NCAA Basketball: Creighton’s fall, Mountain West success among biggest takeaways
By Joey Loose
2. The rise of the Mountain West
We’ve covered this already but we’re going to need to talk about it again. The Mountain West looks really good this season, especially when you compare it to disappointing starts from leagues like the MVC and A-10. In the most recent NET rankings, six MWC programs are in the Top 50, while three of the league’s schools remain undefeated.
Utah State (12), New Mexico (24), and UNLV (35) are all taking care of their business early, with the Aggies and Lobos both picking up wins over San Francisco in recent days. All three of these teams are unbeaten into mid-December; even more impressive considering just seven unbeaten teams remain in the country. None of these teams are playing murderous schedules, but things have fallen right for all three of these teams.
Transfers are playing a big role for these schools, but they aren’t the only ones performing early for the MWC. Boise State now sits at 9-2, having won their last eight games, including impressive performances against Colorado, Texas A&M, and Saint Louis on the road. Another school in that early top 50 is Nevada, who lack their premier nonconference victory but have looked good.
We haven’t even talked about the team expected to win the conference title in San Diego State. The Aztecs have already picked up three losses this season, but remain the MWC’s highest-ranked team on KenPom (27), and have faced a significantly more difficult schedule than some of their conference foes. Plus, if Wyoming can find a way to get healthy then they’ll be a certain contender despite their dreadful start. All in all, the MWC is loaded this season and it would not be shocking to see them contend for four bids in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year.