Mountain West Basketball: Final power rankings for 2019-20 season

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 07: Sam Merrill #5 of the Utah State Aggies is names MVP after defeating the San Diego State Aztecs to win the championship game of the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center on March 7, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Aggies defeated the Aztecs 59-56. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images) /

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COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – MARCH 05: Caleb Morris #0 of the Air Force Falcons (Photo by Timothy Nwachukwu/Getty Images) /

10. Air Force (-1)

This was one of the tougher decisions on this list. Air Force claimed a couple of wins as the season wound down which made me seriously consider bumping them up a spot. However, it became really difficult to justify putting them anywhere above 10th when looking at their resume as a whole.

The first of those two wins they claimed at the end of the year was a home win over New Mexico, which certainly helped their cause given the way New Mexico’s season went from there. However, the more important win as far as these power rankings go was their win over Fresno State in the first round of the Mountain West tournament. That made things really interesting as I debated those two teams for spots 9 and 10.

In the end, the fact that Fresno State had already beaten Air Force twice before that game made them my choice for the 9 spot and dropped Air Force to 10. The fact that Air Force lost 10 of their last 13 games also didn’t help their cause.

Their 6 wins against Mountain West competition kept them far from the bottom spot in this conference, but they were just short of what the Falcons needed to keep themselves from continuing to fall.