Around the Mountain: Grammer's grades for nonconference play

Remember just two short months ago when we had this league all figured out?

Although there are still four nonconference games remaining for Mountain West teams, including San Diego State vs. No. 1 Arizona on Saturday in Phoenix, we're at the start of league play and it's time to check in on just how all 12 teams in the Mountain West did over the course of the mostly-completed nonconference slate of games.

Here are some Grammer School grades for the Mountain West:

Air Force Falcons

Record: 3-8

Preseason media poll: 12

NET/KenPom ranks: 303/324

The good: The Falcons won three games in five days and have two really good players in freshman guard Kam Sanders and junior forward Caleb Walker.

The bad: I mean, they were picked last, and yet still managed to perform worse than the computers projected, dropping 67 points in KenPom from the start of the season.

Grammer's grade: C

Boise State Broncos

Record: 8-3

Preseason media poll: 3

NET/KenPom ranks: 39/45

The good: Two of the league's best three wins — at Butler and vs. Saint Mary's. They look as good as anyone right now.

The bad: There is no escaping how bad it is to lose to a Division II team on your home court to start the season — a loss not reflected in those computer rankings.

Grammer's grade: B-

Colorado State Rams

Record: 9-2

Preseason media poll: tied-7

NET/KenPom ranks: 54/62

The good: Explosive offense, No. 1 three-point shooting team in the country, beat in-state rival Colorado, first-year coach Ali Farokmanesh has built excitement.

The bad: What he hasn't yet built is a defense. And while it wasn't a D-II loss, losing to KenPom 301 Denver on your home court is a Quad 4 loss that actually is reflected on the postseason résumé.

Grammer's grade: B+

Fresno State Bulldogs

Record: 6-5

Preseason media poll: 11

NET/KenPom ranks: 171/171

The good: The Bulldogs have already matched last season's win total of six and of their five losses, four were by five points or fewer. Jake Heidbreder and Zaon Collins remain as good a 1-2 backcourt punch as the league has.

The bad: There's still work to be done, clearly, when you lose at home to USC Upstate and to a bad Bakersfield team.

Grammer's grade: B

Grand Canyon Lopes

Record: 6-4

Preseason media poll: 4

NET/KenPom ranks: 121/92

The good: They've been fine. Not great. Not league-title-worthy, but fine. Jaden Henley is good and so is the defense.

The bad: Maybe I'm being too harsh because of the Youngstown State loss because otherwise, GCU's three losses are to top 55 KenPom teams. There isn't a great win.

Grammer's grade: C+

Nevada Wolf Pack

Record: 8-3

Preseason media poll: tied-7

NET/KenPom ranks: 89/89

The good: I like Tayshawn Comer and Elijah Price. The San Francisco and UC San Diego wins are good. The Pack is doing OK, but not any better than their middle-of-the-pack projection.

The bad: Double-digit losses to Santa Clara and Washington, and that ugly home loss to UC Davis.

Grammer's grade: B

New Mexico Lobos

Record: 9-2

Preseason media poll: 5

NET/KenPom ranks: 63/77

The good: A 27-point thumping of Santa Clara and a true road win at VCU are two of the best wins for a Mountain West team this season — and they did so as the league's only team without a returning player or staff member.

The bad: Losing a true road game to NMSU isn't bad in the grand scheme of things, but a rivalry loss is a rivalry loss. The first half against Nebraska was an all-timer in terms of ugly basketball.

Grammer's grade: A

San Diego State Aztecs

Record: 5-3

Preseason media poll: 1

NET/KenPom ranks: 83/46

The good: They've clearly got talent, and they still have coach Brian Dutcher. BJ Davis has been really good.

The bad: The defense isn't where they want it and that triple overtime loss to Troy at home still stings. Consistency from the expected stars would be nice.

Grammer's grade: C

San Jose State Spartans

Record: 5-6

Preseason media poll: 10

NET/KenPom ranks: 249/186

The good: Colby Garland scoring 18.9 points per game is an obvious plus, as was Saturday's near upset of ACC's Stanford.

The bad: The Spartans haven't beat a Top 200 team and aren't stopping teams from shooting a high percentage (46.1%).

Grammer's grade: C

UNLV Runnin' Rebels

Record: 4-6

Preseason media poll: 6

NET/KenPom ranks: 145/205

The good: There are no more teams from Tennessee on the schedule. The Rebels are 2-0 outside of Las Vegas and have road wins over Memphis and Stanford.

The bad: UNLV is 2-6 in Las Vegas (counting Henderson); shooting 27.9% from 3-point range (333rd in the country) and fouling at a 47.6% rate (343rd in the country) are just two stats you could list here.

Grammer's grade: D

Utah State Aggies

Record: 9-1

Preseason media poll: 2

NET/KenPom ranks: 30/40

The good: Hard to find much wrong with a 9-1 record and the only loss being on the road to a Top 100 team. MJ Collins is the league's leading scorer (20.6 points per game).

The bad: Less-than-dominant home wins over teams like Weber State and Montana State.

Grammer's grade: A-

Wyoming Cowboys

Record: 9-2

Preseason media poll: 9

NET/KenPom ranks: 60/93

The good: Sundance Wicks has these guys playing hard and they're fun to watch. Guard Leland Walker is legit.

The bad: The best "win" was a close loss (Texas Tech). They've looked great vs. low-level teams, but haven't beaten a team ranked in the Top half of the 365 Division I teams.

Grammer's grade: A+

MW's weekly awards

Here are the weekly player awards as decided by the Mountain West office:

Player of the Week: Boise State junior forward Drew Fielder — The Boise native who transferred back home this season from Georgetown, helped the Broncos to two wins, averaging 22.5 points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 60% from the field.

Player of the Week: Wyoming forward Naz Meyer — Winning the league's top freshman honor for the third time in six weeks, Meyer scored a career high 26 points on 11-of-15 shooting to go along with seven rebounds in last week's win over South Dakota.

Don't forsake Jake

In two of the three weeks Meyer won the league's top freshman honors, UNM's Jake Hall easily could have earned the award.

When Meyer won on Dec. 1, he did so when averaging 11 points, five rebounds and 2.5 assists in a home win and road loss. That same week, Hall had 24 points and hit seven 3-pointers in a win over Alabama State — more points in just the one game, but maybe that was the rub. He played only one game.

So what about this week?

Meyer played just one game and scored 26 points and had seven rebounds in a home win. Hall and the Lobos played twice, winning both games, with Hall scoring 36 points (18 per game), including 24 at VCU, the top-rated road win of the season for the Mountain West. Hall also had seven rebounds in Sunday's FGCU win.

A number to know: 44.5

Wyoming's 44.5 bench points per game is the highest in Division I.

Poll position

Still no Mountain West teams in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, but the Utah State Aggies do return to the "others receiving votes" section.

• Utah State, 2 points, 16 spots out of Top 25, lone vote No. 24 by Dave Jablonski of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News.

My five

Here are the five games I'm looking forward to this week in the Mountain West (there are only seven to choose from), listed in order of when they're played (all happen to be on Saturday):

• Colorado State at Utah State: Noon MT, Saturday (CBS Sports Network) — CSU leads the nation in 3-point shooting percentage (45.4%) and it's time to see if they're for real. Utah State has the best record and KenPom ranking in the league, but has flirted with disaster a few times. And much like the UNM Lobos, while the Aggies defense is good overall, it does dare teams to shoot 3s.
• Grand Canyon at Wyoming: 2 p.m. MT Saturday (TheMW) — Welcome to the Mountain West, Grand Canyon. Let's get you started with a trip to Laradise, where Sundance Wicks has his Cowboys soaring through nonconference play. The Pokes may have stolen that MW "darkhorse" distinction some thought the Lopes would have this season.
• San Jose State at New Mexico: 7 p.m. MT Saturday (Altitude/TheMW) — Stop me if you've heard this one before. The Spartans are playing better than their record suggests. SJSU coach Tim Miles has a pair of wins over the Lobos because, for some reason, the Spartans always play UNM tough, even before Miles was there.
• Boise State at Nevada: 8 p.m. MT Saturday (TheMW) — Two of the past three in Reno have come down to the final possession and KenPom.com predicts this to be a 74-72 game, in favor of the Broncos. Steve Alford's Wolf Pack has won four in a row and Tayshawn Comer and Elijah Price won't make things easy on the Broncos.
• San Diego State vs. No. 1 Arizona: 8:30 p.m. MT Saturday in Phoenix (ESPN2) — Can SDSU show that, when they're right, they are as good as some thought they'd be in the preseason? Arizona, the No. 1 team in the country, is no joke. Hard to imagine an upset here.