BYU basketball: BYU vs. UNLV is still a big game

PROVO — Those who follow Mountain West Conference basketball have had tonight's showdown between BYU and UNLV circled on their calendars for a while.

After all, the two MWC heavyweights have dominated the league the past two seasons, with the Cougars claiming back-to-back, regular-season crowns, and the Runnin' Rebels finishing second.

UNLV has captured back-to-back conference tournament titles — at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas — by vanquishing BYU in the championship game both years.

The Rebels were picked to win the conference in this season's preseason poll, while the Cougars were predicted to end up in second place.

As the two teams collide at the Marriott Center for the first meeting between them this year, the game has lost a bit of luster, as both have shown vulnerabilities recently. The Rebels have already suffered two conference losses (at TCU and at Colorado State) and the Cougars are coming off of their worst defeat of the year, an 81-62 whipping at New Mexico last Saturday.

But maybe that's just a sign that the rest of the conference is targeting BYU and UNLV.

"A lot of teams have a bull's-eye on us," said Cougar guard Jackson Emery. "UNLV has two losses and we have one. Both of us are now fighting for first place. It's going to be one heck of a game."

"I think, for sure, that BYU is playing better than anyone else, but the group right behind them is pretty big," said UNLV coach Lon Kruger, whose team crushed Wyoming last Saturday, 83-66. "It's going to be a battle all the way through (conference). ... I don't know if enough people can beat BYU in the end, but that's the challenge for everyone else right now."

The Cougars played poorly against the Lobos, shooting just 39 percent. Lee Cummard, who scored just seven points, going 1-for-7 from the floor, said a bad performance "can be a motivator. The worst thing we can do is feel sorry for ourselves. We'll use it as motivation. (New Mexico) put it on us pretty good. We need to take that 'we-can't-be-touched' type attitude and get rid of it and play better, especially on the road."

What were the main factors in that setback in Albuquerque?

"Our focus and our determination — we let it slip away from us," Emery said. "We didn't play our style of basketball. Our determination to win and our focus to execute. We lost. The season's not over. There's not a lot of teams that go undefeated in conference. It's something that motivates us so we can come back and get our next win."