The 2025-26 Mountain West basketball season is so close that you can even taste it! OK, maybe not that close, but we’re less than two weeks away from the action tipping off. So to cap off our four-part preseason awards series, we will be doing our preseason power rankings with seven voters!
1. San Diego State
Led by Miles Byrd and Magoon Gwath, the Aztecs are the best and deepest team in the Mountain West. Every night will be a rock fight, but San Diego State wouldn’t want it any other way. Brian Dutcher has another
squad that can push for 25-30-plus wins if the chips fall right.
2. Utah State
Contunity hasn’t been Utah State’s friend for much of the last half-decade, so returning head coach Jerrod Calhoun and MWCC preseason player of the year Mason Falslev is huge. They also retain Karson Templin, Tucker Anderson and Drake Allen while bringing in transfers Garry Clark (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and M.J. Collins Jr. (Vanderbilt), among others.
3. Boise State
Now, without one of the best players in their program history in Tyson Degenhart, the Broncos are looking for a new player to lead the charge. Andrew Meadow and Javan Buchanan are their top returnees, while their top transfers — Drew Fielder and Dylan Andrews — are some of the best in the MW. Death, taxes and Leon Rice winning 20-plus games — that’s what this ranking is banking on!
4. Grand Canyon
I’m not that worried about Grand Canyon being good in the Mountain West right away. Sure, there’s a track record of first-year MW programs struggling. But we are in different times than we were in the early 2010s. Grand Canyon has won 23-plus games in each of the last four seasons and 20-plus in eight of the last 12. We’re backing Bryce Drew, even though they lost both Tyon Grant-Foster and Duke Brennan.
5. New Mexico
I’m very excited to see how guard Deyton Albury fares in Eric Olen’s modernized offense. I was a fan of his game at Utah State, where he averaged 7.8 points on 54.8 percent shooting and 61.6 percent true shooting. He’ll put the rock in the hoop and makes smart decisions. They will also be buoyed by UC San Diego transfer Chris Howell and North Dakota State transfer Tajavis Miller, as well.
T-6: Colorado State, UNLV
I’m lumping both Colorado State and UNLV together. Both feature brand-new rosters with first-year head coaches. Colorado State has the benefit of continuity with the coaching staff — led by Northern Iowa folk hero and longtime CSU assistant Ali Farokhmanesh — while UNLV assembled the best class via the portal in the MW. Both are very intriguing teams for different reasons heading into 2025-26.
8. Nevada
Nevada underwhelmed last season after a fast start. Like most of these teams, they essentially have a brand-new roster, sans guard Tyler Rolison. Fresno State transfer Elijah Price, Evansville’s Tayshawn Comer and UTEP’s Corey Camper Jr. should step in right away and be rotation players, but there are still plenty of questions about this group’s ceiling because of their lack of shooting, which plagued them last year.
9. Wyoming
Watching Obi Agbim blossom with Wyoming — when he was healthy — was a joy last season. Unfortunately, he’s now in Waco, Texas, with Baylor. I truly believe that second-year Wyoming head coach Sundance Wicks got more than the sum of his parts last year. This year will have to be no different.
10. San Jose State
The top of SJSU’s roster was absolutely gutted this offseason. Tim Miles adds a solid bunch of transfers with Colby Garland (Longwood), JaVaughn Hannah (W. Michigan) and Yaphet Moundi (Iona). I’m just not sure if SJSU will make much of a climb in the standings unless a couple of them really pop.
11. Fresno State
I’m still really worried about Fresno State’s roster outside of former Air Force (and Clemson) guard Jake Heidbreder. Last year was one to forget, to say the least. This year has to be different (with no scandel), right?!
12. Air Force
Air Force had the worst season in program history and won’t have Ethan Taylor. Eek!
