Utah Utes men's basketball notebook: Seeding could be vital for U. in MWC tourney

It's about time to start checking out the seeding for the upcoming Mountain West Conference Tournament, which begins in just three weeks at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

It's been a tough year for the Utah basketball team and its only hope for postseason play will rest on repeating its feat of running the table at the MWC tournament, which is March 10-13. So seeding could be important to the Utes' chances.

Right now the Utes are in the No. 6 spot, just a half game ahead of TCU for the No. 7 spot. The good news for the Utes is that they aren't likely to play in the dreaded 8-vs.9 "play-in" game that Air Force (1-8) and Wyoming (2-7) seemed to have pretty much locked up.

The bad news is that they're looking at the worst possible first-round matchup, against the hometown Rebels of UNLV on their home floor. The Rebels are currently tied with San Diego State for third place in the MWC standings.

The Rebels are also two games behind New Mexico and BYU in the loss column and unlikely to move into the top two.

Utah could fall to seventh, but holds the tiebreaker with TCU and would need to fall a game behind the Horned Frogs. The Utes could also move up to fifth, especially if they beat UNLV this week.

Colorado State is in fifth, two games ahead of Utah, but the Rams have a tougher schedule with league leaders BYU and New Mexico at home and road games at UNLV, TCU and San Diego State. The Rams could very well lose all five of those games, which would put their record at 6-9 going into the final MWC game of the season, a home game against Utah on March 6. That game could decide the No. 5 seed.

The Utes will be favored to beat Air Force on the road and Wyoming at home, which would give them six wins and they also have home games against BYU and the one with UNLV.

But if Utah beats UNLV and does move up to fifth, the Rebels are more likely to fall to fourth, which would mean a Utah-UNLV first -round matchup in the 4-vs-5 game.

Or you can look at it this way — Utah, along with league leader New Mexico, is the only team to defeat UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center this year, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad to play the Rebels in the first round of the tournament.