Monday’s pre-game senior day vignettes including a reminder of where the roster-shaken Wildcats stand as Dyson Koehler held his framed jersey with a casted right wrist and Miguel Tomley, who drove back from British Columbia to rejoin the team, hoisted his while wearing non-uniform team gear.

Through all that, the Wildcats believe they’re playing the best basketball they can ahead of the Big Sky tournament. Whether or not that’s enough is another matter.

A 23-point home loss to seventh-place Eastern Washington on Feb. 1 certainly felt like the end of the road in many respects. What’s happened since then is the Wildcats went 3-6 with every game decided by eight points or less, and seven of the nine decided by five points or less.

“Overall, every game we’ve got better,” WSU senior Blaise Threatt said after Monday’s loss. “I think our best effort of this entire year was Idaho, last game. I thought it was a phenomenal 45-minute effort from everybody. We came up a couple rebounds, couple missed shots short of the game.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

“I’m excited for what’s to come Saturday and everybody’s going to be ready to go out there and give (the tournament) our best shot.”

So, they compete. And they put a real scare into a Northern Colorado team that was playing for a conference championship, which bodes well for the conference tournament.

As the No. 9 seed, a win Saturday over No. 10 Sacramento State would mean a rematch with No. 1 Northern Colorado. The Bears lost their first game as the No. 2 seed last year and the No. 1 seed hasn’t won a tournament game since 2022. Whether that matters for Weber State or not, the Wildcats will believe in themselves, even if nobody else does.

“It’s created a toughness about our team. I think we’re way tougher than we were two months ago … nobody’s more scarred than us going into the tournament,” WSU head coach Eric Duft said about his team’s season Monday. “We’re thankful for those people that are for us and supporting us. Thank you to the crowd tonight. Because, let’s face it, there are people that aren’t (for us). This group, they’re focused on the culture of our program and what we’re trying to get accomplished.”

Whether it’s the call of a good team or a cliche everyone uses in March, Threatt is leading in a positive way.

Robert Casey, WSU Athletics

“I was just telling everybody, it’s 0-0. Everybody’s even now,” Threatt said. “You’re at a neutral court, it’s really who plays best in those 40 minutes and that’s what’s the most important. … I feel like we have a chance to go over there and make some noise. I think we’re a team that (opponents) don’t want to see, the way we’re playing and as hard as we’re playing, the effort we’re playing with.”

A couple plays away from possibly winning five straight, instead WSU still went 2-3 down the final stretch. That included an 80-77 home loss to last-place and offensively challenged Sacramento State.

Sac State finished the regular season as the league’s least efficient offense and at that time, Weber State’s defense marked the worst in that category in conference games. If there is one encouraging thing about the Wildcats right now, it’s that they figured out how to guard and nearly moved past three Big Sky teams in defensive efficiency over just four games.

Giving up 74 points on the road to Portland State, the final stretch saw WSU beat the third-place Vikings 60-58. After losing 72-49 to Eastern Washington on Feb. 1, the rematch saw Weber go on the road for a 66-64 win. That 81-79 overtime loss at Idaho saw the Vandals score less in extra time than the previous 82-74 win in Ogden.

And Monday, the Wildcats held Northern Colorado to 68 points instead of the 89 the Bears racked up to open league play two months ago, while keeping the nation’s best field goal percentage team (one of just two in the country above 50%) to a 36% clip.

But even with all that, WSU still tends to go the wrong way on key possessions and the Wildcats have only won consecutive games against Division I opponents twice (and has not won three straight against DI teams all season). In the end, WSU tallied the worst conference record and worst home record in program history.

On Monday, some of those key possessions came on an inability to stick with Marcell McCreary as he lifted the Bears through a lull with four 3-pointers in 4 minutes.

“We had a couple assignments we missed and then some of those 3s are coming off second chance. We’ve had trouble rebounding the ball, let’s be frank … so a lot are either second-chance opportunities or in transition,” Duft said. “And we have to put the ball in the basket a little bit more … your offense affects your defense and we go through these lulls when we’re not scoring and when you do that, the other team can get in transition.

“It’s not really our defense (in those moments) as much, I think. It’s more of our offensive issues that are kind of weighing us down right now.”

TOMLEY REJOINS TEAM

After five weeks away from the team, fifth-year guard Miguel Tomley rejoined the Wildcats for senior night and plans to travel to the conference tournament with the team.

At Tomley’s request, information about the serious medical condition that derailed his effectiveness and took him back home for treatment and tests has been publicly guarded, but he’s in better spirits now that doctors revealed news that was less dire than what was possible.

“He is a very relieved young man. And so am I,” Duft said. “He’s recovering but the news was as good as he could hope for. Just having him back with a smile on his face — these last three or four weeks have been really hard for him and his family, been hard for me just thinking about him every day. Now he’s got that life, he’s got that spirit back in him. He knows that things are going to get better.

“I’m overjoyed. Regardless of what happens this season or how it’s turned out, for him to be where he’s at right now is the most important thing. He’s going to be OK and we’re just ecstatic for the good news he got … they can breathe and enjoy life a little bit more.”