3 ranked college basketball teams on upset alert this week

1. No. 18 Utah State (@ Boise State, Jan. 27)

We'll stick in the Mountain West for our next upset alert candidate in Utah State, which has become the early front-runner in this difficult league. The Aggies are 5-1 over their first six league games with the lone loss coming to New Mexico in The Pit, which is one of the most difficult environments to play in throughout the country.

A high-flying offense has been the key for the Aggies, who average 82.2 points in the game and feature a star big man in Great Osobor, who averages 18.7 points per game while shooting 59.4 percent from the floor. Things will get tough for Utah State on Saturday as they hit the road to take on the second-place team in the conference, Boise State, who is just a half-game behind the Aggies in the standings.

The lone loss in league play for the Broncos was a four-point home defeat to UNLV but Boise State has already demonstrated they can beat big dogs with home victories against Colorado State and San Diego State. Boise State also plays at a much slower tempo than Utah State, ranking 175th in adjusted tempo on KenPom compared to 99th for the Aggies, so they will try and limit possessions against Utah State's offense.

Winning on the road in the Mountain West is also very tricky since a lot of these league games require extensive travel and playing at altitude. Home-court advantage is big for Boise State in this contest and Utah State will have to play well if they hope to leave town on top of the conference standings.