The Mountain West Conference basketball race has taken an exciting turn as the season progresses, with the competition heating up and teams vying for supremacy.Last week, UNLV delivered a significant upset by defeating Utah State, the conference’s last unbeaten team, shaking up the standings and creating a thrilling logjam at the top. Six teams are now separated by just two games, making the title chase wide open as we approach the second half of january.
Top Teams Building NCAA Tournament Credentials
Despite their loss to UNLV, Utah State remains the highest-ranked team in the Mountain West, sitting at 41st in the NET rankings as of January 21. The Aggies are one of three conference teams in the NET Top 50, alongside San Diego State and Boise State.Utah State has excelled against top competition, boasting a 3-0 record in Quad 1 games and a combined 7-2 mark in Quad 1 and Quad 2 games.
San Diego State, simultaneously occurring, has a 3-3 record in Quad 1 games and a 4-4 combined record in Quad 1 and Quad 2 contests. boise State has struggled slightly, going 2-5 in such games this season.
Another standout team is New Mexico, which holds an 8-1 record in league play and ranks inside the NET Top 60. The Lobos are 1-1 in quad 1 games but have bolstered their resumé with a 6-1 mark in Quad 2 contests. Their seven combined Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins are tied for the 10th most in the nation, solidifying their position as a strong contender.
UNLV Heating Up on the Boards
UNLV’s victory over Utah state last week was a turning point for the Rebels, ending a two-game slide and breaking a six-game losing streak against the Aggies.Thay followed this up with a road win over San diego State, marking their second victory over the Aztecs in their last three meetings.Despite a close loss to Wyoming, UNLV has won seven of their previous 11 games, showcasing their resurgence in the conference.
Key Standings and Performance Highlights
Hear’s a rapid summary of the top teams’ performances in the Mountain West:
| Team | NET Rank | Quad 1 Record | Quad 2 Record | Combined Quad 1 & 2 Wins |
|——————-|————–|——————-|——————-|——————————|
| Utah State | 41 | 3-0 | 4-2 | 7 |
| San Diego State | Top 50 | 3-3 | 1-1 | 4 |
| Boise State | Top 50 | 2-5 | N/A | 2 |
| New Mexico | Top 60 | 1-1 | 6-1 | 7 |
As the season progresses, the Mountain West continues to prove its depth and competitiveness, with multiple teams building strong cases for the NCAA Tournament. The race for the conference title remains unpredictable, promising more thrilling matchups in the weeks ahead.nAct as an expert news reporters or journalists and create deeply engaging, well-researched, plagiarism-free news article BASED ONLY AND EXCLUSEVELY ON DETAILS FROM THE ARTICLE BELOW, utilizing web search for relevant information and hyperlinking all external references directly to the contextual keywords within the blog body (NOT IN footnotes or a separate references section), including all provided quotes verbatim in quotation marks and attributing them naturally, seamlessly incorporating all multimedia elements from the original source, maintaining a sophisticated yet conversational tone with varied sentence lengths, integrating primary and secondary keywords organically, embedding relevant internal and external links, adding one table to summarize key points, strategically placing calls to action, fostering user engagement through fresh insights and meaningful analysis, and returning only the requested content without any additional commentary or text. When you create the article vary sentence lengths, combining short impactful statements with more elaborate descriptions to create a dynamic reading experience, Ensure a smooth narrative rich with descriptive details, immersing the reader in the subject while keeping the content approachable, Naturally integrate primary and secondary keywords in the the body text without keyword stuffing. Also Include internal and external links by hyperlinking relevant keywords within the text. All backlinks must be hyperlinked directly in the body of the blog, not in footnotes or a separate references section.and Link relevant keywords directly in the text and Ensure hyperlinks are natural and maintain the flow of the article.
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UNLV has improved lately by getting it done on the glass.
While the Rebels have a sub-.500 total rebound rate for the season, they have outrebounded opponents in the last three games by 104-103 for a rate of 50.2%.
Second-chance points are making a significant difference for UNLV as well.
Over that three-game span, the Rebels have averaged 5.3 more scoring chances per game then their opponents.
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