2008 Mountain West Basketball Tournament
Jimmy Boyd’s 2008 Mountain West Conference tournament predictions will not steer you wrong. If you don’t know where to start when handicapping this tournament, check out Jimmy’s insight in this article to help you along the way.
Mountain West Conference tournament action kicks off on Wednesday March 12th and continues through Saturday March 15th at the Thomas and Mack Center, home of the UNLV Rebels in Las Vegas, Nevada. You won’t be able to catch the first round game on TV, but the Mountain West TV Network will air the rest of the action. CSTV will be picking up some of the action as well and the title game will air Saturday on Versus.
UNLV is second in the 2008 Mountain West Conference standings behind BYU, but I like the Runnin’ Rebs to repeat as conference tournament champions playing on their home floor. BYU blew out UNLV at BYU during the regular season and UNLV returned the favor when the Cougars visited. When I say they blew each other out, I mean it. UNLV beat BYU by 29 points in Vegas back in January and BYU won on its home floor by 26. Both of these teams should have already done enough to receive at large bids and New Mexico is a team which could make a strong case to receive an at large big as well. The Lobos closed out the regular season strong beating UNLV and losing to BYU in OT. Wins over either of those schools in the conference tourney and the Lobos are in, but if they make an early exit, they could be out despite having a very good season because most experts are not sold on this team.
But when it comes right down to it, we have to give the edge to UNLV playing at home. UNLV is 17-2 in all home games this season and is very tough defensively. Not only did the Rebels crush BYU at home, but they also beat New Mexico by 19 points at the Thomas and Mack Center. Home court had been huge for the Rebels and we expect it to continue to be in the tourney.
2007 Recap:
The Rebs were the number two seed last year, just as they will be this year, and they beat the regular season Mountain West champs, BYU, 78-70 in the championship game. Home court played a big role for the Rebels in last year’s conference tourney run. UNLV beat Georgia Tech and then knocked off a Wisconsin Badgers team which had been ranked number one in the country during the regular season to advance to the Sweet 16. In the Sweet 16, they gave Oregon all they wanted before losing by 4 points.
Previous Winners:
2007 – UNLV
2006 – San Diego State
2005 – New Mexico
2004 – Utah
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