Media day notebook: Coaches goof off, Mashburn gets honest and SDSU is enjoying the ride

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Richard Pitino likened media day to a wedding — you don't want to go to, but when you get there, you end up having fun.

Coaches, many of whom just saw each other over the summer at meetings or on the recruiting trails, were joking like it was a high school reunion as they shuffled in and out of the Blossom Ballroom at Resorts World Las Vegas waiting for their next station in the gauntlet of what was the first in-person Mountain West men's basketball media day since before COVID.

"Hey, Richard," Boise State coach Leon Rice said to the UNM coach in one interview room, waiving a "Richard Pitino, New Mexico" nameplate that had been left behind from an earlier interview.

"You think I could get your dad to autograph this for me?"

For his part, Pitino answered a question from a Boise-based reporter later in the day trying to explain the incident last season in the Pit in which Rice was upset with the UNM baseball team being so close to his team's locker room at halftime of their baseball game.

"That was Leon being a baby," Pitino joked. "I blame him."

There were plenty of lame NIL and golf-game jokes tossed around from coaches but also, and most to the point for the day, a good amount of media attention for the event which was cobranded — the Mountain West/West Coast Conference Basketball Media Day.

Both leagues decided to join forces (the Pac-12 had the option to join in as well, but declined) with the hopes of making it easier for media, particularly of the national and regional sort, to attend and provide pre- and early-season buzz for the leagues than the limited, superficial Zoom-based coverage of recent years.

By all accounts, it seemed to work.

IF WE'RE BEING HONEST: B.J. Rains of Bronco Nation News in Boise, Idaho, ran a live stream throughout Thursday's media day interviewing coaches and players, including UNM's Jamal Mashburn Jr., who was one of two Lobos along with Jaelen House named to the preseason All-Conference team.

Rains asked Mashburn a familiar media day question about what he likes most about playing for Pitino, whom Mashburn followed to UNM from Minnesota two years ago.

"The best part of playing for Coach Pitino?" Mashburn pondered for a moment. "I'm going to give you a real answer. He lets me take 15 shots."

After a hearty chuckle from both Mashburn and Rains, Mashburn added some context, and a far safer media-day-like answer.

"He lets me play my game. He's seen my game develop from the time I was in eighth grade to now — as a man, as a basketball player. He's allowed me to grow. He's allowed me to make mistakes. He's allowed me to figure it out, and hold me accountable, too."

BOOKENDS: Colorado State's Isaiah Stevens was voted the preseason Player of the Year.

He's now tasked with becoming only the third player in the 25-year existence of the Mountain West Conference to win both Freshman of the Year, as he did in 2019-20 and to win the league's postseason Player of the Year award.

"What a journey that would be, right?" Stevens admitted before adding the best success he's experienced in his playing career has always come when he focuses on winning games, not awards.

"I feel like that method works for me. Keep the main thing, the main thing."

And for those scoring at home, the previous two players who won postseason Freshman and Player of the Year honors in the Mountain West:

• Andrew Bogut, Utah (2004 FOY, 2005 POY)

• Kendall Williams, UNM (2011 FOY, 2013 POY).

RIDING THE WAVE: No, San Diego State didn't win the National Championship last spring, but the Aztecs' run to the national title game was the talk of the day for their part of media day.

Head coach Brian Dutcher noted there is one big change in the team's recent success compared to earlier in his career.

"I've survived long enough to coach in different eras. Everyone used to want an autograph when you did something great," Dutcher said. "Now, that all they want is a selfie. So I'm not signing any autographs, but I'm taking a ton of selfies, though. And I love taking them with everyone."

As for his players?

"They're all handling success. My job is now to get them refocused to handle the journey again," Dutcher said.

FUTURE LOGO? At lunch, with WCC and MWC teams and media in the same room, sharing tables and sharing stories, Loyola Marymount coach Stan Johnson stopped to talk with Pitino for a moment and joked that he needs to send some players his way.

Then, he noticed a familiar face at the table — new Lobo and Fresno State transfer guard Jemarl Baker Jr.

"Man, I recruited him 10 years ago," Johnson said."That guy's going to be the college basketball logo one day."

The logo part of the story was a joke. The 10-years-ago part, not so much.

Baker — entering his seventh year of college basketball after injury-plagued stops at Kentucky, Arizona and Fresno State — just laughed with Johnson, who was an assistant coach at Arizona State until 2015 when he started recruiting Baker, then a top national recruit out of the Los Angeles area.

SPEAKING OF OLD: Max Rice, the sixth-year senior guard at Boise State and son of head coach Leon Rice, said he wasn't exactly a big fan of his dad on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, between joking around with Pitino or other coaches, Leon Rice made a comment about the downside of his son getting so old as a college player.

"He's kind of on my bad side right now 'cause he just told the media that I have osteoporosis," Max Rice said. "Yeah. And I'm not even sure what that really is. So, I think he's hurting my stock for my professional career right now."

NEWS OF THE DAY: Defending MW champion San Diego State was the clear favorite in the preseason media poll — one no coach admitted to paying attention to on Thursday, despite many regularly referencing them throughout the session.

The Aztecs being picked first wasn't a surprise, though some felt the fact that they received "just" 25 of the possible 31 first place votes was, as was the fact that three other teams — Boise State (picked second and receiving four first place votes), New Mexico (third, one first place vote) and Nevada (fourth, one first place vote) — also received first place votes.

THAT OTHER POLL: As Thursday was a joint media session, two preseason polls were released on Thursday.

And while nobody was surprised SDSU was picked to win the Mountain West in the league's preseason poll conducted by the media, there were a few raised eyebrows when Saint Mary's — a team UNM beat last year and plays on Nov. 9 this season — was picked to win the WCC in that league's preseason poll conducted by coaches.