BYU basketball: Confident Cougs just wondering where

PROVO — The BYU Cougars are confident that when the NCAA tournament field is announced Sunday afternoon, it's not a matter of if they'll be dancing later in the week but where and against which opponent.

Despite losing 70-66 late Friday to UNLV in the Mountain West Conference tournament semifinals at the Thomas & Mack Center, the No. 14 Cougars have won a school-record 29 games. No team with that many wins has ever been left out of the NCAA tournament, and bracketology experts don't expect this year to be a first.

"We know that we're a good team," BYU junior guard Jimmer Fredette said following Friday's loss. "We are excited for the NCAA tournament to come. Can't come soon enough because we want to get this loss off our backs, obviously."

Other than denying BYU a shot at its first MWC tournament title since 2001, Friday's loss likely only hurts the Cougars in seeding — probably dropping them down a rank or two. Still, most feel BYU, which has been ranked for 10 straight weeks, will get between a No. 4 and No. 6 seed.

"We're a really good basketball team, and we're going to show that on Thursday," BYU senior forward Jonathan Tavernari said.

Because the Cougars won't play on Sundays, there are only four first-rounds sites where they can go. Should the expected bid come, they'll play on Thursday in San Jose, Oklahoma City, New Orleans or Providence. And to remain in a Thursday/Saturday bracket, they have to be either in the West Regionals (Salt Lake City) or the East Regionals (Syracuse, N.Y.).

With the Cougars and No. 8 New Mexico both ousted Friday from the MWC tournament, the conference is now expected to get four teams into the NCAAs for the first time. San Diego State earned the league's automatic bid by beating UNLV 55-45 in Saturday's championship game.

The Rebels (25-8) likely sealed their spot by beating BYU twice this season and New Mexico once.

"We have four teams in the league that are playing at an awfully high level," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said.

On Friday, the Cougars came within a whisker of reaching the MWC tournament title game for a fifth time. But they lost to UNLV for the fourth time in the tournament's 11-year history when several key possessions down the stretch went the Rebels' way.

Trailing 57-47 with eight minutes remaining, the Cougars went on a 12-2 run to tie the game 59-59. They briefly grabbed a 61-59 lead on a fast-break basket by Michael Loyd Jr. with 2:51 remaining.