Weekly Mountain West rankings Has Rams At The Top
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Colorado State holds the top spot once again:
The MWWire.com staff voted once again to rank the conference 1-11; here’s the results:
1.) Colorado State – 88 points
The Rams make their first appearance in the AP Top 25 rankings following Saturday afternoon’s win over Mississippi State. Things looked bleak mid-way through the second half after Mississippi State took a nine-point lead, but the high-powered Rams offense took control down the stretch. David Roddy continues looking like the early-season Mountain West player of the year, averaging around 20 points.
The Rams’ lone game this week comes against Tulsa in Fort Collins. The Golden Hurricane is near the AAC’s bottom, but Jeriah Horne should provide a good matchup for Roddy. That game leads into the ranked showdown between Alabama and Colorado State on December 21st, which could be the game where the Rams really jump up the rankings.
2.) Utah State – 69 points
The Aggies went 1-1 last week, with the loss coming to BYU in Provo. Utah State looks like the second-best team behind Colorado State at this point. Very few teams in the country have a frontcourt like Brandon Horvath and Justin Bean.
This week, two huge games await — on the road against Weber State, the best team in the Big Sky, led by former Utah State Aggie, Koby McEwen. The second game comes in South Dakota against the Iowa Hawkeyes from the Big Ten. Iowa has Keegan Murray, one of the countries most productive players through one month of the season.
3.) Wyoming – 67 points
The Cowboys suffered their first loss of the season last week against Arizona. Wyoming wasn’t finishing the season unbeaten but got outmatched by Arizona, who’s proven to be a national title contender. Wyoming bounce-back, beating Utah Valley by 12 in Laramie, as Xavier DuSell dropped 16 points.
Wyoming doesn’t play until next week, preparing for the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii over Christmas Week.
4.) Fresno State – 66 points
The Bulldogs nearly pulled off one of the most shocking upsets of the Mountain West season last Wednesday at San Francisco. Fresno State leads by three with 3:30 remaining, but USF’s Jamaree Bouyea made big plays late as stars typically do. On Saturday, Fresno beat a tough UC Irvine team in the Save Mart Center, bringing their season record to 8-2.
This week, the lone game for the Bulldogs comes on Friday against a 3-7 Cal Poly team.
5.) San Diego State – 64 points
Wednesday’s win over Cal State Fullerton was closer than Aztecs fans would’ve liked — the Titans made a push in the second-half, chopping down a double-figure halftime deficit to single-digits with less than ten minutes to play. SDSU ends up pulling away with a 66-56 victory, but the lack of offensive production remains a worry. Matt Bradley dropped 22 points, while Trey Pulliam scored 15 points. The injury to Lamont Butler further widens the scoring problems. The Aztecs only scored above 70 points in two of their nine games in 2021-22.
Brian Dutcher’s team ranks 9th in KenPom’s defensive efficiency, Saint Mary’s, who meets SDSU on a neutral site in Phoenix, ranks 10th in that same metric. Expect a low-scoring defensive battle between two of the best coaches in College Basketball. Should SDSU win that game, that would add a signature victory to their NCAA Tournament resume.
