LAS VEGAS – Three days, and six college tournament games, down and now it’s onto the MGM Grand’s Garden Arena today for the Pac 12 Conference Tournament quarterfinals, beginning with the noon tip-off between top seed and regular-season champion UCLA and Arizona State.
Before I put the Honda Accord on its way west on Harmon and then south on Koval to get to that massive entity which is the self-parking structure at the city within a city that is the MGM, my thoughts on Wednesday’s Mountain West quarterfinal games:
*How many conferences can make the claim that each of its tourney quarterfinalists is a “quality” club?
The Mountain West certainly can.
Each of the teams that played Wednesday impressed, in varying degrees and for a variety of reasons.
*I was so looking forward to watching MWC top scorer Michael Lyons and his Air Force teammates take on UNLV in the noon game.
But, alas, Lyons suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury barely two minutes, was helped off the court and into the locker room and never returned.
What an awful bit of misfortune for a very good player and a solid club that knocked off champion New Mexico last week.
*The UNLV team, especially of late, has produced the caliber of performance that would seem to be the equal of all of its impressive elements.
But, especially after intermission, that was mostly the case Wednesday afternoon.
Power (and then some) forward Anthony Bennett has been the epitome of “inconsistent” during his freshman – and only – season as a college player.
But all of those tantalizing physical and basketball skills were on display against Air Force with dozens of NBA scouting-types in attendance.
It’s difficult imagining him being selected anywhere outside of the top five or six slots. And he can enhance that perception via another solid performance in the semifinals Friday night (against Colorado State) and in a possible MWC tourney title game Saturday afternoon.
Senior guard Anthony Marshall was also outstanding for Coach Dave Rice’s Rebels.
*Colorado State’s victory over Fresno State wasn’t exactly “pretty”, minus point guard Dorian Green (out with an ankle injury).
But a lot of victories Coach Larry Eustachy has collected at head-coaching stops at Idaho, Utah State, Southern Mississippi and now Colorado State were of the same variety as Wednesday’s – accomplished through gritty, no-nonsense defense and methodical, grind-you-out offense.
Beating UNLV without Green (Eustachy said it’s “99.9 percent sure” he will not be in action) will be a tough task.
But Eustachy-coached squads off pulled off tougher tasks.
*The most impressive team on display Wednesday was New Mexico.
But the Lobos certainly didn’t overwhelm a Larry Shyatt-coached Wyoming squad that could evolve into NCAA Tourney-caliber a year from now.
The Lobos of Coach Steve Alford – who starts all non-seniors – could earn as much as a 2 or 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament bracket that is released on Sunday evening.
They looked the part most of Wednesday night with terrific defense and, offensively, solid post and perimeter play.
*A lot of the action in the final game between Boise State and San Diego State was tough to watch, largely because the Broncos struggled so much with their usually dependable jump shooting (in part, of course, to the Aztecs’ tough man-to-man pressure) while SDSU made so very careless shooting and passing decisions until the late going.
But Steve Fisher’s club tightened up its offense – and decision making – in the final few minutes to pull away.
Does BSU join SDSU, UNLV, UNM and CSU in the tourney field on Sunday?
It’s going to be tough but a huge non-conference win at Creighton and a narrow loss at Michigan State will be very eye-catching to the NCAA Championship Committee as its ponders which 37 teams will get at-large bids.
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