Bern’s-Eye View: Mountain West basketball picks Week 2

By Taylor Bern

Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015 | 2:30 p.m.

One week in and the Mountain West’s best victory might be Colorado State at Northern Iowa. Schedules are about to get tougher, though, and the league (or at least the few teams who actually put real opponents on the slate) are going to have an opportunity to prove themselves going forward.

Tonight that includes Boise State’s trip to Arizona, and beyond that, there’s New Mexico’s trip to USC and UNLV in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. Preseason expectations still dominate everything with these teams but soon enough, we’ll have a lot more evidence on which to judge these teams.

It wasn’t a great first week for the picks, but I’m going to attribute that to my awful football prognosticating bringing me down. As soon as the football season is over, I expect to dominate.

*Indicates stronger confidence. Lines are the best available at the time of publication on the chosen side in Las Vegas.

THURSDAY

Boise State (plus-12) at Arizona

5:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network

• The Broncos only have a couple of chances to make an impact in nonconference action, this game and against Oregon. Boise State needs to take advantage by at least keeping it close.

Pick: Boise State

Loyola Marymount (plus-16) at Colorado State

6 p.m.

• The Rams opened the season with a nice road victory as an underdog at Northern Iowa, and while we need a lot more games to see what Larry Eustachy’s bunch has this season, I’ll back them against a team that lost by 25 at UC Irvine on Sunday.

Pick: Colorado State

San Francisco (plus-10) at Fresno State

7 p.m.

• This game has moved up from 8.5 and while I initially liked the home team, there’s no reason to lay double-digits with Fresno State until we see more from them. So far, at home, the Bulldogs have a 3-point victory against Pepperdine and an 8-point win against Lamar, which is far less of a challenge than San Francisco.

Pick: San Francisco

Games with no lines

• Mississippi Valley State at Air Force, 6 p.m.

• New Mexico Highlands at Wyoming, 6 p.m.

FRIDAY

• Union (Tennessee) at Utah State, 6 p.m.

• San Jose State at Montana State, 7:05 p.m.

SATURDAY

• New Mexico at USC, TBD

• Arkansas-Little Rock at San Diego State, 7 p.m.

• UNR at Pacific, 7 p.m.

SUNDAY

• Robert Morris at Air Force, 1 p.m.

• Oakland at Colorado State, 1 p.m.

• Wyoming at Montana State, 1:05 p.m.

• Fresno State at Rice, 3 p.m.

Last week: 8-10

Season: 8-10

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.