Rankings poor indicator of MW’s strength

The rumor isn't true: Bill Callahan didn't sabotage the college basketball rankings this week when it comes to the Mountain West.

It's a fact that while the conference sits third in the Ratings Percentage Index, only New Mexico has a spot in the latest Associated Press poll.

The Lobos are ranked 15th. Their coach, Steve Alford, told his local paper he was amazed to be the LAPR: Lone Associated Press Representative.

He shouldn't be.

1. The Lobos are the only MW team that deserves such recognition today.

2. I vote in the poll and can assure Alford its weekly results mean as much in the big picture as what color dress socks he prefers when donning the red jacket.

Rankings are nice for fans. They allow more fodder over which to argue on message boards. They mean an extra paragraph in a news release. They're another selling point for recruits.

They're also bogus in many ways.

San Diego State is ranked this week, but its No. 25 placement comes in the coaches poll, which is a bigger fraud than Lance Armstrong. The Aztecs lost twice last week, at home to UNLV and at Wyoming, the latter game watching them score fewer first-half points - nine - than there are players on the roster.

Some coaches also continue to vote for Illinois, which has lost five of its past seven. Coaches are gems, huh? In this instance, they should keep shorter leashes on their sports information directors, who usually (always) are the ones filling out ballots.

Larry Eustachy of Colorado State turned the question about polling around on a reporter from Albuquerque, N.M., during a MW conference call Monday, one from which the coach was absent in previous weeks.

Now, it's true Eustachy sounds more ominous than a mortician and that he rambles to the point where you have no idea what he's talking about at times, but his take on how teams are ranked holds merit.

"I have a question for you," Eustachy said. "Maybe you can help me. Is it Jeff? I think I know the answer. In this polling, maybe you explain this to me ... Do teams, all of a sudden, once they're in, they're in and everybody just kind of punches their ticket, or does what somebody does week to week mean anything? That's my theory. Once you're in, you're in. I'm just curious. Yeah. I think once we get to this time of year, it stays the same unless something monumental happens.

"Can I go now?"

If I ran the MW, I would have Eustachy speak for every coach on these weekly calls, thus ensuring a certain level of entertainment and eliminating most of the cliche-spouted boredom that is produced from others.

Of course, that would mean Eustachy always being available in and around his embalming duties.

Here's the deal: When it comes to MW basketball today, two numbers matter more than those in either poll.

Five and six.

The first is how many MW teams sit among the top 40 of the RPI; the second is how many conference teams bracketology forecasts have making the NCAA Tournament field.

In the first week of December, that wouldn't mean much.

In the third week of January, it does.

In any other season, I would believe Armstrong didn't cheat before accepting six MW teams could hear their names called on Selection Sunday. I'm not so sure now.

The MW hasn't earned over time the sort of cache that allows its teams to beat up on each other in league and still expect a high level of national respect when March arrives. It's not the Big East or Atlantic Coast Conference in this way.

But this college season already is making for a soft NCAA bubble, and it might take some doing by the selection committee to discover 68 worthy teams.

The MW is as good as it has been in its history. As it chases bids in the five-to-six range, it might need only for others across the country to notice.

That hasn't always happened.

"You know, sometimes that's a geographical problem where you're so focused on your own team or your own situation in terms of league play, you don't have time during the year to look around," said Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt, whose team plays at UNLV tonight. "The best thing to do is focus on the unbiased opinions - the statistics, the RPIs. They don't have any allegiances or attended a university.

"I haven't been able to see national advertisements, but the conference is the best it has been top to bottom. There can't be a coach, regardless of arrogance, who can be comfortable home or away this year."

Larry Eustachy seems pretty comfortable.

You know, in a bizarre, get-me-off-this-call sort of way.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on "Gridlock," ESPN 1100 and 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.