Mountain West Conference Basketball Updates & Power Rankings

First, it was the Big 10/ACC challenge. Then, the Big 12 and Pac 10 created the Hardcourt Series.

Now, the Mountain West and Missouri Valley conferences are getting into the act. The conferences recently announced they will begin an annual series of games in the same format of those other conferences. It will be called the Challenge Series. The four-year series begins in 2009.

It will begin Nov. 13 when Bradley visits BYU. The last game will be Wyoming at Northern Iowa on Dec. 23. The games are

The other games are Colorado State at Indiana State on Nov. 20; Southern Illinois at UNLV on Nov. 21; Air Force at Missouri State on Dec. 5; TCU at Wichita State on Dec. 12; Creighton at New Mexico and Illinois State at Utah on Dec. 19; and San Diego State at Drake on Dec. 22.

The only team that will not participate in the games is Evansville.

Well, Wyoming

Not since the days of Fennis Dembo has Wyoming basketball really enjoyed a great time of success.

It’s really hard to know how the Cowboys will fare this year. But they do have one of the surprise results early in the conference season. They knocked off San Diego State, 83-79, in Laramie, Wyo. on Jan. 14. Of course, they will get tested even more with an upcoming road trip to UNLV and TCU.

However, the Cowboys have been looking for their first credibility win of the season. Brandon Ewing and Tyson Johnson combined for 46 points in the victory. Well, that really isn’t anything new since the two are the leading scorers. Ewing is already averaging 19 points per game.

During the season, The Cowboys had not really featured any significant win, except for maybe a win over Northern Iowa. So this one helps.

Alford’s Blues

It appeared that New Mexico coach Steve Alford came to give the Lobos a real feeling that they were going to get back into the NCAA tournament. Last year, the Lobos went 24-9 and just missed The Dance.

But nothing has gone according to plan.

At 10-7 going into Saturday’s game against BYU, the Lobos are going to have to start to make a serious push to be considered NCAA worthy. At this point, they would be NIT borderline. Their 73 point average is misleading because they scored 102 points against Southeast Missouri St. in the season opener and 102 against Ole Miss. Otherwise, the team has been meddling between the 60s and 70s.

There is some feeling that the 78 points they scored off a tight Air Force team will get this team going. There definitely needs to be a major winning streak if they are going to get into the NCAA conversation.

Power Rankings

1. BYU
2. San Diego State
3. UNLV
4. TCU
5. Utah
6. Wyoming
7. New Mexico
8. Air Force
9. Colorado State