No. 13 Colorado State Rams (13-1) at Utah State Aggies (13-1), Saturday, January 6, 9:00 PM ET
The Mountain West has arguably been the best mid-major conference in the country with six teams in the top-100 of the net rankings entering Wednesday's action. The conference has been so successful that five teams already have at least 11 wins entering league play. Two of those teams face off Saturday night when No. 13 Colorado State hits the road to take on Utah State.
The Rams put opponents on notice with a 21-point drubbing of Creighton, holding the Bluejays to just 49 points. They followed that up by dropping 88 on Washington. Now Colorado State is the team to beat in the conference, they opened up league play with a win over New Mexico on Tuesday.
The Aggies were picked to finish 9th in the conference under first-year head coach Danny Sprinkle. They hold wins over potential tournament teams Bradley, Akron, and San Francisco.
The Aggies (13-1) resume is full of good and bad so far. The good is the 11 Division I wins, their results metric average of 20, a NET ranking of 26, and a 4-1 record in the first two quads. The bad includes a strength of schedule at 241 and a predictive metrics average of 49.5. The good news is the Mountain West schedule will provide the Aggies the chance to improve the numbers that have them behind some of the other teams in the conference, beginning with this contest with Colorado State.