NCAA Basketball: Arizona, Arkansas fall on latest top 25 power ranking

24. New Mexico (16-2)

After winning their first 14 games of the season, New Mexico was briefly the nation’s final unbeaten team. The first week of December was quite unkind to the Lobos, who dropped a pair of games against their MWC foes and fell out of the polls. Judging by their return this week, you can tell they had themselves quite the bounce back.

Their Monday game was scheduled very recently but the Lobos didn’t blink, knocking off Oral Roberts 82-75 in a rare nonconference matchup. Jamal Mashburn Jr. had 24 points and 7 rebounds while forwards Josiah Allick and Morris Udeze both had double-doubles in the win. Their weekend efforts were far more impressive, doing the seemingly unthinkable by winning 76-67 on the road against conference favorite San Diego State. Jaelen House had 29 points, Mashburn put up 22, and Udeze grabbed 15 boards to shock the Aztecs.

You can argue that New Mexico hasn’t had the toughest schedule in the world to get their 16 wins, but they boast true road wins over both Saint Mary’s and San Diego State. There aren’t a lot of teams who could beat both those teams in those hostile environments. The Lobos needed this kind of performance and really got that boost against the Aztecs. Now, they’ll need to maintain the momentum with winnable home games against San Jose State and Boise State.