAC's dismal showing in general, the Aggies are going to have to win the WAC tournament to reach the NCAA tournament. Again, this is coach Stew Morrill's own doing. As long as he is unwilling to play some of the big boys on the road, he has no reason to complain.

The ESPN announcers kept saying that this was a bigger game for St. Mary's. And the Gaels needed the win, no doubt. But Utah State has always been viewed as a fraud and probably needed the win more, especially with Mills out. Utah State was a disappointment for a conference that just looked ugly in the BracketBusters. When you don't play many good teams, you need to beat them when you get the chance.

How bad was it for the WAC on Saturday?

Nevada is clearly in a rebuilding mode, but will play host to the conference tournament. The Wolf Pack hasn't been the same following the loss of players Nick Fazekas, Ramon Sessions and Marcelus Kemp. But coach Mark Fox still has enough to win the conference tournament.

New Mexico State has never recovered from the loss of Reggie Theus and the NCAA jacking around Herb Pope. The Aggies actually had a solid win over Cal State Fullerton, but this program is on the decline.

Boise State -- last year's conference tournament winner -- beat Utah State this week, but looked average at Portland State.

In fact, the West Coast conference proved that it was the premiere mid-major conference on the West Coast. St. Mary's and San Diego knocked off Utah State and Pacific respectively, arguably the top two teams in thet WAC and Big West. (Sorry, Long Beach State fans.)

Even San Jose State was exposed by UC-Riverside.

In the end, Utah State was proven to just be the best team in a really bad conference. Which is the equivalent of being the smartest contestant on Rock of Love. St. Mary's, on the other hand, is back in the mix.

BTW, you might not have noticed this, but did you see the way the St. Mary's fans reacted after the win? They stayed in their freaking seats and cheered on their team despite beating a ranked opponent. Maryland, on the other hand, has a championship banner hanging in its rafters and its fans rushed the court after winning a conference home game. Embarrassing.