Monday, Jan. 26, 2009 | 9:27 a.m.
After the weekend’s college basketball action, UNLV (16-4) owns a Ratings Index Percentage of 43.
The RPI figure is one of about 10 items that the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses to select and seed its tournament field in March.
It factors in a team’s record, its opponents’ records and its opponents’ opponents’ records to get a measure of its strength.
Typically, with automatic NCAA bids awarded to victors of conference tournaments, an RPI in the mid-50s can keep an at-large team out of the March Madness.
Last week, the Rebels won at BYU and defeated Utah at home to climb in the ratings.
BYU (14-4) is 33rd and Utah (12-6) is 25th, according to the RPI, compiled by College Basketball News.
It does not factor in non-Division-I games. That’s good for the Utes, who lost their season opener to Division-II Southwest Baptist at home.
The Rebels also own a solid victory over Louisville (15-3, ninth in the RPI) and trounced Arizona (12-8, 70).
UNLV lost to California (16-4, 35) and Cincinnati (12-7, 60) at home, and TCU (12-7, 89) and Colorado State (7-12, 158) on the road.
The Mountain West Conference (.5521) is the seventh-best league, a hair behind the Southeastern Conference (.5564).
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