Last week was a crazy week for Mountain West men’s basketball. Every week, they deliver! As we cross the halfway point of conference play, where is each team slotted in our weekly power rankings? Let’s dive into it!
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1. San Diego State
San Diego State maintains the top spot this week, even after a gut-wrenching — and controversial — one-point loss to Grand Canyon earlier in the week. Miles Byrd had one of his most complete games of the season in SDSU’s 11-point win over UNLV, scoring 23 points on a perfect 5-of-5 from 3-point range with four steals. Over his last eight games, he’s tallied an absurd 2.9 steals and 1.6 blocks per game, including logging 17 combined stocks over his last three games.
2. New Mexico
New Mexico picked up a pair of wins over Fresno State and Nevada last week. The Lobos are winners of six of their last seven and 13 of their last 15. Eric Olen’s done a phenomenal job, and true freshman Jake Hall is running away with the Freshman of the Year award. He’s playing himself into All-MW territory, most recently scoring 19 points with six rebounds and four assists against Nevada.
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3. Grand Canyon
The two teams above Grand Canyon have long been two of the most difficult environments to play in. Grand Canyon rightfully carried a similar reputation, and it showed in their one-point win over SDSU earlier this week. The Antelopes’ defense has been one of the MW’s best in conference play despite a middle-of-the-pack oTOV%. The reason? Teams are shooting just 25.9 percent from deep against GCU — an area it’s hung its hat all season.
4. Utah State
Do I really think Utah State is the fourth-best team in the MW? Probably not. But they split the week — beginning with a bad loss to UNLV — after a 10-point loss to Grand Canyon. Alas, they drop to No. 4 this week. Their bench, led by Garry Clark and Karson Templin, has regressed, as has their disruptive defense. Though both looked closer to the norm in their four-point win against Colorado State, where it climbed out a 13-point second half deficit.
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5. Nevada
Nevada’s essentially been on the brink of being on the brink of at-large conversation for most of the season. But they weren’t unable to close the door on a Quad 1 win against New Mexico on Saturday, losing 80-73. Their inefficiency inside the arc has bit them, but against UNM, they shot just 6-of-23 from 3-point range, the biggest difference in the end.
6. UNLV
Once again, UNLV proved that it’s capable of beating — and losing — to any team on any given night. The Runnin’ Rebels pulled a rabbit out of their hat over Utah State — led by junior guard Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn and freshman wing Tyrin Jones. It was their best win to date. However, it could not follow it up against SDSU, losing by 11. All things considered, UNLV is in a good position as we enter the midway point of MW action.
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7. Boise State
Boise State got back on track with a pair of wins over Wyoming and Air Force. There isn’t much to take away since they are 1-5 against the conference’s top-6. Boise will get a second crack at Grand Canyon Friday, nearly three weeks after losing to them by 17 in Boise.
8. Colorado State
Colorado State coughed up a 13-point second-half lead to Utah State, losing 65-61. The Rams were red-hot in the first half, shooting 68.4 percent; in the second half, they shot just 37.5 percent, including missing 11 of their last 13 shots. CSU has had a difficult time stringing two productive of halves together in MW play, save for their 29-point win over Air Force last week.
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9. Fresno State
Fresno State lost to New Mexico and Grand Canyon by nine and 11 points, respectively, last week. Their fatal flaw last week was their inability to make, well, really anything. That has crept back up. In MW play, they are shooting just 46.1 percent inside the arc (11th) and 30.1 percent from 3-point range (10th), despite knocking down north of 80 percent of their free-throw attempts. The issue is they aren’t getting to the charity stripe all that often either.
10. Wyoming
Wyoming nearly let one slip to SJSU, but was still able to squeak out a four-point win despite barely shooting 40.0 percent from the floor and 2-of-16 from 3-point range. Even though they don’t take — or make — many 3s, their recipe to success is 1.) attacking the glass and 2.) getting to the free-throw line. Well, they more than doubled SJSU in both areas, finishing a plus-13 (24-11) at the free-throw line and a plus-22 (42-20) in rebounding.
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11. San Jose State
San Jose State got both Colby Garland and Jermaine Washington back last week from injury. Garland, the team’s leading scorer, played 29 minutes in their four-point loss to Wyoming; Washington averaged 14.0 points on 10-of-24 shooting across 35.0 minutes, too. The Spartans still miss Moundi’s presence on the backboards, but they will have to show better collective effort in that area until he returns.
12. Air Force
They lost by 29 to Colorado State and by 42 to Boise State. Air Force has now lost 13 straight by an average of 22.4 points.
