Preseason Mountain West women’s basketball poll provides motivation for Boise State
Not long after the Mountain West preseason women’s basketball poll was released on Wednesday, a tweet from the conference announcing the picks was pinned to the top of Boise State’s Twitter feed.
The Broncos have all the motivation they need.
In a poll of the league’s 11 head coaches and select media members, Boise State was picked to finish sixth in conference play for the 2021-22 season. And no Broncos were chosen for the preseason all-Mountain West team.
It is the lowest the Broncos have been picked since they were predicted to finish eighth ahead of the 2013-14 season. Boise State won 18 games that season and posted a 12-6 mark in conference play to tie for third.
After winning four straight Mountain West Tournament championships from 2017 through 2020, the Broncos finished sixth in the regular-season standings and advanced to the tournament semifinals last season.
They return six players from last year’s team, including three players who started 10 games or more in senior forward Rachel Bowers (10), sophomore forward Abby Muse (15) and sophomore guard Mary Kay Naro (all 23 games).
Naro and Muse ranked second in the conference last season in assists per game (5.2) and blocks per game (1.7), respectively. Muse was an Mountain West All-Freshman selection in 2020-21. Bowers was limited for much of last season with an ankle injury, but still averaged 5.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.
Boise State also welcomes four freshmen and four transfers in Mandy Simpson (Oklahoma), Kaitlin Burgess (College of Southern Idaho), Dominique Leonidas (Brown) and Sydney McQuietor (Boston College).
Boise State begins the season with an exhibition game Nov. 6 against Southern Oregon. The Broncos open the regular season at 2 p.m. Nov. 13 at home against Long Beach State.
Fresno State was voted the preseason favorite for the second year in a row with 13 first-place votes and 269 points. New Mexico was picked second, UNLV third, Colorado State fourth and reigning Mountain West Tournament champion Wyoming fifth.
The preseason all-conference team is made up of junior guard McKenna Hofschild (Colorado State), junior guard Haley Cavinder (Fresno State), junior guard Hanna Cavinder (Fresno State), senior guard/forward Antonia Anderson (New Mexico) and sophomore center Desi-Rae Young (UNLV).
Haley Cavinder, who last season became the first sophomore to win Mountain West Player of the Year since 2004, was chosen as the preseason player of the year after leading the Mountain West in scoring (19.8 ppg) in 2020-21.
Nevada’s Kylie Jimenez was selected as the newcomer of the year and San Diego State’s Asia Avinger was picked the freshman of the year for the second year in a row after missing all of last season with an injury.
2021-22 Preseason Mountain West Poll
(First-place votes in parentheses)
1. Fresno State (13), 269
2. New Mexico (7), 251
3. UNLV (3), 232
4. Colorado State (1), 207
5. Wyoming, 190
6. Boise State, 166
7. San Diego State (2), 135
8. Nevada, 123
9. San Jose State (1), 105
10. Air Force, 62
11. Utah State, 42
This story was originally published October 13, 2021 at 3:18 PM.
