Around the Mountain West Conference

San Diego State boasted a 4-0 record and sat in first place in the Mountain West Conference as recently as a week ago.

But after two close losses — at BYU and at home against UNLV — the Aztecs are suddenly looking up at the Cougars and Rebels in the standings.

"We're desperate for a win," said SDSU coach Steve Fisher.

Such is the MWC race, where there is little margin for error in most games.

"There's not much difference between winning four in a row and losing four in a row," Fisher said. "We had the ball with 30 seconds to go with the chance to win at BYU. It didn't happen. We had two shots. We're crying 'foul' and they cried, 'Play on.' It's that close. We hung on for an overtime victory against Utah (two weeks ago) at home. You have to play well and you have to get a little bit lucky.

"You have to be able to make plays," he said. "The thing I like about our team is the toughness we've displayed. In every game, we've put ourselves in a position to win down the homestretch. If you do that often enough, you'll win your fair share of them."

UNLV coach Lon Kruger is pleased with the way his team is performing to this point despite losing four starters from a team that reached the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 last season. He acknowledges that his current squad needs to improve in some areas.

"The last few games, we've settled a little more into what each needs to do and trusting each to do that," said Kruger, whose team crushed BYU earlier this month, 70-41, at the Thomas & Mack Center. "We've been streaky in terms of shooting — that's not unusual. We need to be more consistent.

"We don't have much margin. That's what this group understands. We've got to line up and battle in every game. If we can win one, we'll feel good about it and figure out how to win another one. We're not going to consistently blow people out every night."

NEW VS. OLD: Maybe it's coincidence. Or maybe it should be expected.

At any rate, four of the five teams with .500 or worse records in MWC play are led by first-year coaches, while four of the five teams with winning records in league games are guided by coaches who have been around the conference for a while.