The good news is, all nine teams in the Western Athletic Conference appear to have a shot at the men's basketball title.

The bad news is, the WAC had one of its worst non-conference showings in November and December, and no team has emerged as a clear favorite.

The WAC regular season will start with two games today. Hawai'i will open its conference season on the road tomorrow at Utah State.

"The conference is young and we've taken some lumps," Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said. "But none of that matters now. Everybody is 0-0 right now. What matters is what happens from here on out."

The Rainbow Warriors are 4-8, and are one of three teams in the WAC with a new head coach. New Mexico State (Marvin Menzies) and Louisiana Tech (Kerry Rupp) are the others.

Hawai'i gained some much needed momentum with a 74-66 home victory over Centenary on Sunday. It snapped a four-game losing streak for the 'Bows.

"I think that's definitely going to help us when we start the WAC season," senior guard Jared Dillinger said.

Utah State is 10-5, and is the only WAC team with at least 10 victories so far this season. The Aggies were picked by the conference coaches during the preseason to finish first in the WAC.

New Mexico State, which was picked by the media in the preseason to finish first, is 6-9. But the Aggies have played one of the toughest schedules in the nation, including losses against Texas, Duke and Louisville.

Nevada, the four-time defending regular-season champion, is 7-5. The Wolf Pack has also played a difficult schedule, including a recent loss at No. 1 North Carolina.

"I think you still have to look at those three as the favorites," Nash said of Utah State, New Mexico State and Nevada. "But it's obvious that the conference is wide open this year."

The surprise of the early season has been Boise State. The Broncos are 9-3, including a recent victory over then-No. 20 Brigham Young.

The WAC schedule will feature 16 games — a home-and-home series with each of the other eight teams.

"The schedule is what it is," Nash said. "When you're from Hawai'i, it's never going to be easy."

To help prepare for the WAC travel, Nash scheduled road games at New Mexico and San Diego earlier this season.

"We've been through all the scenarios," he said. "We played back-to-back nights, we played after long breaks ... we played in tough atmospheres on the road, we played in altitude.

"It's a matter of applying everything we learned to these conference games we have coming up."

As far as individual players, former Nevada star Nick Fazekas is finally out of eligibility. He won his third consecutive WAC Player of the Year award last season.

But there are still several standouts, including Utah State sharpshooting guard Jaycee Carroll, who has a chance at becoming the WAC's all-time leading scorer by season's end.

Carroll, Nevada's Marcelus Kemp and New Mexico State's Justin Hawkins are all returning players from last season's All-WAC first team.

The conference will conclude with the WAC Tournament, March 11 to 15 at Las Cruces, N.M. The winner of the tournament will receive the WAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

A capsule look at the nine teams in the Western Athletic Conference:

BOISE STATE

Record: 9-3

Head coach: Greg Graham (92-76, 6th season at BSU)

Significant victories: 73-70 home victory over then-No. 20 BYU; 77-71 home victory over San Diego

Significant losses: 86-74 home loss to Washington State; 76-74 home loss to Loyola Marymount

Players to watch: Reggie Larry (6-6, Sr., F) is averaging 18.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. He is shooting 62.9 percent from the field. ... Matt Nelson (6-9, Sr., F) is averaging 15.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game. He is shooting 63.4 percent from the field. ... Tyler Tiedeman (6-7, Sr., F) is averaging 11.3 points per game and leads the team with 24 3-pointers. ... Anthony Thomas (6-0, So., G) is averaging 9.4 points and 4.0 assists per game.

Notes: The Broncos are 5-1 on the road, with the only loss by two points at Montana State. ... Boise State has never finished higher than third place in its six seasons in the WAC.

FRESNO STATE

Record: 7-6

Head coach: Steve Cleveland (44-29, 3rd season at FSU)

Significant victories: 72-58 home win over Pacific

Significant losses: 55-48 road loss at Stanford; 69-50 road loss at Arizona; 84-71 road loss at UNLV

Players to watch: Kevin Bell (5-10, Sr., G) is averaging 17.5 points and 6.0 assists per game. He has scored at least 11 points in each game this season. ... Eddie Miller (6-3, Sr., G) is averaging 13.2 points per game and leads the team with 45 3-pointers. ... Bryan Harvey (6-5, So., G) is averaging 11.1 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. ... Hector Hernandez (6-9, Sr., F) is averaging 10.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.

Notes: Prized recruit Rekalin Sims — a transfer from Kentucky — was dismissed from the team in early December. ... Dwight O'Neil, who is averaging 13.5 points per game, is out until mid-January with a broken wrist.

HAWAI'I

Record: 4-8

Head coach: Bob Nash (4-8, 1st season at UH)

Significant victories: 74-66 home win over Centenary; 61-57 home win over Long Beach State

Significant losses: 79-77 home loss to Illinois; 89-60 road loss at New Mexico

Players to watch: Bobby Nash (6-7, Sr., F) is averaging team-highs of 16.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He also leads the team with 28 3-pointers. ... Matt Gibson (6-5, Sr., G) is averaging 14.4 points and 4.4 assists per game. ... Riley Luettgerodt (6-5, Sr., G) is averaging 13.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. ... Jared Dillinger (6-5, Sr., G) is averaging 9.8 points per game, and leads the team with 17 steals. He is shooting 41.2 percent from 3-point range.

Notes: The Rainbow Warriors have not won back-to-back games this season. ... Hawai'i joined the WAC in the 1979-80 season. Every other current team joined the conference in 1992 or later.

IDAHO

Record: 3-8

Head coach: George Pfeifer (7-35, 2nd season at UI)

Significant victories: 58-49 home win over Eastern Washington

Significant losses: 80-43 road loss at Gonzaga; 74-43 road loss at Washington State

Players to watch: Jordan Brooks (6-3, Jr., G) is averaging 10.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. He was on two junior college national championship teams before transferring to Idaho prior to this season. ... Michael Crowell (6-7, Sr., F) is averaging 9.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. He is 19 of 38 (50 percent) from 3-point range. ... Darin Nagle (6-10, Sr., F) is averaging 7.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game.

Notes: The Vandals are 12-62 overall and 3-32 in WAC games since joining the conference in 2005. ... Seven different Idaho players have scored double-figure points in a game this season, but only one is averaging double-figure points overall. ... Idaho's .568 free-throw percentage ranks 339th out of 341 NCAA Division I teams.

LOUISIANA TECH

Record: 3-9

Head coach: Kerry Rupp (3-9, 1st season at LT)

Significant victories: 64-56 home victory over Louisiana-Lafayette

Significant losses: 86-31 road loss at Texas Tech; 62-50 home loss to Centenary

Players to watch: Kyle Gibson (6-4, So., G) is averaging team-highs of 13.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. He also leads the team with 21 3-pointers. ... JC Clark (6-0, Jr., G) is averaging 10.3 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. ... Keith Smith (6-7, Sr., F) is averaging 7.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. ... James Loe (5-10, Jr., G) leads the team in assists with 2.3 per game.

Notes: The Bulldogs are averaging just 56.2 points per game while allowing 68.5. ... LaTech is 1-11 in its last 12 road games, including 0-4 this season. ... Kerry Rupp was an assistant at Alabama-Birmingham prior to taking over at LaTech this season.

NEVADA

Record: 7-5

Head coach: Mark Fox (88-23, 4th season at UN)

Significant victories: 55-52 road victory at Northern Iowa; 67-54 home victory over Santa Clara

Significant losses: 106-70 road loss at No. 1 North Carolina; 74-68 home loss to California

Players to watch: Marcelus Kemp (6-5, Sr., G) is averaging 19.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. He was a first-team All-WAC selection last season. He has scored at least 20 points in six games this season. ... JaVale McGee (6-11, So., F) is averaging 13.0 points, 8.6 rebounds and 3.5 blocked shots per game. ... Brandon Fields (6-4, 185, So.) is averaging 11.9 points and 3.3 assists per game. ... Armon Johnson (6-3, Fr., G) is averaging 10.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

Notes: The Wolf Pack had an overall record of 106-27 in the four seasons prior to this one. They won the WAC regular-season championship each of those four seasons. ... Nevada is 10-0 against Hawai'i in games played in Reno, Nev.

NEW MEXICO STATE

Record: 6-9

Head coach: Marvin Menzies (6-9, 1st season at NMSU)

Significant victories: 71-62 home win over New Mexico

Significant losses: 86-61 road loss at Duke; 102-87 neutral court loss to Texas; 70-65 road loss at Louisville

Players to watch: Justin Hawkins (6-7, Jr., F) is averaging team-highs of 18.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. He has scored 25 points or more in four games this season. ... Jonathan Gibson (6-2, So., G) is averaging 12.5 points per game and leads the team with 34 3-pointers. ... Fred Peete (6-4, Sr., G) is averaging 12.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. ... Hatila Passos (6-9, Sr., C) is averaging 10.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game and leads the team with a .662 field-goal percentage.

Notes: The Aggies won the WAC Tournament last season on their home court, and will host the tournament again in March. ... New Mexico State is 0-7 in away games this season. ... Marvin Menzies was an assistant at Louisville for two seasons prior to this season.

SAN JOSE STATE

Record: 6-5

Head coach: George Nessman (17-55, 3rd season at SJSU)

Significant victories: 78-77 road win at Middle Tennessee State

Significant losses: 85-45 road loss at Michigan State; 60-40 road loss at San Diego

Players to watch: Justin Graham (6-4, Fr., G) is averaging 11.4 points and 3.0 assists per game. ... Chris Oakes (6-9, So., F) is averaging 10.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. He became eligible in mid-December after transferring from Pepperdine. ... DaShawn Wright (6-4, Jr., G) is averaging 10.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. ... Tim Pierce (6-7, Jr., F) is averaging 10.2 points per game and leads the team with 23 3-pointers.

Notes: The Spartans have already surpassed their victory total from last season, when they finished 5-25. ... San Jose State has not finished with a winning record since the 1993-94 season.

UTAH STATE

Record: 10-5

Head coach: Stew Morrill (223-80, 10th season at USU)

Significant victories: 76-55 home win over Oral Roberts; 75-62 neutral court win over Iowa

Significant losses: 77-56 neutral court loss to Vanderbilt; 72-48 road loss at Utah

Players to watch: Jaycee Carroll (6-2, Sr., G) is averaging 21.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. He leads the WAC with 48 3-pointers and a .505 percentage from 3-point range. He also is second in NCAA Division I with a .948 free-throw percentage. ... Gary Wilkinson (6-9, Jr., F) is averaging 11.9 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. ... Stephen DuCharme (6-8, Sr., F) is averaging 11.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and leads the team with a .606 field-goal percentage.

Notes: The Aggies have won at least 23 games in each of the past eight seasons. ... Utah State is 8-0 at home this season. ... Stew Morrill has 441 victories as a head coach at three different schools (Montana and Colorado State before Utah State).

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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