Around the Mountain: Rollin' with Olen for top coach

We're a little more than a third of the way through the Mountain West season, and it's time to check in on the coaches.

With 45 of 120 Mountain West games played (37.5% of the league schedule), we haven't seen enough to hand out the trophy for the best coach (there isn't actually one, to my knowledge), but we have seen enough to know who is worthy of recognition.

As much as I hate to just go chalk, the four coaches at the top of the list happen to have their teams in the top four spots in the standings (though not in the exact order).

1. Eric Olen, New Mexico — No returning players. No returning staff. The only team in the country with three freshmen averaging double figures. Best-rated defensive efficiency in league play so far. Tied for most Quad 1 plus Quad 2 wins on the season.

Yeah, the UNM beat writer is picking the UNM coach for a coach-of-the-year nod, but even I can't screw this one up. Olen's coaching has been more impressive than that of any other Mountain West coach this season.

2. Jerrod Calhoun, Utah State — Saturday's loss at Grand Canyon aside, Utah State has looked like the best overall team this season. They have two MW Player of the Year candidates in Mason Falslev and M.J. Collins that Calhoun manages to utilize together to perfection most nights. In league play, the Aggies' 129.5 offensive efficiency rating is leaps and bounds better than anyone else's (Nevada's 116.4 is second, New Mexico's 114.6 is third).

tie 3. Steve Alford, Nevada/Brian Dutcher, San Diego State — The vets just keep winning. Not many expected Nevada to be in the running, but the Wolf Pack are there. Everyone expected San Diego State to be at the top (preseason unanimous No. 1 pick), then everyone bailed on them, and yet the Aztecs are quietly sitting alone in first place at 7-0.

Two who could make a run over the next two thirds of the season are Grand Canyon's Bryce Drew and Vance Walberg of Fresno State, if things go really well for either squad.

Joe Scott suspended

The U.S. Air Force Academy on Saturday announced the indefinite suspension of head coach Joe Scott.

The school's only public comment thus far:

"Air Force Men's Basketball Head Coach Joe Scott has been suspended indefinitely pending an investigation into the treatment of cadet-athletes. Assistant Coach Jon Jordan (USAFA '85) will serve as interim head coach.

"No further information is releasable at this time."

In an article published by the Colorado Springs Gazette, Scott told Marissa Kraus he will "fully cooperate with the investigation and look forward to a proper resolution of this matter."

With Jordan as the interim coach, the Falcons lost Saturday's home game to Nevada, 81-66.

MW Players of the Week

The Mountain West league office selected the following two players for weekly awards on Monday:

• PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, UNLV — The junior erupted for a career-high 33 points in the Rebels' overtime win over Boise State last Tuesday and added six assists. The transfer from Illinois had 10 points and four assists in Saturday's win over San Jose State.
• FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK: DeShawn Gory, Fresno State — the 6-foot-6 freshman has been one of the best rebounders in league play and averaged 13.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists last week in home wins over Colorado State and Wyoming.

It was the first MW weekly awards for both players.

Weekly Nique

In an effort to get more players some weekly love, and at times to correct the oversights of the league office, Steve Ivy, Colorado State fan and podcaster, and I announce every Monday the Weekly Nique awards for top Mountain West player and freshman from the previous week who did not win the league's award.

This week's Weekly Niques were both players we felt clearly deserved the awards over the two winners above, even though they had really good weeks.

• WEEKLY NIQUE POW: Miles Byrd, San Diego State — If ever the league's Preseason Player of the Year selection looked the part, it was last week in wins at Wyoming and at home Saturday vs. New Mexico. The 6-6 wing had 12 points, three rebounds, four assists, two blocks and a steal in the road win in Laramie and then went off with 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists, four blocks and three steals Saturday night against the Lobos. Byrd made game-affecting play after game-affecting play, even if he didn't score 33 in a game. It was reason to watch the games, not just the stat sheets, to select these awards.
• WEEKLY NIQUE FOW: Jake Hall, New Mexico — Hall averaged 18.5 points and 2.5 assists in last week's split for the Lobos — 22 points. in a home win over Grand Canyon and 15 points and five assists in a road loss at San Diego State while being the focal point of the physical Aztecs defense.

Blowing the lead

The Mountain West had a big lead on the other 30 Division I conferences in "blowout" games (games decided by 20 or more points) in conference action, until this past week.

The West Coast Conference is the new leader in the blowout clubhouse with 12 of 45 conference games (26.7%) being by 20 or more points. The Mountain West had just one blowout in its 12 games last week — the 87-64 UNM Lobos win over Grand Canyon in the Pit last Tuesday — and now sits in second of 31 conferences in "blowouts" with 10 of 41 league games (24.4%).

Only one other conference (Atlantic 10) is above 20% on blowouts.

On the other side of the ledger, naturally the same two conferences — the WCC and the MW — have had the fewest "close" games, decided by 3 or fewer points, or games that went to overtime.

The MW doubled its mark there last week with two close games — UNLV 89, Boise State 85 in overtime last Tuesday in Las Vegas; Fresno State 63, Wyoming 60 on Saturday in Fresno — to give the league four of 41 league games qualifying as "close," a 9.8% clip.

Poll position

There were no Mountain West teams ranked in Monday's new Associated Press Top 25 poll, though Utah State did appear in the "others receiving votes" portion of the poll.

Utah State: 15 points, six spots outside of rankings, high vote of No. 20 by two voters — Eric Crawford of WDRB-TV in Louisville, Kentucky, and Victor Flores of the Billings (Montana) Gazette.

KenPom update, NET gains

Monday's updated NET and KenPom rankings for the league:

NET ratings:

• 21 Utah State
• 40 New Mexico
• 46 San Diego State
• 72 Nevada
• 83 Boise State
• 90 Grand Canyon
• 94 Colorado State
• 98 Wyoming
• 139 Fresno State
• 145 UNLV
• 251 San Jose State
• 336 Air Force

KenPom.com rankings:

• 26 Utah State
• 46 New Mexico
• 47 San Diego State
• 71 Nevada
• 78 Boise State
• 84 Grand Canyon
• 93 Colorado State
• 99 Wyoming
• 137 UNLV
• 140 Fresno State
• 236 San Jose State
• 339 Air Force

My five

Here are five games I'm looking forward to watching this week (listed in order of when they are played):

• UNLV at Utah State: Tuesday, 9 p.m. MT (FS1) — The Rebels have played, statistically speaking, the easiest Mountain West schedule so far, per KenPom.com, but also are sitting at 4-2. They get to show us if they're for real with league big dogs Utah State on the road.
• San Diego State at Grand Canyon: Wednesday, 9 p.m. MT (FS1) — The Lopes have beaten SDSU a couple of times in Phoenix, including a ranked Aztecs team once. After knocking off a ranked Utah State, can they make it back-to-back wins over teams coming to town with undefeated Mountain West records?
• Utah State at Colorado State: Friday, 8 p.m. MT (FS1) — Things got late early for the Rams this season, but they now have Kyle Jorgensen back. If they want any chance to make a run in this league, they can't afford any more setbacks, especially on their home court. Oh, and the Aggies are sure to remember getting run out of Moby last year, 93-66, right?
• San Diego State at UNLV: Saturday, 2 p.m. MT (CBS) — No matter how good or bad UNLV is, they always get up for the Aztecs. The Rebels' prove-it week continues on national television — not cable, but the big boy CBS Network is carrying this game.
• Nevada at New Mexico: Saturday, 6 p.m. MT (FS1) — The last time Steve Alford and Craig Neal visited the Pit, it was the arena's 1,000th men's basketball game and was decided by a Nelly Junior Joseph buzzer beater in overtime. Do we get that drama again between two teams entering the week tied for third place in the league?

Reach Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@abqjournal.com or follow him on Twitter (X) @GeoffGrammer.