MWC men set to tip off tourney

LAS VEGAS — The Mountain West basketball tournament has routinely found a so-called BYU factor attached to it over the years — both in Denver and Las Vegas.

The men's MWC tourney begins today with the No. 1-seeded Cougars facing No. 8 TCU, winner of a play-in game against New Mexico on Tuesday. The game will be televised live on The mtn. at 1 p.m. (MST). Fifth-seeded Air Force plays Wyoming at 3:30 p.m., also on The mtn. In the nightcap, No. 2 UNLV plays No. 7 Utah at 7 p.m., followed by No. 3 San Diego State against No. 6 Colorado State.

The Cougars or a team that has defeated the Cougars has ended up winning it all every time but in March 2006. Last year, the Utes knocked off the second-seeded Cougars but failed to advance past San Diego State, the eventual winner.

After losing in the title game to host UNLV at the inaugural MWC tournament in 2000, BYU won the title in 2001. The next four years the Cougars were knocked out by the eventual champion. BYU was defeated by San Diego State in the 2002 quarterfinals before back-to-back semifinal losses to 2003-champion Colorado State and 2004-champion Utah. In 2005, New Mexico went on to win the title after defeating BYU in the quarterfinals.

This is the first time the Cougars are seeded No. 1 in the MWC tournament.

The league's MVP, Keena Young of BYU, said he is anxious to play TCU today. Young said the Cougars respect the Frogs.

"They are a great team and have been playing well the last couple of games. They beat Air Force and gave San Diego State everything they could handle," he said. "They are coming in with nothing to lose."

If you set the odds, BYU and UNLV should end up playing for the championship on Saturday night. And if history holds up, a year that UNLV has a good team, the Rebels should be favored to defeat Utah today and make Saturday's final.

If you had to handicap a team to get hot and win it, that horse would be San Diego State. The Aztecs have a penchant for using this tournament as a spring board. While Aztec players tend to play up and down throughout the season — a generality of most seasons — they can make a run in this affair.

San Diego State became the first team in the MWC to win the tournament title twice with its victories in 2002 and 2006. New Mexico's win in 2005 marked the sixth tournament winner in the first six years of the event. The only teams not to win an MWC title are Wyoming, Air Force and TCU, who made its MWC debut last season.