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Post-game brawl mars MWC title

Dick - get real. You know the Cougs would have won it if it was played anywhere else but on UNLV's home floor.

UNLV fans are hoodlums. And they'll keep winning the tourney as long as it's played at the Thomas & Mack.

Now BYU has ammunition to just say no next year.

But the athletic officials won't have the guts to pull out.

People go to Las Vegas to act like children, however with bigger bodies, greater rights, and more damaging appetites. This incident should be sufficient to end the MWC tourneys being played in this X-rayed Disneyland. I know San Diego St. fans want to continue having the tourney in Las Vegas, Wyoming fans second the motion, but neither' team plays in the Las Vegas Bowl nor in the Basketball Championship, so why should they care.
Let the regular champion host the semi's through the championship game, get out of Las Vegas.

Wow! What a great venue for the MWC tournament. Thompson should give T&M the contract forever!

Immature is as immature does.

BYU fans are just as obnoxious... and please don't blame it on UNLV's home court. It's a tired excuse.

someone tell tavernari to stop shooting bad shots. which are like, i dont know, 75 percent of the ones he takes.

We lost twice. Let's hold our head a bit higher and not blame the court. Re the melee, while self defense is good, acting with more class would have been better.

Whatever "Jobbed" - not every game can be played at home. Winning on the road is a true test of a teams talent. What do you think the NCAA tourney is - at home? Grow up.

(disclaimer: I'm a Utah fan)

Continuing to hold the MWC tournament in Vegas is further proof that the MWC "leadership" as its priorities completely screwed up. Money apparently comes before everything else.

Has the MWC made a single smart decision in the past five years? The past ten years? It's got to be the worst-run mid-major conference in the country.

Quit your whining Cougs could have won if they had sucked it up in the second half. You got beat TWICE by UNLV get over it. Rebels barely won the first two games tournament games. Cougs easily cruised to the finals. Maybe if your city built some hotels and infrastructure to hold the tournament in Provo it would happen. Don't blame us because we got the world class facilities. We'd beat you on any neutral court too. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy watching the NCAA selection team shove BYU out somewhere East of the Mississippi River on Sunday! Hope you guys get knocked out in the first round again like last year. R-E-B-E-L-S!!!!

Since when did a few thousand extra people in attendance outweigh the need for fairness in the MWC Tournament? To have the conference tournament on the home floor of a perennial contender is absolutely ridiculous.

Once again, UNLV fans showed the level of their class.

Get real, Hair Thompson. Either stop having a conference tournament, or make fairness to all teams your number 1 priority.

UNLV wins the tournament because it is on their own home floor. Same as last year. If this was played anywhere else there would have been a different outcome. It is time for the MWC to get some guts and put this tournament on a neutral floor like most of the other conferences do.

Look you guys lost...you got outplayed...got outworked. Don't make excuses, that's what losers do. BYU is a great team, but UNLV played hard and deserved that win! Good luck in the tourney!

Oh and about the UNLV fans...PLEASE don't throw all of us in the lot with the jerks that cause problems! Most of us are there to root on OUR team without causing trouble. Remember that BYU stormed the field in the Las Vegas bowl. So please don't make it out to be only us.

Enough with my ranting...good luck in the NCAA's and represent the MWC!

It's not that the Tourney is in Las Vegas. It is that the Tourney is on the home floor of the UNLV Rebels. That is the problem and there in lays the entire problem. It creates a mentality among the UNLV fans that speaks ugly volumes. And so the after-game melee is not so much the drunken, ugly fans as it is the attitude and perspective that is had amongst the UNLV fans: "This is my court". This is my home. All the red coats worn by the ushers remind us all....you are at UNLV. It is the Rebel and UNLV hats worn by all the concessionaires that remind us all the same thing. The luxury boxes that are only sold to those who bought them for the regular UNLV home basketball season. In other words: This is not the MWC Basketball Tournament. This is nothing more than a misguided effort by the MWC to provide a UNLV Invitational that happens to include all the teams in the MWC. Note to CT and MWC, A MWC Tourney is not a UNLV Invitational. Second place does not deserve, nor earn, a second chance to have more home games.

How is it so many athletics are played in Las Vegas...its about time to change that! Bad vibes exist there!

Can you imagine the Mt. West finals in Provo for 5 years in a row? Or Salt Lake City? Or San Diego? Or why not Larime?

This is crazy. I doubt there is another post season tournament in the country that gives one team a home court for years in a row.

There is always weight with home court advantage. If that were not so, why are so many schools now requesting "neutral courts" when doing their scheduling. You cannot take down the UNLV banners and say you took away the home court advantage. One more reason to say the MWC league officials have questionable leadership, at best.

I'm all for the tourney being held in Vegas, but I think that it's criminal that the Rebels get to host it year in/out on their homecourt. Could you imagine the outcry and advantage that the Cougs would have if the tourney were held at the Marriott Center? As is, UNLV gets to have the comfort of their own dressing rooms, routine, court, etc. Wink Adams is lights out from Thomas & Mack, but you stick him in another arena and his isn't as proficient. Gives undue advantage to UNLV. Even if they moved it to one of the casinos or other arenas nearby, it would be more equitable.

Dick:

I was at the game and was also disappointed by the actions of the fans after the game. There are too many people who think it makes them a part of the team by being on the floor when it really makes them look like idiots. However, this scene was very reminiscent of BYU fans on the Field at Sam Boyd Stadium after the last two Las Vegas bowls. To call the situation chaotic is an overstatement and reeks of sour grapes. What happened at the Thomas and Mack Center occurred at a dozen other arenas this week.

The root of the problem was the MWC decision to try and block fans from entering the court and preparing by removing rows of seats and blocking access. This was done after BYU fans complained about last years after game celebration. I am in no way excusing the actions of the fans, but the ugly actions would not have occurred had security personnell not physically responded to the immature fans trying to get their faces seen on the court.

MWC Officals have got to be kidding. A lousy TV contract where nobody can see the games and a homer of a tournament where for 2 straight years the home team pulls out a victory and their crowd embarasses the league with fighting the visitors.

MWC - get a spine! Do something right.