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Mountain West Basketball Power Rankings For January 22
Check out the latest Mountain West basketball staff power rankings
Contact/Follow@boettger_eli & @MWCwire
Nevada extends lead over Boise State with Saturday’s win over the Broncos
Throughout the season, the Mountain West Wire staff will provide weekly men’s basketball team power rankings. The rankings are compiled by the Wire staff on a standard 1-11 ranking basis.
Composite score is a rating that shows each team’s relative strength among the other ten Mountain West teams. After total votes are tallied, each team’s point total is divided by the team with the most votes, creating a composite score. The top-ranked team will always have a perfect composite score of 1.0000.
Click the following link to visit last week’s power rankings and composite scores:
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11) San Jose State Spartans (3-15, 0-7)
—> San Jose State hung around with MWC frontrunner Nevada, leading the Wolf Pack at halftime. After being tied with 14 minutes remaining, the Spartans were outscored by 17 the rest of the way to fall to 0-7.
Composite score: .0909
10) Air Force Falcons (8-10, 2-4)
—> After stringing together D-I wins for the first time since November, the American government shutdown caused Air Force to cancel all of its sporting events until a conclusion is reached. Saturday’s game against Fresno State has yet to be played.
Composite score: .2597
9) Utah State Aggies (10-11, 3-5)
—> Tim Duryea’s group is not even three weeks removed from scoring a road win over UNLV to move to 3-1 in MWC play. The Aggies have dropped four straight with Wednesday’s game against Air Force in jeopardy.
Composite score: .3117
8) Colorado State Rams (10-11, 3-5)
—> It’s the second winless week in conference play for Colorado State, which now has as many league losses as it did all of last season. CSU has lost four consecutive matchups in Fort Collins.
Composite score: .3247
7) Wyoming Cowboys (12-7, 3-3)
—> Wyoming scored a road win over Utah State to get back to .500 in MWC competition. The Cowboys led by as much as 22 in the first half, trailed with under eight minutes remaining, and then outscored Utah State by nine the rest of the night.
Composite score: .5325
6) UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (14-5, 3-3)
—> UNLV was stunned at home by New Mexico in the final seconds on Wednesday, but responded by using a 14-0 run in the closing minutes to beat Colorado State in Fort Collins.
Composite score: .5584
5) San Diego State Aztecs (11-7, 3-4)
—> San Diego State now has three straight losses after winning four of the previous five. The three losses (at Boise State, vs. Fresno State, at New Mexico) were by an average margin of 3.7 points.
Composite score: .5584
4) New Mexico Lobos (10-11, 5-3)
—> The team of the week is New Mexico, which has been the second-hottest team in the Mountain West over the past month. The Lobos have outperformed their opponents by 12.4 points per 100 possessions over the last five games, equivalent to 57th-best nationally.
Composite score: .7403
3) Fresno State Bulldogs (14-6, 4-3)
—> Despite last-second arrivals by Jaron Hopkins and Jahmel Taylor due to an academic eligibility issue, Fresno State won at Viejas Arena for the second straight year. Saturday’s game at Air Force was cancelled after the news of the government shutdown.
Composite score: .7792
2) Boise State Broncos (16-4, 6-2)
—> Boise State snuck past Utah State at home on Wednesday and dropped a heartbreaker to Nevada in Reno on Saturday night. Boise State might not lose against until it hosts Nevada in a must-win game for at-large hopes on February 14.
Composite score: .8442
1) Nevada Wolf Pack (18-3, 7-0)
—> Nevada has won nine of its last ten games after a 2-0 week that included a victory over Boise State on Saturday in the MWC showdown. According to KenPom.com, Nevada has a 6.5% chance of finishing conference play undefeated.
Composite score: 1.000