Rams Notebook: This is (almost) March

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Anarchy? Nope. Just college basketball.

In the wise words of Jon Rothstein, the postgame analyst for CBS Sports and internet lord of college basketball fanatics like myself, the 2019-20 Mountain West season has been about as unpredictable as any campaign that I’ve been fortunate to cover.

From the unanimous preseason favorite, Utah State, dropping three consecutive league games at one point to San Diego State winning 26 straight, and everything that’s happened in between, the Mountain West has legitimately been must-see TV on a night-to-night basis.

As things currently stand, the only teams in the league that are sitting where they were projected to place in the standings are San Jose State and Wyoming — the worst two teams in the MW by far.

Aside from the Aztecs, though, who have looked like the best team since November, everyone else has had moments where they looked like a contender and moments where they looked like a pretender.

For most of January it was CSU that looked like the hottest team behind SDSU. The Rams rang in 2020 with a 6-2 month and kept the momentum rolling into the first week of February.

Most recently, however, the Nevada schools and Utah State have been the squads that look the most dangerous going into the Mountain West Tournament.

Led by Jalen Harris, who is a shoe-in to win Newcomer of the Year, the Wolf Pack have quietly won five in a row since falling to CSU and Boise State in back-to-back games. Along with Utah State, UNR’s five-game winning streak is tied for the longest in the conference now that the Aztecs’ winning streak has officially come to an end.

This of course brings us to UNLV, who despite not doing it for quite as long, might actually be the most confident group after absolutely throttling the Rams at home and upsetting the mighty Aztecs at Viejas Arena over the weekend.

In the win over SDSU, UNLV essentially controlled the game from wire to wire and possessed a double-digit lead multiple times in the second half. Really, it was an extension of the dominant performance they had on their home floor against CSU just a few days prior.

The funny thing about the revival of the Runnin’ Rebels is that T.J. Otzelberger’s team appeared to be dead in the water just three weeks ago. Over the final week of January and first week of February, UNLV lost four consecutive games — three of which were blowouts to quality opponents. But since losing at Utah State on Feb. 5, something has changed for UNLV.

The Rebels have gone 4-1 over their last five, with home wins over Fresno State and CSU as well as road wins over New Mexico and SDSU. The only recent blemish on their resume was a 3 point loss to Nevada in overtime on Feb. 12.

With the benefit of home-court advantage in the MW Tournament and Bryce Hamilton looking like one of the best scorers in the league, I would guess that UNLV is a team that the  coaches around the league will be hoping to avoid next week.

Finally, we have the Boise State Broncos, who have not lived up to my preseason projections but are still capable of competing against the best that the league has to offer.

With Justinian Jessup and Derrick Alston on the floor, Leon Rice’s Broncos have the shooting power to upset anyone. Their biggest issue continues to be consistency, though, which is why they’ve been in the middle of the pack for most of the season.

After beating the Lobos over the weekend, It’ll be very interesting to see how Boise State handles the red-hot Rebels on Tuesday. With how tight things are heading into the final week, the matchup will arguably be the most important game around the Mountain West this week.

2019-20 preseason poll

Utah State (1), San Diego State (2), New Mexico (3), Nevada (4), Boise State (5), Fresno State (6), UNLV (7), Air Force (8), Colorado State (9), Wyoming (10), San Jose State (11)

2019-20 DNVR preseason projections

Utah State (1), Boise State (2), New Mexico (3), San Diego State (4), Nevada (5), Colorado State (6), UNLV (7), Fresno State (8), Air Force (9), Wyoming (10), San Jose State (11)

2019-20 MW standings (Feb. 24)

San Diego State (1), Utah State (2*), Nevada (3*), Boise State (4), Colorado State (5*), UNLV (6*), New Mexico (7), Fresno State (8), Air Force (9), San Jose State (10), Wyoming (11)

• * = Based on tiebreakers. (Head to head, then RPI rankings).

NET Rankings (Feb. 24)

San Diego State (5), Utah State (38), Nevada (80), Boise State (89), Colorado State (105), UNLV (112), New Mexico (148), Fresno State (163), Air Force (226), San Jose State (280), Wyoming (285)

Key games of the week

• SDSU vs. CSU (Feb. 25)
• UNLV vs. Boise State (Feb. 26)
• Nevada vs. SDSU (Feb. 29)
• CSU vs. Air Force (Feb. 29)
• New Mexico vs. Utah State (Feb. 29)
• San Jose State vs. UNLV (Feb. 29)