We’re a little more than a quarter of the way through the season now, so it is time to roll out our first edition of Best in the West. We’re going to take all the schools west of the Rockies (and we’re going to be a bit generous with our geography here – basically we’re looking at schools from the Pac-12, Mountain West, WCC and Big West, and then some of the schools from the Big Sky and WAC) and give you the top 20 teams as of today. But rather than just ranking schools #1 though #20, we’re going to divide them up into tiers, mostly because I don’t think putting Gonzaga at #2 when they played Arizona into overtime in Tucson feels right to anybody.

Here are our Top 20 teams in the West (their overall ranking is in parentheses), with descriptions of what the teams in each tier have in common as well as brief comments on each school.

The Best of the Best  – In a league of their own.

• Arizona (#1 overall, Pac-12 #1) – There have been some growing pains for the Wildcats, but with an unblemished record and wins over Kansas State, San Diego State, Gonzaga and Michigan, they’ve still got a ways to go before they tap out on their potential.

Arizona and Gonzaga Played A Fun One A Week Back, Proving Themselves Nearly Equal. (AP)

• Gonzaga (#2 overall, WCC #1) – Really, the Zags are more of a #1A in this tier. An overtime loss at Arizona in which they didn’t play all that well and let some good chances slip away bodes well for their upside.

Contenders to the Throne – All Top 25 teams.

• San Diego State (#3 overall, Mtn West #1) – There are going to be issues all year long in putting the ball in the hoop, but the list of teams that play better defensive basketball than the Aztecs is not very long at all.

Much Like Our Top Two Teams, San Diego State and Utah Have Shown Themselves To Be Very Close.

• Utah (#4 overall, Pac-12 #2) – The Utes are still on a learning curve when it comes to actually winning games against elite teams, but they’ve shown they’ve got the horses to play with anybody.
• Washington (#5 overall, Pac-12 #3) – A talented backcourt, a young shot-blocking behemoth in the middle, and talented athletes on the wings will make the Huskies a force to be reckoned with all year long.

Solid NCAA Tournament Teams – Just outside of the Top 25, but with plenty of talent.

• UCLA (#6 overall, Pac-12 #4) – There is absolutely no depth in Westwood whatsoever, but that starting five is pretty stout. And guys like Kevon Looney and Isaac Hamilton have only begun to scratch the surface of their potential.
• Stanford (#7 overall, Pac-12 #5) – So, there was that whole fiasco in Chicago with the loss to DePaul. Then, after a week off, the Cardinal hosted Denver and put up 49 points in a win. True, their best win is over Wofford, but somehow, I still believe that the Cardinal are a quality team despite all available data to this point. So sue me.
• California (#8 overall, Pac-12 #6) – Piggybacking on the above couple of entries, there is absolutely no reason to believe, based on available data about this year’s teams, that Stanford is better than the Golden Bears. Cal has wins over Syracuse and Wyoming, both much better scalps than anything the Cardinal have earned. The Bears’ lone loss was in a neutral-site game against a top-10 Texas team. So, why do I have Cuonzo Martin’s squad down here? They’ve got similar a problem to UCLA this season: talented starting five, nothing off the bench.
• Colorado State (#9 overall, Mtn. West #2) – Last year when I did this, New Mexico filled the #7 spot in the west. As the season went on, it became pretty clear that the Lobos were better than that. When I look back on these rankings in March, I may well be kicking myself about the Rams in a similar fashion. Heck, I’m currently ranking Larry Eustachy’s club in the national Top 25, yet for some reason here, I’m putting them below UCLA, Stanford and Cal – three teams that aren’t even on my Top 25 radar at the moment.

Bubblicious – Missing out on a great resume, either due to a weak schedule or a bad loss.

• Oregon (#10 overall, Pac-12 #7) – Much like UCLA and Cal, Oregon’s biggest weakness is this team’s lack of bodies. But as they showed against Illinois last weekend, when the Ducks get things rolling, they’re a tough team with which to contend. Still, a home loss to Mississippi and a neutral loss to Michigan will haunt them.
• Wyoming (#11 overall, Mtn. West #3) – Just ask Colorado how good the Cowboys are. Their starting lineup is all upperclassmen, including four seniors, and all-Mountain West returnee Larry Nance is back from a torn ACL and playing well.

Larry Nance And The Cowboys Are A Tough, Veteran Team. (Blaine McCartney, WyoSports)

• Boise State (#12 overall, Mtn West #4) – Wins over Saint Mary’s and San Diego are the highlights, leaving the Broncos in what has become a familiar position: coming down the stretch of non-conference play without much of a resume. Still, they’ve got a chance at the Diamond Head Classic over Christmas week to beef that up a little. And with seniors Anthony Drmic and Derrick Marks leading the way, they’re capable of scoring those upsets.

Solid Teams in Need of Work – Each of these teams has plenty of work to do to improve their resumes.

• BYU (#13 overall, WCC #2) – Their three losses are entirely forgivable: to San Diego State and Purdue in Maui, and to Utah at home. But with Tyler Haws now out two weeks with an ankle injury and with their chance to take a swing at Gonzaga on their home court – hey, look at that – about two weeks away, things are not setting up well for the Cougars.
• Saint Mary’s (#14 overall, WCC #3) – A road win at Creighton is nice. A home loss to Boise is frustrating. But Brad Waldow is one of the most underseen players in the nation, and Stanford-transfer Aaron Bright is adding some nice punch in the backcourt. The Gaels could earn their way up this list in the back half of the season.

We Gotta Get to 20 Somehow – The best of the rest

• Arizona State (#15 overall, Pac-12 #8) – The Sun Devils are a combination of old and new, a team that hasn’t yet reached its peak. Four veteran returnees start, but four newcomers also play big roles on this team. Given that the point guard position remains a work in progress, they could still make a splash as we begin to head into conference play. Still, their best win is over a bad UNLV team.
• New Mexico (#16 overall, Mtn West #5) – It’s been a rough start for the Lobos, both with growing pains and actual pains, but they can still beat a lot of teams in the west. You have to wonder what this season could have been like, though, if Cullen Neal had never gotten hurt.
• San Diego (#17 overall, WCC #3) – Losses at San Diego State and UCLA and on neutral courts to Xavier and Boise State are understandable. But the Toreros sure wish they had back that game against Western Michigan in Anaheim. Johnny Dee and Christopher Anderson are fun undersized guards to watch, but these guys don’t have the horses to hang with the big boys consistently.
• UC Santa Barbara (#18 overall, Big West #1) – Right now, Alan Williams and the Gauchos are just 4-5 on the season, having swung and missed against programs like Kansas (10-point loss in Allen Fieldhouse), Colorado State (two-point loss in the Great Alaska Shootout final) and SMU (overtime loss at Moody Coliseum). Worse yet, San Diego just laid a 14-point whooping on them at home. For UCSB, it is simple: win the Big West Tournament or forget about the NCAA Tournament.
• Colorado (#19 overall, Pac-12 #9) – Tad Boyle’s team is reeling right now. But there is a lot of talent here and Boyle has proven his worth in the past. They’ll get things straightened out, but they’ve dug themselves quite a hole by mid-December.
• New Mexico State (#20 overall, WAC #1) – Hey, did you remember that there was still a WAC? Turns out that there is. And it turns out that the Aggies are the only viable team there. They won’t play a team currently ranked better than 243rd in the nation until they face #137 UC Irvine on January 3. So, we might as well type the phrase “New Mexico State” one more time before they’re completely irrelevant.

Five More for the Hell of It

• Long Beach State (#21 overall, Big West #2)
• Eastern Washington (#22 overall, Big Sky #1)
• UC Irvine (#23 overall, Big West #3)
• Oregon State (#24 overall, Pac-12 #10)
• UNLV (#25 overall, Mtn West #6)

AMurawa (999 Posts)

Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2014 at 11:01 am by Andrew Murawa and is filed under microsites, pac 12. Tagged: arizona, arizona state, california, colorado state, feature, gonzaga, oregon, san diego state, stanford, ucla, utah, washington, wyoming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.