BYU is one of several teams capable of winning the Mountain West Tournament. Steve Dunn/Allsport
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Wyoming
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Utah
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UNLV
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San Diego State
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BYU
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New Mexico
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Colorado State
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Air Force
40
Years since Air Force's last appearance in the NCAA tournament.
"I knew he wouldn't think I should have got it. You can put that in writing. That's just my gut feeling. I'm not saying he doesn't like me as a player."
-- Utah forward Britton Johnsen on coach Rick Majerus' lukewarm reaction to his MWC player of the year award.
By Phil Miller, Special to CNNSI.com
Wyoming enters this weekend's Mountain West tournament with an outright conference championship, the No. 1 seed -- and a healthy dose of skepticism.
That's what a mediocre RPI ranking will do.
"We're telling our guys we have to win the [MWC] tournament to get in" to the NCAAs, Cowboys coach Steve McClain said. "That's the only way we can approach it."
If the 10 members of the NCAA Tournament selection committee look strictly at numbers, his concern may be well founded. Despite breaking Utah's string of seven straight conference or division championships with a thrilling 57-56 victory over the Utes on Saturday, Wyoming's RPI remains mired in the mid-50s, behind three other MWC teams. The Cowboys, despite an 11-3 MWC season that included a league-record five road wins, are penalized by the formula for a relatively weak non-conference schedule.
No top-100 team, McClain said, is willing to travel to Laramie, where the Cowboys are nearly unbeatable at the highest elevation (7,220 feet) in college basketball. But the computer can't factor that in; all it knows is that Wyoming played the 123rd-toughest schedule in the country, by far the worst among Mountain West teams.
Second-place Utah, by contrast, has an RPI of 25, making the Utes a virtual lock to earn an at-large berth. The Mountain West ranks seventh among conferences this season, and until last season (when automatic entrant BYU received the only invitation), the MWC and the WAC before it had routinely placed two teams in the NCAA tournament.
But what happens, McClain wondered, if someone else wins the conference tournament? Third-place UNLV, for instance, has won four straight games and gets to play the league tournament on its home court, so a run to the title wouldn't be much of an upset. Or perhaps BYU, which has reached the championship game the past two years, could get hot again.
In that case, could the Mountain West receive three bids?
"Call me crazy, but I think so," said commissioner Craig Thompson, who chaired the selection committee two years ago and has been lobbying current members on behalf of his league for the past few weeks. "I believe we have the deepest league in America. I'm hopeful, optimistic, confident that both [Utah and Wyoming] will get in no matter what."
If not, the selection committee will have a difficult choice. Go with the squad with a significantly better ranking? Or choose the champion, RPI aside?
Thompson believes Wyoming has earned the berth, its first since 1988. And even Utah coach Rick Majerus endorses that view. "Wyoming is more deserving," Majerus said, "because the most difficult thing to do is win your conference regular-season championship."
He won 18 games his first season, 19 his second, and 20 last year. And if his top-seeded Cowboys beat Air Force in the first round of the Mountain West Tournament, Steve McClain will have coached Wyoming to its first 21-victory season since 1988.
The steady improvement has made McClain a popular man in Laramie -- and, Wyoming fans fear, a likely candidate to move on to a higher-profile job. After all, he was Billy Tubbs' top assistant at TCU for four years before taking the Wyoming job -- and Tubbs is leaving the Horned Frogs.
But the 39-year-old coach, named the MWC's coach of the year on Monday, said he's not going anywhere. "I just signed a seven-year extension in September, which I believe makes my position clear," McClain said.
HOT: New Mexico G Ruben Douglas
Scores 110 points in last four games to claim MWC scoring title.
NOT: BYU on the road
Cougars blow 14-point lead to last-place CSU, finish bizarre season 7-0 at home and 0-7 on road.
HOT: Mountain West Tournament tickets
More than 7,600 all-tournament passes have been sold, nearly doubling last year's record 4,000.
NOT: New Mexico on the road
Lobos lose last five away from home -- four by surrendering double-digit leads.
Randy Holcomb led the Mountain West in scoring and rebounding until the season's final day, but played for fourth-place San Diego State. Wyoming's Marcus Bailey was the top scorer and most consistent player on the league champions, but was only one small cog in a talented cast.
So MWC player of the year, as voted by the league's coaches, went to Britton Johnsen of Utah -- to the surprise of his own coach. Johnsen's scoring average of 13.3 points a game ranked 12th in the league, his rebounding average (6.6) seventh.
Johnsen's coach wasn't so sure. "I'm happy for Britton," Utah coach Rick Majerus said, but "I have always felt the player of the year should always be on the team that wins the league, unless it be a special case. I don't think that this is."
San Diego State guard Al Faux
His drive to the basket with 2.6 seconds left beats Air Force, gives Aztecs first .500 conference season in 17 years.
Wyoming fans
In subzero weather, 16,089 pack Arena-Auditorium for Utah game, biggest crowd in school history.
Colorado State forward Brian Greene
Scores 18 of his 22 points after halftime, including game-tying layup with six seconds left, to lead Rams' rally past BYU.
Since the current Mountain West teams began playing their conference tournament in Las Vegas five years ago (first as members of the WAC, then the MWC), Utah has won the championship twice and UNLV twice.
As the second and third seeds this year, the two perennial postseason powers are expected to meet in Friday's semifinal, and the city's bookmakers won't have an easy time handicapping the showdown.
Utah is 3-1 against the Rebels in the Thomas & Mack Center since UNLV joined the league, but the Rebels are 3-0 against Utah in the postseason, having met twice in the NCAA Tournament and once in the WAC tournament. The Utes swept the Rebels this year and have beaten them five straight times -- but UNLV is 6-1 in their last three tournament appearances.
Place your bets.
New Mexico, which closed the regular season with a 91-82 loss at UNLV, must open the conference tournament on the same court against the same opponent. Coach Fran Fraschilla said the coincidence might work to the Lobos' advantage. "There are a lot of guys in our locker room who think it's good we come back and play them" right away, Fraschilla said. "We didn't quit. We went after them toe-to-toe." ... After starting 25 straight games, BYU freshman center Jared Jensen was sent to the bench in favor of sophomore Dan Howard. Jensen, named co-Freshman of the Year by the league, responded by scoring 18 points, two fewer than his career high, in an overtime loss to CSU. ... With eight seconds left, Utah had a chance to tie its game with Wyoming, but point guard Travis Spivey, running out of time to inbound the ball, bounced it off Cowboy guard Donta Richardson's leg and into Marcus Bailey's hands. "I ran out of timeouts," said Utah coach Rick Majerus. "I needed one more." ... Wyoming outrebounded BYU 48-24, including 21 offensive rebounds, in its victory over the Cougars. ... Air Force has lost nine straight conference tournament games, dating to 1990. Colorado State has lost six straight since 1996. ... BYU scored only one field goal in the final 10 minutes of regulation in its overtime loss at Colorado State.
Phil Miller covers the Mountain West for The Salt Lake Tribune. His "This Week in the Mountain West" column appears weekly during the season.
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San Diego State guard Al Faux
