BYU basketball team can't complain about draw

Breaking down the brackets, the day after . . .

BYU might feel slighted, as usual, falling to a No. 7 seed after being projected as high as a No. 4 seed a week ago. But the Cougars have to be happy about their matchup against a Florida team that wasn't even supposed to make the tournament according to most experts. The Gators lost four of their last five, including a second-round game to Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi picked 64 of the 65 teams correctly, missing only on Florida.

And playing in the West Region, means if the Cougars can get past Kansas State (likely to beat North Texas) in the second round, they should enjoy a home-crowd advantage playing in Salt Lake City, where the majority of the seats have likely been bought by locals.

We've had plenty of "sub-regionals" in Salt Lake City over the years, but it's been 29 years since a West Regional was played in Salt Lake (in 1983 it was played in Ogden). Besides the possibility of BYU making it or Kansas State, the other most likely teams to come to ESA are No. 1 seed Syracuse, No. 3 Pitt and No. 4 Vanderbilt. Not exactly glamour names in college basketball, compared to the likes of Kansas, Kentucky or Duke. Other teams that may make it to Salt Lake are mid-majors Butler (No. 5), Xavier (No. 6), Gonzaga (No. 8) and UTEP (No. 12).

Getting four teams in the tournament is a big accomplishment for the Mountain West Conference, which has never had more than three teams invited and last year felt snubbed with only two teams making it. Now the league needs to step forward. The MWC's overall record in the tournament since its inception in 2000 is a meager 8-22 with just two teams making it as far as the Sweet 16 (Utah in 2005 and UNLV in 2007). If the league falls flat on its face, it will be the laughingstock of college basketball and it may be a long time before it gets multiple bids like this year.

It's nice to see the non-power conferences doubled their number of at-large berths this year from four to eight, thanks in large part to the MWC. Besides the MWC's three at-large spots, the Atlantic-10 got two, while Conference USA, the WAC and West Coast Conferences each received one extra berth.

You wonder how much difference tournament games, particularly Saturday championship games matter when you see how San Diego State and UNLV's seeds turned out. The Aztecs, who had a better RPI (18 vs. 48), beat the Rebels by 10 points on the Rebels' homecourt, no less, but were given a No. 11 seed, compared to a No. 8 for UNLV. On the other hand, it might be a more favorable seed if the Aztecs can get past Tennessee and then likely be matched up against No. 3 Georgetown. If UNLV gets past Northern Iowa, it must play No. 1 Kansas.