Time to erase the memories and put to bed the what's, but's and if's of the regular season. March Madness has officially arrived.
The teams of the Mountain West Conference embark to the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo. on Thursday, vying for a ticket to the Big Dance. The only certainty in this tournament is the seedings. The rest not even Digger Phelps could predict.
Air Force, the top seed and regular-season champion, looks to be a legitimate prospect for receiving an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament, although the team still lingers on the bubble in the eyes of the NCAA selection committee. Brigham Young and Utah are on the outside looking in and still have a shot at an at-large bid. Every other team needs the tournament title to advance.
Air Force was tabbed to finish eighth in the conference, but its stellar play proves that theory wrong. The Falcons finished the conference schedule with an impressive 12-2 mark.
The Cougars of BYU are the second seed. They enter the
tourney as the hottest team, reeling off eight straight conference victories. They finished the season 10-4 in the MWC.
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Utah finished the season right where it started, an even keel, helping the Utes to the third seed. Their ship stayed afloat, never getting too high, or too low and they finished strong at 9-5. Don't count Utah out in crunch time.
UNLV, in fourth, has been hot of late and could be the sleeper of the tournament, finishing 7-7. Odartey Blankson and Jerel Blassingame have been on fire and the team's success likely rests on their shoulders.
UNM has yet to win on the road under Ritchie McKay and enters the tournament losing five of six and paddling to stay afloat. However, at 5-9 it still managed a respectable fifth seed. If the Lobos' 3-point barrage can get hot and stay hot, this team could make some noise.
San Diego State, Wyoming and Colorado State round out the six, seven and eight seeds. These three play first-round games against the conference powerhouses and none have won on the road.
With the seedings locked, the first-round matchups are thus: CSU vs. AFA, Wyoming vs. BYU, Utah vs. SDSU and UNM vs. UNLV.
Here are my predictions for the MWC tournament:
BYU and Utah will cruise through the quarterfinals and lock horns in the semifinals, while Air Force's patient attack will slowly wilt Matt Nelson and CSU. UNM's long bombers won't be enough to upset the Rebels' all-out attack.
In the semis, BYU and Utah will battle in a rivalry classic, but BYU's depth will wear out Utah. In the other semifinal, Air Force will be too much for the Rebels, setting up a conference showdown between BYU and AFA.
BYU wins the conference tournament and punches its tab into the Big Dance.
