Around the Mountain: Utah State refuses to let us keep ignoring them

OK, Utah State. We get it. You’re good. Again.

But aren’t you supposed to be fading away by now? The nice little story of the team on coach No. 4 in the past five seasons that doesn’t seem to let transition keep it from winning is finally catching the attention of some national media.

After Saturday’s road upset of then 20th-ranked San Diego State, 67-66 in Viejas Arena, national college basketball reporters couldn’t hit send fast enough on social media posts about how great a team the Aggies are under first-year coach Jerrod Calhoun.

And it’s true, of course.

But come Monday morning’s release of a new Associated Press Top 25 poll, or the over-the-weekend postings of some national writer’s Top 25 polls that aren’t affiliated with the AP, didn’t exactly match the same energy.

I, admittedly, had doubts (and still may have some) about the staying power of this team. But how can you not, at some point (like right now), just accept the fact that at 12-1 with back-to-back true road wins over Saint Mary’s and San Diego State (two traditionally difficult places to win) and neutral court wins over the likes of Iowa, North Texas and St. Bonaventure, that this Aggies team deserves more than social media love and maybe some actual votes in the polls.

As noted below, the Aggies still aren’t ranked (I have them on my latest AP Top 25 ballot at No. 24). But they absolutely should be.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Right at the top of the list of why Utah State is legit is sophomore guard Mason Falsev, who on Monday was named Mountain West Player of the Week after his 16 points, five steals, four rebounds, four assists game against the Aztecs.

This is Falslev’s fourth Player of the Week award out of the past six weeks.

Read that again. There has been no more dominant player in this league in the past month-and-a-half than Mason Falslev.

FRESHMAN? There was no Freshman of the Week selection for the league this week. The league’s youngsters apparently were too caught up in opening Christmas presents last week to handle their business to an acceptable level on the court.

NAIL BITERS: There have been 10 Mountain West conference games played (out of 110) so far.

That’s not nearly enough yet to pretend we know definitively much of anything. But we do know that the games played so far have largely been close ones, according to the tally of such things on KenPom.com.

The “close games” are those decided by four points or fewer, or that were tied at the end of regulation and go to overtime (regardless of final score in OT).

The “blowout” games are defined by having a final margin of more than 19 points.

Mountain West games 2024-25:

CLOSE GAMES: 5

BLOWOUTS: 1

A season ago, the Mountain West ranked eighth of 33 conferences in “close games”, per KenPom.com. The MW had 24.2% out of its games fall under the “close game” distinction (24 out of 99).

But the MW also ranked 3rd in the country in “blowouts” with 21 out of 99 games (21.2%) decided by 20 or more points.

It was a feast or famine type season.

POLL POSITION: There were no Mountain West teams ranked in Monday’s Week 9 Associated Press Top 25 poll with two teams, Utah State and San Diego State, showing up in the “others receiving votes” section of the poll.

Utah State, coming off that road win at previously ranked SDSU, has 59 points, six spots from being ranked. The Aggies were on 14 of the 61 ballots with a high vote of 17 by Dave Borges of the New Haven (Connecticut) Register.

San Diego State, which was ranked No. 20 last week, is 10 spots from being ranked with 28 points, appearing on seven of 41 ballots. Its high vote of 15 is from Brian Holland of WVLA-TV/WGMB-TV in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

MOUNTAIN TOPS: Here are a few statistics Mountain West teams are ranked in the Top 10 (out of 364 Division I teams) in the nation in:

• San Diego State’s 6.5 blocks per game ranks 2nd

• Nevada’s 41.7% 3-point shooting ranks 3rd

• SDSU opponents shooting just 35.5% from the field ranks 4th in defensive FG%

• New Mexico’s 18.2 fast-break points per game ranks 6th

HIGH FIVE: Here are five games I’m looking forward to this week around the Mountain (listed chronologically):

• Colorado State at San Jose State, 3 p.m., Tuesday, TheMW: After opening MW play with a nice road win at Nevada, CSU runs the risk of dropping two in a row when they face former Rams coach Tim Miles and a SJSU team that has been playing far better than its record suggests, including giving UNM all it could handle in the Pit on Dec. 4 and losing to Boise State on a final-possession play Saturday. SJSU will knock off some mid-level MW teams this season, mark it down.

• Utah State at Nevada, 8 p.m., Tuesday, TheMW: Last season, Steve Alford (and others, myself included) made sure to point out late in the season that while Utah State won the Mountain West regular-season title, the Aggies never actually won in Lawlor Events Center due to the league’s unbalanced 18-game schedule. That alone was going to give this game some juice, but the Aggies riding high and Nevada trying to avoid the disaster of an 0-3 league start adds intrigue here.

• Nevada at New Mexico, 9 p.m., Friday, FS1: The 1,000th men’s basketball game played in the Pit on Friday night features a current Lobo coach in Richard Pitino and two former Lobo coaches in Nevada’s Steve Alford and Craig Neal.

• San Diego State at Boise State, 2 p.m., Saturday, CBS: It’s far too early to say anything other than this: This is a showdown between league title contenders.

• San Jose State at UNLV, 4 p.m., Saturday, TheMW: See note above about the Spartans knocking off some mid-level MW teams.