.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Lobos Only MWC Team Left in Latest AP Poll

The New Mexico Lobos keep winning.

As such, they are the last remaining team carrying the Mountain West flag in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, coming in on Monday’s poll at No. 15, up from No. 19 last week.

The 16-2 overall Lobos (3-0 in MWC games) jumped from No. 21 to No. 17 in the USA Today Coaches poll, which does have San Diego State sitting at No. 25.

ADVERTISEMENTSkip

................................................................

While UNM coach Steve Alford is happy with his team’s ranking, he was less than pleased with the polls in general on Monday, saying they show a bias against a very good league that had teams beating up on one another in the first two weeks.

“I’m amazed with the rankings,” Alford said. “Just looking at the rankings and we only have one team ranked. To be the third best league in the country (based on the latest RPI rankings) and only have one ranked team is bothersome, it really is.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: To view Monday’s AP and USA Today Coaches polls, CLICK HERE.

UNM is 3-0 in league play and with a win over Colorado State (15-3, 2-1) on Wednesday in the Pit can open up a full two-game advantage on the rest of the nine-team league thanks to remarkable parity in the first two weeks of the league schedule.

Every other team in the league has at least one win and at least one loss.

“Unfortunately when we do what other leagues are doing – beat up on each other – we seem to be penalized more,” Alford said, adding he thinks there are four teams in the MWC that are deserved of being ranked.

UNLV received 32 points in Monday’s AP poll, 61 out of the rankings. Wyoming had 28, San Diego State had 26 and Colorado State 7.

CSU coach Larry Eustachy turned the tables on a Journal reporter, who happens to be one of 65 AP voters, during Monday’s MWC coaches teleconference, asking for an explanation to the polls.

“In this polling,” Eustachy said, “and this has nothing to do with us, but in this polling, maybe you can explain this to me … How do you explain Wichita State’s amount of points in the media polling, and the coaches polling? And Creighton’s?”

Both of those teams are ranked with resumes many coaches in the MWC feel aren’t as strong as many in their league.

“Do teams all of a sudden, once they’re in, they’re in?” Eustachy asked. “And everybody just kind of punches their ticket … or does what a team does week to week mean anything?”

Eustachy went on, asking if the only way to get voted into the Top 25 would be for some “monumental task” to happen.

Eustachy was asked if he thought his program, one with a 24-game home winning streak but with only one road league win over a winning program in the past three-plus season, needed a “monumental” achievement such as a road win in the Pit to catch the national voter’s attention.

“My point isn’t about us or New Mexico,” Eustachy said. “I think New Mexico is better than they’re ranked. … But does this program desperately need a road win, let alone one against New Mexico? Absolutely.”

VOTERS: UNM was on 63 of 65 AP voters ballots on Monday with a high vote of No. 9 by Dave Borges of the New Haven (Conn.) Register newspaper.

While all of those 63 voters had UNM ranked No. 20 or higher, two voters – Randy Rosetta of the New Orleans Times Picayune website and Percy Allen of the Seattle Times – left UNM off their AP ballots on Monday.

The rest of the league’s teams that received votes seemed to be split among other voters. While several voters had at least two MWC teams on their ballot, only five of 65 voters had three MWC teams on their ballot – Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated; Steve Layman of WTVF-TV in Nashville, Tenn.; Tim Pearrell of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch; Eric Sprott of the Seneca (S.C.) Daily Journal; and Jim Benson of the Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph.

LOBOS INFIRMARY: The latest Lobos player to come down with the “flu bug,” as Alford called it Monday, is center Alex Kirk.

The 7-foot sophomore from Los Alamos was held out of Monday’s practice on the Pit floor, but the team is optimistic he’ll be ready to play Wednesday night against Colorado State.

On Jan. 19, junior guard Demetrius Walker and walk-on guard Chris Perez were both held out of UNM’s win over Fresno State while hit with the same “flu bug.”

In Wednesday’s overtime road win at Boise State, sophomore point guard Hugh Greenwood spent the 24 hours before the game throwing up, not eating and not sleeping while having an IV inserted in his arm to replenish fluids. Greenwood, thanks to an assist from Dr. Chris McGrew and athletic trainer Nate Burney, played, hit the game-tying basket to force overtime, then scored five of his 15 points.

LOBOS LINKS: Roster | Schedule/Results | Geoff Grammer’s blog

— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal