Mountain West Tourney Preview

At Thomas & Mack Center (Las Vegas)
FIRST ROUND
Wednesday, March 11
Game 1: No. 8 Colorado State vs. No. 9 Air Force, 5 p.m.

QUARTERFINALS
Thursday, March 12
Game 2: No. 1 BYU vs. Game 1 winner, 3 p.m.
Game 3: No. 4 San Diego State vs. No. 5 UNLV, 5:30 p.m.
Game 4: No. 2 Utah vs. No. 7 TCU, 9 p.m.
Game 5: No. 3 New Mexico vs. No. 6 Wyoming, 11:30 p.m.

SEMIFINALS
Friday, March 13
Game 6: Game 2 winner vs. Game 3 winner, 9 p.m.
Game 7: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 11:30 p.m.

CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday, March 14
Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner, 7 p.m.


Team to watch: BYU. The Cougars are a very tough, battle tested team that will be a difficult match-up for anyone come tournament time. They took Arizona State and Wake Forest the distance during the season and had a three way split of the conference title .

Player to watch: Luke Nevill. If you like size, Nevill is your guy. The 7'2 center for Utah averaged 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks during conference play and was named player of the year and defensive player of the year becoming the first player to do so in Mountain West history.

Upset watch: UNLV. The conference is very top heavy and the Rebels are on the bubble. If UNLV manages to win a couple games, especially since they have the home court advantage, they will make a run to the NCAA tournament.

Tourney watch: BYU and Utah are locks. UNLV, New Mexico, and San Diego State are all bubble teams. The San Diego State/UNLV game is basically an elimination game. With the depth and overall talent, I expect BYU to get the championship and at least three teams from the Mountain West to go dancing.