2009 Mountain West Conference Basketball Tournament
Printable & Viewable Bracket Link: 2009 Mountain West Mens Basketball Tournament Bracket
Participants/Overview: The 2009 Mountain West Tournament will be hosted at UNLV's home gym, the Thomas and Mack Center. In a year when one BCS conference is down normally one of the mid major conference picks up the slack and grabs extra at large bids. This year the Mountain West Conference can thank the SEC for stinking it up as the MWC has a legitimate shot at getting 5 schools into the 2009 NCAA Mens Basketball Tourney.
Leading the way is the #1 seeded BYU Cougars. The Cougs have been the #1 seed the last 2 years and lost to UNLV in the finals both times. This time the talent gap between the Rebels and Cougars may just be too big for home court to steal this tournament title away from BYU. The Cougars posted a 12-4 conference record and outscored conference foes by over 13 points per game. Lee Cummard, Jimmer Fredette and Jonathan Tavernari lead the way all averaging over 15 points per game.
Utah earned the second seed and have an all world player in Luke Nevill. Nevill won player of the year honors as well as defensive player of the year. New Mexico also finished with a 12-4 conference mark and will be the third seed in the tournament.
Best game of the Mountain West Tournament figures to be the quarterfinal game between UNLV and San Diego State. Both teams have been bitten by the injury bug and inconsistent play. Both teams are very close to being on the bubble and a loss could eliminate one of them from the field.
Our pick to win will be the BYU Cougars. Sure BYU is going to have a war in the semifinals against either San Diego State or UNLV, but this team is the most talented team on the floor and should be focused after dropping the last 2 MWC conference championship games.
Venue: Thomas & Mack Center
Sponsor: Conoco
Dates: March 11th-March 14th
TV: The opening round and quarterfinal games can be seen on the mountain west network first round game won't be on TV. The semifinals will be available on CSTV. The championship game will televised on Versus at 6:00 eastern time.
Mountain West Tournament Schedule
March 11th - Opening Round
March 12th - Quarterfinals
March 13th - Semifinals
March 14th - Championship
Click
here for the updated MWC tournament bracket
Last Years Winner
UNLV Running Rebels. The Mountain West conference may want to revisit
playing their conference tournament on a neutral floor. For the
second straight year the UNLV Rebels were the 2 seed while the BYU
Cougars were the 1 seed and for the second straight year UNLV knocked
off the Cougars in the Mountain West Tournament finals on their
home court. Just like in 2007 BYU buzz sawed its first 2 opponents,
this season beating Colorado State by 27 and in the semifinals the
Cougs blitzed San Diego State by 35 points. Not only is the non
neutral site costing top mountain west teams higher seeds in the
tournament, but one of these years it is going to cost them a bid
from their conference.
Previous Years MWC Tournament Brackets
2008 Champion: UNLV
2007
Champion: UNLV
2006
Champion: San Diego State
2005
Champion: New Mexico
Off Site Links
Mountain West Conference Official
Website
Thomas & Mack Center Venue
Website
Looking for more March Madness 2009 info? Well once again Maddux Sports is dissecting the tournament and pre tournament festivities! Along the way bet our college basketball picks, and download all the conference tournament brackets.
