Besides Ford & a very talented two-way player in Fitts, that SMC team had nothing — & woulda got CRUSHED by their team from this year.
You really think the #3 & #4 teams of the MW were stronger than our #3 & #4 teams like the committee selected? We all know their top 2 weren't on par with our top 2 — & yet they somehow still got four in. Why?
Well, because SMC & the Zags clearly dominated the WCC in a way the top three in the MW didn't. And yet if you look past the W/Ls — to the actually game outcomes — I think it shows if anyone shoulda gotten four in it shoulda been us rather than them. But then you get this dilemma, of course: Who do you take as the 3rd & 4th? LMU's most deserving if you consider they beat both the Zags & SMC in conf play. But then, again, they got absolutely destroyed in other conference games (we being one), & ultimately didn't make the conf Semis. If you DON'T count games against the Zags & SMC, though, SClara was clearly the most deserving team to make it as well — except they too didn't make it into the Semis, & couldn't even claim a nail-biter in all their matches against the conference's two top teams (though they gave them some battles).
Which brings it then to us & USF — who couldn't possibly hope to make the cut with our overall conf records despite making some noise in more than a few individual matches.
In short, we were a more competitive conference than the MW conference was — when you look at the actual games rather than simply at the W/L columns. And ultimately, however you cut it, Nevada getting in over LMU & SClara was an absolute joke.