Monday Morning Point Guard

Where to start…

The Mountain West is on its on its way to becoming a one-bid league.  Not quite there yet but awfully close. Not one team sits in the top 50 of the Pomeroys. Three teams currently in or near the RPI Top 50 but none of them with a strong out of conference road win.  UNLV had a nice win over Oregon, New Mexico lost by only 12 at Purdue, and San Diego State has absolutely derailed, losing at Petco Park to San Diego, a 300+ RPI squad.  The teams expected to battle at the top, SDSU and Boise, have losses to San Diego and Montana.  MWC bottom feeder San Jose State has wins over San Diego and Montana.  The only sure way into the NCAA Tournament this year will be to win the MWC Tournament.  Just three short seasons ago the MWC sent 5 of 9 teams to the tournament. Ouch.

Colorado is putting together a solid OOC resume.  The Buffs opened the season with a close loss to a Top 10 Iowa State squad and have reeled off seven wins now with road wins at Auburn and Colorado State. The currently have an RPI of 18 and Pomeroy has them  at 49.  Other than Iowa State, their schedule is a bit suspect but they will have every opportunity to hold ground once they enter the Pac 12 season.  They are solid on both ends of the floor without being spectacular.  They rebound decently, shoot the 3 well, and create a pretty good disparity from the free throw line by not fouling their opponents much.

Speaking of the Buffs, the CFRL race is pretty much over.  With wins over AFA, UNC, and CSU and with Denver losing a pair, only Wyoming has a shot at the Buffs who completed their CFRL schedule at 3-0.  I’m not sure Wyoming has the horses to go undefeated vs Air Force and CSU but you never know.

On the womens front, Colorado State has moved into the Top 50 in RPI.  They currently hold a pair of nice wins over BYU and Colorado.  BYU just defeated a Top 10 Texas A&M team on a neutral floor which gave the Lady Rams a boost.  Their record is 5-1 with a tough 1-point road loss at Penn who currently sit in the RPI Top 20.  Its nice to dream about an at-large bid for the Lady Rams but it probably isnt going to happen.  The Mountain West is weak with a Conference RPI of 20+.  Worse than the Big Sky.  The Rams are the favorite to three-peat in the MWC regular season but tourney hopes most likely reside in Las Vegas at the MWC Tourney.  CSU faces a bit of a road test locally at Northern Colorado on Tuesday; UNC knocked them out of the WNIT last season so there’s a bit of a revenge factor in play.

I didnt get a chance to see many national games this week so no comments there.