Your Tuesday WAC - O- Rama

San Jose State lost to Seattle 90-88 on a last second three-pointer. The Seattle athletics site has the report and a photo of the game-winning shot here. The San Jose State athletics article can be found here.

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Steve Cleveland goes back to the basics with his 'bigs' as Daniel Lyght reports here.

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Chris Murray analyzes the highs and lows of the BracketBuster event through a WAC lens here.

Chris' conference notebook is here with a detailing of the top defenders in the WAC and much more.

The NCAA needs more money? For what? PTW sees no need for the Big Dance to expand -- there is enough mediocre basketball on display throughout the season b-- ut the opportunity for additional revenues will drive this beast to fruition. Can the NIT and the other tourney which escapes our fading in and out memory at the moment then be put down? Please.

Chris has Karl Benson's take here.

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Shawn Harrison explores Tai Wesley's world here and plows through a bunch of telling USU stats here.

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Ferd Lewis look at Hawaii hoops here.

Jeff Portnoy notes Lewis' column and add more here.

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We'll end with this non-WAC-related item which produced an early morning smile in the PTW household:

Posted at Kraig Williams' Twitter page:

RT @jaredeborn: It's OK, Canada. You'll always have baby seal clubbing that you rule the world in. 7:11 PM Feb 21st via TweetDeck

Eh?

What the WAC has done so far

Okay, Boise State has done okay so for outside the league as the loss to Sienna wasn't unexpected and was on the road.

Fresno State has no unexpected loss but notching a road win against San Diego State would have really helped the WAC as well the the confidence of the Bulldogs. Oregon State, UNLV and Pacific are next and any of those contests would be beneficial RPI wins.

Hawaii fell at home to USF and by a larger than expected 16 points to Cal State Fullerton but do give credit to the Rainbow Warriors for toppling Iowa State.

Idaho is struggling as expected but a 10-point loss on the road to Eastern Washington is a WAC RPI hit.

LA TECH's stumble with Seattle hurts period.

Nevada's loss at San Diego wasn't a biggie and the win at home against PAC-10 Oregon State really wasn't an upset but losing in Reno to a Pacific squad minus its two best players came unexpectedly.

New Mexico State played USC tough in Los Angeles, losing by 13, but hasn't faced a true test yet. The 24-point romp over Pepperdine was a confidence builder but not an equal or near-equal match.

With San Jose State, the loss at Nebraska wasn't a surprise but losing a game at Presbyterian that was theirs to win hurts. Taking down rival Santa Clara next week -- if that happens -- will be a salve for the Presbyterian loss.

A nice road win against Santa Barbara was a confidence booster for Utah State but the next real test will be with BYU. Win that one and the Aggies break out of the WAC pack.

In summary keep in mind that there is a large cloud of inexperience and unfamiliarity hovering over most of the teams in the WAC this season and it's evident in many of the games so far. There are a number of teams in the league who will have the opportunity to perform better as the season rolls along but which ones will and which won't? Right now, it appears the league will be a true shootout with nobody running away from the other teams. That's greta news but let's see some more RPI-building non-conference wins posted.

Who goes 'Big Dancin' this season?

Chris Murray has an interesting column, one about how many WAC teams will be part of the Great 65 at the end of this season and it contains this unbelievable number -- there are but 17 seniors in the league this go-around.

What does it take to get two WAC teams into NCAA Tourney?
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
November 9, 2008

The Western Athletic Conference suffered a down season last year. Not many coaches or players in the WAC will disagree with the statement.

For the first time since 2003 and only the second time this decade, the WAC placed just one team in the NCAA Tournament.

The conference ranked 21st out of 32 conferences in the all-important Ratings Percentage Index, only a season after it was ninth overall.

The WAC's average team RPI fell from 146 to 195 (out of 341 Division I programs).

And, after all that, the WAC lost 11 of its top 12 scorers from last season.

So how does the conference get back into a position where it sends multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament?

Go here for the remainder.