Happy Holiday’s to all of those who celebrate! We have finally reached the one month mark of the 2025-26 Mountain West men’s basketball season! How do our power rankings shake out?! Let’s dive into it!
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1. Utah State
No surprise here, as Utah State remains the only unbeaten Mountain West team after one month. They are also the only MW team to crack the top-50 in the initial NET Rankings. Utah State did almost — yes, almost — pick up their first loss of the season to Montana State. But the Aggies staved off the feisty Bobcats in overtime, 84-81, spearheaded by MJ Collins, Mason Falslev and Karson Templin.
2. Colorado State
Holy Pascarelli! Colorado picked up two big wins over Wichita State and South Florida after a tough two-point loss to Virginia Tech in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Josh Pascarelli had 28 points on a perfect 8-of-8 from 3-point range against South Florida. However, Jevin Muniz and his impact is worth mentioning. The Florida Gulf Coast transfer corralled 17 rebounds while dishing out 20 assists in the Bahamas; his impact goes beyond the box score, and it showed over CSU’s final two games.
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3. San Diego State
San Diego State’s defense has uncharastically been bad to start the 2025-26 season. They are pushing the pace more than they ever have under Brian Dutcher, but it’s compromised the team’s physicality at the point-of-attack on the other end. They responded well against Oregon, led by Jackson Shelstad, but allowed 94 and 91 points to Michigan — who waxed the field in Las Vegas — and Baylor (with Wyoming transfer Obi Agbim), respectively. I trust they’ll round into form sooner rather than later.
4. Boise State
Boise State couldn’t quite squeak past USC in their Maui opener, losing two of their three games of the week — with their lone win coming against Chaminade. Drew Fielder shook off a pair of bad games against USC and NC State with a 27-point outing against the Silverswords. Boise still has a few opportunities to add more quality non-conference wins, beginning with Butler this week, their only game of the week.
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5. New Mexico
New Mexico survived a scare against Alabama State this week after it was facing a 15-point second-half deficit. True freshman Jake Hall came to the rescue, as the 6-foot-4 guard tied a freshman program record for most made 3s (7) in a single game, finishing with a team-high 24 points. It was New Mexico’s most efficient 3-point shooting game of the season. But it was also its worst defensively.
6. Wyoming
In November of 2024, Wyoming’s first loss of the season came on the road against Texas Tech. Though it was completely one-sided, losing 96-49. On Sunday, the Pokes couldn’t quite get one back on Jeff Linder (a TTU assistant), but they hung with the Red Raiders the entire game, losing 76-72. This came three days after a dominant 101-59 win over Denver, where five players scored at least 13 points, led by Leland Walker’s 16 (he had 28 against TTU).
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7. Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon amassed only 46 points to Ben McCollum’s Iowa, but they handed Utah its second loss to the season behind another outstanding performance from Jaden Henley. The UNLV transfer is averaging 16.9 points and 4.4 rebounds on 46.4 percent shooting, though he hasn’t been efficient from 3-point range after knocking down 35.1 percent of his attempts a year ago.
8. Nevada
Nevada got crushed against Washington without arguably their best player in Hannes Steinbach. However, center Joel Armotrading got hurt after six minutes against Washington and did not play Thursday against San Francisco. Though the Pack were still able to take care of business against the Dons, 81-65, with freshman Ethan Croley assuming most of the Armotrading minutes off the bench. His availability will be one to track moving forward.
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9. UNLV
UNLV lost to Maryland, Alabama and Rutgers by 17, 49 and 15 points, respectively. They blew second-half advantages to both Rutgers and Maryland while getting completely waxed over the final 20 minutes against No. 8 Alabama; the Crimson Tide scored 64 points in the second half … compared to UNLV’s 76 total.
10. Fresno State
Fresno State was bound to move up in this week’s rankings … until its five-point loss to Cal State Bakersfield on Sunday. They couldn’t hold onto an 11-point lead with nine minutes to go, surrendering a 22-6 run that they couldn’t quite overcome. You’re not going to see very many teams lose when they finished a plus-21 from beyond the arc (UCSB made just 1 3-pointer!!!) and a plus-12 on the glass. Well, the Bulldogs did after matching their 2024-25 win total (6) earlier in the week.
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11. San Jose State
The Spartans may have gotten boatraced by Tulsa, but they handed Loyola Chicago their seventh-straight loss to begin the 2025-26 season. The Spartans forced 21 turnovers (!!!), though only eight of them were live-ball turnovers. Only seven players even saw the floor in that game, with Jermaine Washington, Colby Garland and Yaphet Moundi playing 35-plus minutes. SJSU is also playing at one of the nation’s slowest paces. Scoring has been a struggle, but the good news is that their next two matchups (San Diego, Long Beach State) are both poor defenses.
12. Air Force
Air Force, one of the worst offensive teams in the country, lost its only two games of the week to Northern Colorado and South Dakota by 18 and 17 points, respectively. Saturday’s loss to South Dakota was only their second game away from home this season, and they will have another this next Sunday against Navy — their final before conference play begins.
