WAC Men's Basketball

The Western Athletic Conference, or the WAC for short, was founded in 1962, and was originally composed of six college teams. Today, nine teams, almost all from the southwestern region of the United States, compete in the WAC. They are Boise State, Fresno State, Louisiana Tech, the University of Idaho, the University of Hawaii, the University of Nevada-Reno, New Mexico State, Utah State, and San Jose State. The conference has shifted membership a great deal over its half century in existence, and none of the present teams were part of the original membership. Six of the above schools joined the WAC less than ten years ago, and only one (Hawaii) has been a member of the conference for more than 20 years. http://www.wacsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10100&ATCLID=537066

The WAC began holding a postseason tournament to determine its annual championship in 1984. In recent years, the tournament has been marked by a lack of sustained dominance by one team. The 2009 champ was Utah State. http://spartandailysports.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/mens-wac-basketball-tournament-utah-state-1-claims-tournament-crown-against-nevada-2/ In 2008, Boise State won the title in a three-overtime game. http://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/03/16/sports/story03.html That victory followed conference championships by New Mexico State in 2007, Nevada-Reno in 2006, and former member UTEP in 2005. Of the present members the only ones to win more than a single conference tournament are Nevada-Reno and Hawaii. The latter school is also the last team to win consecutive tournaments, in 2001 and 2002.

Nevada-Reno is the WAC school that has had the most recent success in the NCAA tournament. It made the tournament four straight years from 2004 to 2007, and advanced beyond the first round three times. Nevada-Reno also upset second-seeded Gonzaga in 2004, advancing to the Sweet 16 that same year. http://hoopstournament.net/Team_Reports/Scores/Nevada.pdf