The Best of the West offers fans a candid assessment of the top teams in the western third of the country — a collection that includes the Mountain West and the former Pac-12 schools now scattered across the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and West Coast Conference.
The rankings will be published on the Hotline each Monday through the remainder of the regular season.
When Dana Altman was rolling, really rolling, he owned February. Oregon would meander through the early months of the season, then gather steam in February and enter the NCAA Tournament on the short list of teams nobody wanted to play.
Right now, the Ducks are a team everyone wants to play. They have lost five in a row and six of the past seven. They are three games under .500 in the Big Ten, far closer to the bottom of the standings than the top.
February has been as deflating as it once was energizing.
But Altman will always have November.
Oregon’s sizzling start to the season, when it slayed Texas A&M, San Diego State and Alabama, provided the rocket fuel that is keeping the Ducks on a trajectory for March Madness.
Years ago, the NCAA selection committee changed its criteria and stopped emphasizing late-season performance. Every game counts the same, regardless of its placement on the schedule.
As poorly as the Ducks (16-8) have played lately, they would easily qualify for the NCAAs if the 68-team field was selected today. They aren’t even on the bubble, folks.
With seven Quadrant I wins, no bad losses, a stout non-conference schedule and No. 35 NET ranking, the Ducks possess the profile of a No. 7 or 8 seed.
They are several bad losses — losses to Quadrant III or IV opponents — from falling onto the bubble.
(Even in a worst-case scenario over the remainder of February, they would have time to course correct before Selection Sunday.)
Also, their 5-8 record in the Big Ten is irrelevant. The committee does not consider conference record or affiliation in the selection process.
The Ducks might feel like their season has turned for the worse, but they are still seated in the economy-plus section. They have enough leg room for comfort.
That stellar November has offset this forgettable February.
All that matters is being ready for March.
To the Best of the West …
1. Arizona (17-6/11-1 Big 12)
Last week: 1
Results: won at Brigham Young 85-74, beat Texas Tech 82-73
NET ranking: 7
Next up: at Kansas State (Tuesday)
Comment: Big man Henri Veesaar seems like a no-brainer at this point for Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year. In fact, we’d argue he deserves consideration for first-team all-conference given his impact on Arizona — it’s much greater than statistics suggest — during round-robin play.
2. UCLA (18-6/9-4 Big Ten)
Last week: 2
Results: beat Michigan State 63-61 and Penn State 78-54
NET ranking: 25
Next up: at Illinois (Tuesday)
Comment: Yes, the Bruins have won seven in a row, but they boarded a plane just once during that stretch (to Seattle). Not only are four of their final seven on the road, they’re on the other side of the Rockies — but, alas, not within sight of the Statue of Liberty.
3. New Mexico (20-4/12-1 Mountain West)
Last week: 3
Results: beat Colorado State 87-65, won at Air Force 88-53
NET ranking: 36
Next up: vs. Wyoming (Wednesday)
Comment: Pitino father and son, Rick (St. John’s) and Richard (New Mexico), have a 41-7 combined record and seem destined for a first-round matchup in the NCAAs with a No. 5 vs. 12 or No. 6 vs. 11 pairing.
4. Utah State (21-3/11-2 Mountain West)
Last week: 5
Results: won at Wyoming 71-67 and Fresno State 89-81
NET ranking: 39
Next up: vs Colorado State (Tuesday)
Comment: The Aggies’ paucity of quality non-conference wins, combined with the challenging stretch-run schedule, makes us wary of granting them lock status for an NCAA Tournament at-large berth, even with their sterling record.
5. Saint Mary’s (21-4/11-1 West Coast Conference)
Last week: 4
Results: lost at USF 65-64, won at Oregon State 63-49
NET ranking: 21
Next up: vs. Santa Clara (Tuesday)
Comment: It took 13 percent shooting from 3-point range and a paltry 56 percent clip from the free throw line for the Gaels to finally lose in WCC play. A three-game homestand awaits, then comes the trip to Spokane.
6. Gonzaga (18-7/9-3 West Coast Conference)
Last week: 6
Results: beat LMU 73-53, won at Pacific 78-61
NET ranking: 14
Next up: vs. San Francisco (Thursday)
Comment: The final three weeks are filled with obstacles for a team that has no margin for error in pursuit of the desired seeds: a top-two spot in the WCC tournament and a top-four position in the NCAAs. (The former is more realistic than the latter, by the way.)
7. Boise State (17-7/9-4 Mountain West)
Last week: 10
Results: won at UNLV 71-62, beat San Jose State 79-52
NET ranking: 48
Next up: at San Diego State (Saturday)
Comment: One bad loss plus a load of bad wins plus the lack of good wins equals a team on the far outskirts of the bubble. The Broncos’ best bet to reach the Madness is to create some in the conference tournament.
8. Brigham Young (15-8/6-6 Big 12)
Last week: 7
Results: lost to Arizona 85-74 and at Cincinnati 84-66
NET ranking: 41
Next up: at West Virginia (Tuesday)
Comment: The problem, in a nutshell: BYU’s non-conference schedule was so soft — and the lack of quality wins so glaring — that it cannot provide a backstop to the mounting total of intra-conference losses.
9. Oregon (16-8/5-8 Big Ten)
Last week: 8
Results: lost at Michigan 80-76 and Michigan State 86-74
NET ranking: 35
Next up: vs. Northwestern (Tuesday)
Comment: Another metric working in the Ducks’ favor that we have not mentioned: They have just four Quadrant IV victories (25 percent of their total). The selection committee tends to take an unflattering view of teams that load up on cream puffs.
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10. Colorado State (15-8/9-3 Mountain West)
Last week: 11
Results: lost at New Mexico 87-65, beat San Diego State 68-65
NET ranking: 77
Next up: at Utah State (Tuesday)
Comment: When a team is ranked exactly the same in the performance-based metrics (NET) as the predictive metrics (KenPom.com) — and that spot is 77th — little else need be said.
11. San Diego State (15-6/8-4 Mountain West)
Last week: 9
Results: lost at Colorado State 68-63
NET ranking: 52
Next up: at San Jose State (Tuesday)
Comment: Clearly, the NCAA selection committee had the 2025 Aztecs in mind when it began weighing November and February results the same, because their situation would be dire without those victories over Houston and Creighton.
12. San Francisco (20-6/10-3 West Coast Conference)
Last week: 15
Results: beat Saint Mary’s 65-64, won at LMU 72-66
NET ranking: 60
Next up: at Gonzaga (Thursday)
Comment: Number of teams in the top 75 of the NET rankings: ACC 7, WCC 5. That’s closer than it should be and, we suspect, closer than it has ever been.
13. Stanford (16-8/8-5 ACC)
Last week: 12
Results: lost to Wake Forest 79-73, beat NC State 74-73
NET ranking: 78
Next up: at Georgia Tech (Wednesday)
Comment: The Cardinal have unofficially secured a spot in the ACC tournament, but a solid seed hinges on whether they hold up across a challenging final four weeks that includes two long trips. Will their legs hold up?
14. UC San Diego (2-4/10-2 Big West)
Last week: Not ranked
Results: beat UC Riverside 91-71, won at UC Irvine 85-67
NET ranking: 50
Next up: at Cal State Bakersfield (Thursday)
Comment: What a final 13 minutes from the Tritons, who broke open a close game and ended the longest home winning streak in the country. (UC Irvine had won 22 in a row at the Bren Events Center.)
15. Santa Clara (17-9/9-4 West Coast Conference)
Last week: Not ranked
Results: won at Portland 97-50, beat San Diego 93-70
NET ranking: 54
Next up: at Saint Mary’s (Wednesday)
Comment: Not sure the Broncos can seriously challenge for the WCC’s regular-season title, but they will have a large say in the outcome with the looming trip to Saint Mary’s and a home date with Gonzaga.
Also considered: Arizona State, Montana, Santa Clara, UC Irvine, USC, Utah and Utah Valley
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