2008 Mountain West Conference Basketball Tournament
Printable & Viewable Bracket Link: 2008 Mountain West Mens Basketball Tournament Bracket
Participants/Overview: The 2008 Mountain West Tournament will be hosted at UNLV's home gym, the Thomas and Mack Center. Once again BYU and UNLV are at the top of the standings and are likely the favorites to reach the tournament MWC final. Each team won its home meeting in the conference regular season blowing each other out. UNLV beat BYU by 29 at this venue in early January than the Cougars played back the Rebels in Provo with a 26 point whipping. To say the Runnin Rebels will have an advantage if both teams meet in the final is an understatement.
The good news for fans of the Mountain West conference is that this league figures to be awarded multiple bids into the NCAA tournament. As long as neither team falls flat on their face the rest of the way and has a good showing in the conference tournament you can pencil BYU and UNLV into the Big Dance.
At the publish date of March 1st, New Mexico also has a realistic shot at an at large postseason bid. Most pundits have the Lobos as one of the last 5 teams in or last 5 teams out. The 70-69 OT loss against BYU on February 26th has hurt their chances, but a win against the Rebels on March 4th and if they can beat either BYU or UNLV in the conference tourney should be enough to get them in.
Venue: Thomas & Mack Center
Sponsor: Phillips 66
Dates: March 12th-March 15th
TV: The first round game won't be on TV. The first 2 quarterfinal matchups will be on the Mountain West Network. The 2 late quarterfinal matchups will be on the Mountain West TV network along with CSTV. The semifinals will also be available on CSTV. The championship game will televised on Versus at 6:00 eastern time.
Mountain West Tournament Schedule
March 12th - Opening Round
March 13th - Quarterfinals
March 14th - Semifinals
March 15th - Championship
Click
here for the updated MWC tournament bracket
Last Years Winner
UNLV Running Rebels. The home court advantage came into play with
the number 2 seeded Rebels knocking off the regular season Mountain
West champ and number 1 seed BYU Cougars. UNLV trailed 37-26 at
the half but behind a pro UNLV crowd on their home floor, the Rebels
outscored BYU by 19 points in the second half to secure a 78-70
win. After which fans stormed the floor chanting "Viva, Las
Vegas."
The Rebels were lead by senior guard Michael Umeh who scored 18 points and grabbed 7 boards while guard Wink Adams added 15 points. BYU was lead by Keena Young who set a career high scoring 34 points.
Both BYU and UNLV were dominant in the conference tourney as each knocked off their MWC rivals by double digits in the quarter and semifinals.
Although they lost BYU still received an at large bid into the Mens basketball tournament. It was deja vu for the boys of Provo as the Cougars coughed up another half time lead, this time to the Xavier Musketeers and lost 79-77 in the first round of the tournament.
UNLV on the other hand had a fine run in the tournament. After beating Georgia Tech in the first round (67-63), Lon Kruger's bunch beat the regular season #7 ranked Wisconsin Badgers (74-68) in the second round. In the sweet sixteen they ran into the red hot Oregon Ducks. The Ducks were too much to handle, namely Tajuan Porter who set a tournament record with 8 3-pointers. Thanks in large part to Porter's performance, UNLV season was ended with a 76-72 loss.
Previous Years MWC Tournament Brackets
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 2008 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.
