Mountain West schedule continues to do Rebels no favors

In the Mountain West’s dream scenario, the conference sends six teams to the NCAA Tournament.

Entering Thursday, the Mountain West had six teams in the top 55 of the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings: San Diego State (20), Colorado State (22), Utah State (24), New Mexico (28), UNR (45) and Boise State (54).

UNLV — 83rd in the NET rankings — is the seventh-highest-rated team in the conference. The Rebels have already played four of the teams ranked above them to open conference play. They’ll face a fifth Friday.

UNLV plays at Colorado State at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Rebels (9-7, 2-2 Mountain West) have dropped 10 of their past 14 games against the Rams (14-3, 2-2). However, Kruger has never lost a game at Moby Arena, as UNLV has won the past two meetings in Fort Collins.

“We understand and we’re excited to go up and play two road games against two really good teams,” Kruger said Monday, before UNLV beat Boise State 68-64 on Tuesday. “We feel like we’re playing well right now. We’re excited for that challenge.”

The Rams pose another difficult Mountain West test. They were just 22 points away from being ranked in The Associated Press poll this week, essentially making them the No. 26 team in the country.

Ratings and rankings haven’t mattered much to UNLV since the conference season began. They lost their Mountain West opener to the reigning NCAA Tournament runner-up San Diego State 72-61 on Jan. 6. But the Rebels have consistently struggled against the Aztecs for almost a decade, losing 22 of their past 24 meetings.

UNLV has played three of its best games of the season since that disappointing outing. The Rebels led wire-to-wire against New Mexico for an 83-73 win Jan. 9 and upset Boise State on the road to end the Broncos’ 22-game home winning streak. In between, they were a five-point play away from upsetting Utah State on Saturday and being 3-1 in conference play.

Junior forward Rob Whaley Jr.’s emergence into the Rebels’ rotation has been a massive part of their reinvigorated Mountain West play. He is averaging 10 points on 61.5 percent shooting and five rebounds in 21.3 minutes per game. Whaley had a career-best 18 points against Boise State.

Kruger credited Whaley’s commitment — and the work by assistant coach Barret Peery — for molding the former junior college transfer into an impactful piece of the Rebels’ roster. Kruger also said Whaley’s confidence has risen after a difficult nonconference season in which his minutes were inconsistent.

“He’s become our X-factor,” Kruger told reporters Tuesday. “He’s somebody who’s physical. He’s mobile. He’s able to do a lot of things out there and be a piece that we don’t have outside of him.”

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on X.