And if Wednesday night's results were a harbinger of things to come, those nights don't figure to include a great deal of sleep, either, particularly in 2012-13.
Know this: Teams simply do not wander onto Creighton's home floor and win by 13, as Boise State did. Teams simply do not stroll into UC Santa Barbara's Thunderdome and win by 28, as Wyoming did.
At the outset of the season, many were of the belief that the league was capable of potentially earning five bids to this year's NCAA Tournament. Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State and UNLV, along with newcomer Nevada, were viewed as having the means to muscle their way through the MW maelstrom.
So what happens four weeks into the season? Boise State, which finished tied for last in the MW a year ago, merely knocks off the No. 11 team in the nation. Creighton, which was coming off a 14-point win over Arizona State after posting a 10-point win over Wisconsin, had won 93 straight home games when scoring 70 or more points. The Bluejays entered the contest having won 42 consecutive home games in November and 41 straight against unranked opponents.
Boise State had recorded one road win in program history against a ranked opponent, that coming when the Broncos prevailed at No. 24 Nevada in 2005.
Meanwhile, Wyoming, which is 7-0 for the first time since 1987-88, breezed to a 68-40 win against a UC Santa Barbara squad that in the last five-plus years had gone 54-16 at home. Keep in mind, this is the same Gauchos' team that has advanced to three straight Big West Conference Tournament title games, made three NCAA Tournament appearances in the past decade and whose three home losses last season came against San Diego State (overtime), UNLV (double overtime) and Long Beach State. All three earned bids to the NCAA Tournament.
Said Boise State coach Leon Rice, whose team nearly won at No. 15 Michigan State before falling 74-70 on Nov. 20: "We don't want to be defined by the win in November. Hey, it was a great win against the 11th-ranked team in the country and a tough place to play, and they played their tails off and I'm so proud of them. But we have to get a lot better to compete in our league."
Seven games remain on the Broncos' non-conference schedule, including a December 14 meeting at home against LSU, before opening a grueling Mountain West schedule January 9 at Wyoming.
Mick McGrane has covered the Mountain West since the league's inception in 1999. He spent 12 years at the San Diego Union-Tribune, where he served as the beat writer for San Diego State football and men's basketball. He currently represents the MW as a member of the Football Writers Association of America All-America Committee and is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. McGrane serves as senior writer to the Mountain West, providing readers with exclusive, in-depth information about the Conference by highlighting its 10 member institutions and contributing feature stories on student-athletes that participate in the league's 18 sponsored sports.
Mark Knudson is a Colorado State journalism school graduate and a 12-year veteran of professional baseball. During his playing career, Mark pitched for three major league teams, including the Colorado Rockies, where he was the first Colorado native to play for the hometown team. He recorded wins over three of the four legendary pitchers who make up the 4,000 strikeout club: Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. His win over Ryan came for the Milwaukee Brewers on Opening Day in 1991.
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