Colorado State men's head basketball coach Tim Miles says this is the week he will find out what his team is made of.

It seems the entire Mountain West Conference is already well aware what The University of New Mexico is made of.

The Lobos stormed to a commanding two-game lead in the conference standings last week with a sweep of then-top 15 teams San Diego State and UNLV.

At 22-4 overall and 8-2 in the MWC, UNM will put its sizable cushion to the test Tuesday night against Miles and the Rams in Fort Collins, Colo. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m.

The Lobos will make the trip north with plenty of momentum -- and a national ranking, to boot. They jumped into both Top 25 polls on Monday, debuting at No. 18 in The Associated Press media poll and No. 21 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.

Three of the eight teams in the MWC are in the polls, joined by UNLV (21/20) and SDSU (24/25).

It's the first time all season UNM has been in the rankings and it's long overdue, some say.

"We've been overlooked basically this whole year," said Lobos senior power forward Drew Gordon, who was named Monday as the MWC player of the week after scoring 44 points and 37 rebounds in the wins over SDSU and UNLV.

"I don't think it's really going to change our attitude whatsoever," he added. "Being this far into the season your attitude, your mindset is pretty much locked into how you're going act throughout the season."

UNM head coach Steve Alford said the next five days represent the most challenging road swing of the year for his Lobos. Winners of seven straight -- all by double digits -- they will travel to CSU on Tuesday, then visit TCU on Saturday.

The Rams and Horned Frogs are the only teams still undefeated at home in conference play. The Lobos handed CSU (16-9, 5-5) its worst loss of the season on Jan. 25 in The Pit, a 33-point beating that Alford cautioned against.

"[The Rams] are a very good shooting team," he said. "We played really well in [The Pit] but that can be a mirage. It can be deceiving a little bit, beating a team that badly at home."

In CSU, the Lobos will be facing a team desperate for a win.

A number of NCAA Tournament bracket analysts have the Rams, who have lost five of their last eight after a 2-0 start in MWC play, as one of the last teams left out of the Big Dance.

Having played one of the toughest schedules in the country, their RPI stands at No. 30 this week.

Still, they lack the kind of signature win that would get them off the proverbial bubble.

UNM represents a golden opportunity -- if, that is, Miles can figure out a way to put the ball in the basket on a consistent basis. That's one thing few teams have been able to do the last month.

"I think they've been great defensively more than anything," he said. "That's hard to take away, really."

The Lobos rank ninth in the country in scoring defense
(57.2 points per game) and fourth in opponents' field goal percentage (.372). They've held six of their last seven opponents to 54 or fewer points, and four of their last five under 50.

"The biggest thing is how much better they've gotten defensively the last three weeks," said Dave Rice, UNLV head coach. "They're so much more committed to every possession at the defensive end of the floor."

Another improvement: Drew Gordon's jump shot. The 6-foot-9 post has developed a mid-range jumper that forces opponents to come out of the paint to guard him.

"I really worked on that in the beginning of the season," Gordon said. "The first couple of games they weren't really falling, which blew my confidence level completely. And then I just got in the gym and started putting up jumpers. ... I needed a different weapon to use. If you practice you get better."

Gordon's next practice move is to learn playing with a target on his back.

Same, too, for a team starting to live life in the national spotlight.

Contact Will Webber at wwebber@sfnewmexican.