Greg Crawford On Basketball, For March 1st, 2015

By Gregory Crawford---- TV, Print and Radio Basketball Analyst--- on twitter @wchoops @crawssportsbiz @kcsportsmgmt

Crawford's Best Nine--- The best nine teams that play in the six D-1 leagues out west. Very tough, but fun to do.

9. UC Davis---- Continue to play well and will win the Big West regular season. Have won 13 of 15.

8. San Diego State--- Tied for the league lead in the toughest league out west, Mt. West, but suffered a tough home loss yesterday to Boise State.

7. Oregon---- Huge game today at Stanford, in 3rd place in Pac-12, one game lead over Stanford.

6. Utah----When the Utes were winning big, some were saying, not me, a Final Four team. Now they will not even win the Pac-12 regular season title, but still a great year.

5. BYU--- Playing some of the best basketball in the country right now, huge road wins at both Portland and Gonzaga vault the Cougars up to 5th spot.

4. New Mexico State--- Continue to roll in the WAC Conference, will easily win the league and have won 14 of 15.

3. Boise State---- Best team in the country no one talks about. Just completed a road sweep of New Mexico and San Diego State, have won 12 of last 13.

2. Gonzaga----Despite having their 41 game home winning streak snapped yesterday by BYU, they still are worthy of number 2. Will be interesting to see how they do in WCC tourney and NCAA.

1. Arizona--- They have earned it big time. Huge win yesterday at Utah and easy to forget, but beat Gonzaga earlier in season.

Bad Basketball---- In picking Crawford's Best Nine, I do have to say and it is painful, this is one of the weakest years I have seen overall for college basketball out west. Of the six D-1 leagues out west, there really is no strong league, the best of the bunch is the Mt. West.

I still think Gonzaga has a great chance to get to the Final Four, but the loss at home yesterday to BYU was nothing short of shocking.

It is also fun to see a surprise team doing really well in the Big Sky, as Sacramento State has a one game lead over Montana and Eastern Washington going into the final week of league play. The Hornets have played well all year long. If they win the league, they will host the entire Big Sky playoffs, but it will not be in their regular place on campus, the "Nest", which does not meet NCAA standards for attendance. They will play on campus, in the "Well", which is the PE and Wellness Center and will seat about 3,000 with the addition of portable seating being brought in.

None of the other great places to play in Sacramento are available during the time of the tournament.

No matter what is has been a great time and year for Sacramento State.

Crawford's NWAC Power Rankings---- Now here is a league, that is not part of the NCAA, but instead community college basketball that has great coaches, great players and great teams. So with only 2 days left in the regular season, time for double dose of Crawford's NWAC power rankings, starting with the women's teams first. As always, we do things in 9s, out of respect for the great game of golf.

Crawford's Women's Power Rankings


9. Highline
8. Lane
7. Bellevue
6 Wenatchee Valley
5. Centralia
4. Walla Walla
3. Umpqua
2. Lower Columbia
1. Peninsula

Crawford's Men's Power Rankings

9. Lane
8. Columbia Basin
7. Clackamas
6. Highline
5. Wenatchee Valley
4. Big Bend
3. Clark
2. Edmonds
1. Bellevue

more of Gregory's blogs--- http://crawfordsgolfdaily.blogspot.com (golf and sports biz, 365 days per year).