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

9. Fresno State (-2)

When I wrote the last set of Mountain West power rankings, Fresno State seemed like a team on the rise. They had recently beaten Air Force and San Jose State on the road and New Mexico at home. They also took UNLV right down to the wire at the Thomas and Mack during that stretch. Unfortunately, their last couple weeks of the season made them really tough to get a good read on. They managed to beat Air Force and Wyoming for a second time each and expectedly lost to Utah State and Nevada. However, their first-round matchup against Air Force didn’t quite go as planned.

I was honestly more surprised by Fresno State losing to Air Force than I was by Colorado State losing to Wyoming. They just seemed to be clearly better than Air Force. The way they lost made it even stranger. They actually shot extremely well from outside, hitting 16 3s at a 44.4% clip. However, their inside game was mostly non-existent. They only attempted 16 shots inside the 3 point line, making 7 of them. That is shocking against an Air Force team that wasn’t particularly strong inside.

At the end of the day, a lack of consistency or progress was the reason why they finished here. Every team ahead of them either gave us a very clear idea of just how good they were or they got better by the end of the season. I don’t believe either of those things were true of Fresno and that is why they find themselves so far down the list.

This team was a massive disappointment after last year’s 23 win campaign that saw them finish 3rd in the conference. They deserve this ranking that matches that disappointment.