Welcome back everyone, to the Hike’s Peak podcast, thank you for coming back to the mountain! As you may be aware, this was a painful week for the Mountain West. In March Madness, the greatest sporting event on the planet, San Diego State and Utah State failed to show, getting blown out by North Carolina and UCLA respectively. Colorado State got a triumphant upset over Memphis, and New Mexico notched an incredibly impressive win over Marquette, but the second round wasn’t as favorable. The Lobos led early on two seed Michigan State, but faded down the stretch to lose to the heavily-favored Spartans. The Rams, however, went toe-to-toe with fourth seeded Maryland, playing a fantastic all-around game to take a one point lead with 6 seconds to go. Unfortunately, the cruel gods that oversee March Madness had other plans, as future lottery pick big man Deriq Queen took one dribble, three steps, and hit a contested fadeaway floater at the buzzer to break the Rams hearts. We’ll dive into every game from the Big Dance this week, as well as my thoughts on two notable coaching carousel moves, with Niko Medved leaving Colorado State for his alma mater of Minnesota, and UNLV hiring former Memphis and Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner. Lots of show to get through this week, let’s jump in!

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