Around the Mountain: League continues to get lack of preseason love in men's basketball

Your favorite college hoops team is still undefeated!

That’s the good news.

The bad news, at least for fans of the Mountain West, is that like most every other October, there isn’t a whole lot of optimism based on national preseason polls and analytics, despite recent history showing the league has outperformed those early prognostications.

Monday, the Associated Press released its first Top 25 men’s basketball preseason poll — a poll full of voters who make you wonder if they’ve ever even watched a game.

For the 14th consecutive season, I’m one of those clueless voters. It’s a season-long labor of love that pays off with lovely fan mail from around the country. (See Geoff Grammer’s preseason AP Top 25 ballot)

The first Top 25 poll included a grand total of zero Mountain West teams ranked and two — San Diego State and Boise State — in the “others receiving votes” section of the poll, a far more familiar place for league teams.

San Diego State is my preseason pick to win the league and I ranked them 24th on my ballots. The Aztecs received 98 points overall, three spots from being ranked. One voter had them as high as No. 15. Boise State received 4 points overall and appeared on two ballots, both at No. 24.

Since the Mountain West came into existence 27 years ago, the league has been without a team in the preseason AP 25 poll 17 times.

The KenPom.com preseason rankings also rarely show love to the Mountain West. The rankings, released on Sunday, have seven MW teams in the Top 100, but just SDSU (No. 30) is in that comfortable realm of the Top 40, which is often about the cut-off for an at-large NCAA Tournament team. KenPom ranks UNM at No. 97 heading into the season.

A year ago, KenPom’s preseason rankings had Boise State as the top MW team, at No. 45. The Broncos didn’t play in the NCAA Tournament while four other MW teams — SDSU, New Mexico, Colorado State and Utah State — did.

UNM (preseason KenPom 62 a year ago) and Colorado State (77) ended up winning the league’s regular season and tournament championships, respectively, and were the two league teams to advance to the Round of 32.

Preseason vs. Big DanceHere’s a look at the last five seasons of Mountain West teams ranked in the AP Top 25/in the KenPom Top 40 and how many played in the NCAA Tournament:

2025-26:

• 0 AP/1 KP 40/TBD NCAA Tournament

2024-25:

• 0 AP/0 KP 40/4 NCAA Tournament

2023-24:

• 1 AP/1 KP 40/6 NCAA Tournament

2022-23:

• 1 AP/1 KP 40/4 NCAA Tournament

2021-22:

• 0 AP/1 KP 40/4 NCAA Tournament

AP preseason numbers

UNLV is the current Mountain West team with the most preseason AP Top 25 appearances — 13 times being ranked, but all but one of those before the MW came into existence.

UNM has the next most times being ranked in the preseason AP poll among current MW members with seven, but only once have the Lobos been ranked as a Mountain West member — in 2013 ahead of the first season under head coach Craig Neal when the Lobos were ranked No. 23.

The Lobos highest preseason ranking was No. 6, in was 1967.

Current benchmark Mountain West program San Diego State has been ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 five times, all five of them coming since the 2010-11 season.

That’s the ticket

Nonconference single-game tickets for Lobo men’s basketball team went on sale Monday, including for the Oct. 30 exhibition against Northern Arizona in the Pit.

Tickets can be purchased at the Pit ticket office or online at GoLobos.com/tickets. For students, single game tickets can now be claimed as well.

Mountain West conference game ticket sales and mini-plan options will go on sale at a later date. Season tickets are also still on sale for all 18 home games (17 regular season, one exhibition).

Season ticket holders who have already made their purchase should start receiving their tickets electronically later this week.