The month of February is halfway over and the NCAA Tournament picture is starting to get a little clearer.
The West Coast has had a historically excellent season, with the top two teams in the country both residing west of the Mississippi in the Gonzaga Bulldogs and the Arizona Wildcats.
UCLA and USC remain formidable opponents as well, while the Mountain West has three outstanding, potentially tournament darling squads in Wyoming, Boise State, and Colorado State all performing well.
However, a handful of bubble hopefuls did some serious damage to their hopes this past week, with Oregon and Washington State each losing bad games to Cal and Arizona State, respectively, opening up the possibility of a four-bid WCC with BYU winning two in a row and San Francisco and Saint Mary’s each remaining firmly in the hunt for a tournament bid.
Finally, two teams were added to the rankings this week: Stephen F. Austin returns after a nice week in the WAC, while Long Beach State takes over as the lone representative from the Big West. Dan Monson’s team is rolling with a 9-1 record in conference play as he looks to get back to the tournament with a west coast mid-major program – harkening back to his days as Gonzaga’s head coach back in 1999.
Without further ado, here is a look at the west coast college hoops power rankings in mid-February: