Hey Pac-10 and Big West, what are you doing having your conference tournaments in Los Angeles and Anaheim respectively? Maybe you too could move your tournaments to Las Vegas. Maybe they could erect a court on Fremont Street and have them play.
Saturday is a busy day for college basketball. On any Saturday during the season, there can be well over 40 games on TV. Unfortunately, many are completely unwatchable. Every Friday, FanHouse puts together a handy guide of the best options for how to spend your Saturday on the couch watching college hoops.
This is a busy one. I mean, really busy. The end of the regular season for many teams. Conference tournaments for the mid-majors are underway. A couple are even playing their finals so they can get some ESPN exposure.
The Mountain West might be one of the competitive and even divisions in college basketball, plagued with the same parity that has been evident in most major conferences. So don't fault Utah for losing at BYU and at New Mexico recently. The Utes fell to the Papagiorgio curse more than anything else. (Ask UCLA fans about that.)
The Mountain West is wide open and the most realistic possibility is that three teams,Utah, BYU and New Mexico, could share the conference title. And you know who is the most important team in the Mountain West right now? Wyoming.
The Mountain West Conference may be making headlines for going after the BCS system, but on the basketball side they have spent the year in obscurity. Despite Utah being in the top-ten in RPI and the BYU Cougars clocking in at No. 22, neither team has been able to get much national attention.
With Utah leading the MWC comfortably, a win over BYU would have all but clinched the conference for the Utah Utes. It also would have made it more likely that the MWC would be a one-bid conference if Utah won the MWC ended up winning the MWC Tournament. That is not a problem after BYU blew Utah out in the second half.
One of the biggest gripes against former CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer was that he didn't respect the mid-majors. He famously complained that there were too many mid-majors in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. That was the year that George Mason upset Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn to get to the Final Four.
This will be the first Packer-less tournament in decades as he retired after last year's Final Four. It's a shame for him because he would have loved the makeup of the brackets this time around. Going against the recent trends, it looks as if the major conferences will get most of the at-large bids, leaving the mid-majors out in the cold.
Utah is clearly the class of the Mountain West right now after avenging an early loss to UNLV. Now the question becomes is Utah the best team in the West right now?
The Pac-10 folks with Washington, Arizona State and UCLA might beg to differ. All three teams are ranked in the Top 25, and Cal holds an early season win over Utah. (And before you even mention Gonzaga, realized that Utah owns a recent win over the Bulldogs.)
So be honest, if you were filling out our tournament bracket today, would you pick any of those three to beat the Utes?
Don't answer too quickly, and take some time to consider just how well the Utes are playing right now in one of the most underrated conferences in college basketball. Though some of the less educated college basketball fans haven't quite caught on to the Mountain West just yet.
San Diego State has earned the admiration of ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi, who has continued to include the Aztecs in his Bracketology projections. But at some point, San Diego State needs to return the love.
The Aztecs also need to learn how to finish off a game.
San Diego State blew a 13-point halftime lead, as BYU came roaring back to handily defeat the Aztecs, 69-59. This was the second time San Diego State has blown a halftime lead in its last three losses. At least the Aztecs were blown out from the tip at New Mexico on Saturday. Now San Diego State is suddenly reeling with two consecutive conference losses.
And that tournament bid? Don't be so sure. Now the Aztecs need to worry about tournament seeding in the Mountain West conference tourney.
Were it not for UCLA, UNLV would be a dead lock for 2009's most befuddling team award. The Rebels are an engima, a two-faced team more befitting of a Tommy Lee Jones' character instead of a Mountain West leader.
Let's recap UNLV's season. Losses at Colorado State, TCU and Wyoming. But a season sweep of BYU. The Rebels won at the Marriott Center -- arguably one of the toughest places to play in the nation. But couldn't win in Fort Collins against one of the worst teams in the Mountain West.
But when the NCAA selection committee looks at bubble teams, UNLV has a win at Louisville, at BYU and home wins over Utah, BYU and Arizona. The Rebels might have saved their tournament lives Saturday night.
Saturday is a busy day for college basketball. On any Saturday during the season, there can be well over 40 games on TV. Unfortunately, many are completely unwatchable. Every Friday, FanHouse puts together a handy guide of the best options for how to spend your Saturday on the couch watching college hoops.
There's no avoiding it: the Bracket Busters format is in a down year. It's not down because the games will be boring, or because no team will provide some foreshadowing of what it might be capable of in the NCAA Tournament.
Bracket Busters is down because there are just not that many teams in the mid-majors that have been that good this season. The number of teams capable of earning at-large bids from mid-major conferences is on the very low side.
Saturday is a busy day for college basketball. On any Saturday during the season, there can be well over 40 games on your TV. Unfortunately, many are completely unwatchable. Every Friday, FanHouse puts together a handy guide of the best choices on how to spend your Saturday on the couch watching college basketball.
This is when you find out how much your significant other cares about you. Just how much time will you get to watch college basketball when Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday?
Those without a partner or even a date, can take solace in the money not spent on gifts and dinner. In addition, you can to spend over 12 hours watching hoops.
The Western Athletic Conference could move its tournament to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas in 2011, joining the West Coast Conference and Mountain West Conference which also host tournaments in Sin City. 
Saturday is a busy day for college basketball. On any Saturday during the season, there can be well over 40 games on TV. Unfortunately, many are completely unwatchable. Every Friday, FanHouse puts together a handy guide of the best options for how to spend your Saturday on the couch watching college hoops.
The Mountain West might be one of the competitive and even divisions in college basketball, plagued with the same parity that has been evident in most major conferences. So don't fault Utah for losing at BYU and at New Mexico recently. The Utes fell to the Papagiorgio curse more than anything else. (Ask UCLA fans about that.)
The Mountain West Conference may be making headlines for going after the BCS system, but on the basketball side they have spent the year in obscurity. Despite Utah being in the top-ten in RPI and the BYU Cougars clocking in at No. 22, neither team has been able to get much national attention. 
One of the biggest gripes against former CBS basketball analyst Billy Packer was that he didn't respect the mid-majors. He famously complained that there were too many mid-majors in the 2006 NCAA Tournament. That was the year that George Mason upset Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn to get to the Final Four.
Utah is clearly the class of the Mountain West right now after avenging an early loss to UNLV. Now the question becomes is Utah the best team in the West right now? 
San Diego State has earned the admiration of ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi, who has continued to include the Aztecs in his Bracketology projections. But at some point, San Diego State needs to return the love. 
Were it not for UCLA, UNLV would be a dead lock for 2009's most befuddling team award. The Rebels are an engima, a two-faced team more befitting of a Tommy Lee Jones' character instead of a Mountain West leader.
Saturday is a busy day for college basketball. On any Saturday during the season, there can be well over 40 games on TV. Unfortunately, many are completely unwatchable. Every Friday, FanHouse puts together a handy guide of the best options for how to spend your Saturday on the couch watching college hoops.
Saturday is a busy day for college basketball. On any Saturday during the season, there can be well over 40 games on your TV. Unfortunately, many are completely unwatchable. Every Friday, FanHouse puts together a handy guide of the best choices on how to spend your Saturday on the couch watching college basketball.
