Last season, the WAC tournament featured a two-seed in New Mexico State that had greater than a 60 percent chance of winning the event. The Aggies are clearly the best team in the league again, but this season their record reflects it. They finished 13-1, five games clear of their nearest challengers.

New Mexico State is an even bigger favorite than it was last season, second only to Kentucky as the team most likely to win its tournament. Basically, the Aggies are in the wrong conference, an orphan from the realignment of recent seasons. Assuming this configuration of the WAC stays together for a while, New Mexico State will be dominating it in the years to come.

The kPOY is the Aggies’ Pascal Siakam, one of just four freshmen to currently top the kPOY standings in a conference. The others being Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Stanley Johnson. I’d like to think he was named after 17th century mathematician Blaise Pascal. If you’re at the WAC tournament and get bored, feel free to debate the merits of Pascal’s Wager with the person next to you.

Western Athletic Conference

All-kenpom.com: Pascal Siakam, New Mexico State (kPOY); Daniel Mullings, New Mexico State, Martez Harrison, UMKC; Remi Barry, New Mexico State; Isiah Umipig, Seattle.

March 12-14 at Las Vegas.

                     Semis Final Champ
1 New Mexico St.       100  86.1  73.8
3 Seattle             75.4  45.0   9.9
2 UMKC                74.9  39.5   7.8
4 Cal St. Bakersfield 69.0  11.3   6.2
5 Utah Valley         31.0   2.5   0.9
6 Chicago St.         24.6   8.3   0.8
7 UT Pan American     25.1   7.2   0.6