LAS VEGAS – Suppose, if you will, that a survey was taken early last week of all of the media that covers the basketball programs from within the Mountain West and Pacific 12 conferences whose questions included:
Who will be the Most Valuable Players in the respective tournaments?
In the MWC, junior point guard Kendall Williams of regular-season champion New Mexico – the conference’s 2013 Player of the Year – would have received a lot of support.
So would have 2012 POY Jamaal Franklin of San Diego State and so would have soon-to-be NBA lottery selection in MWC Freshman of the Year Anthony Bennett of UNLV.
And Tony Snell, a slender 6-7 forward who is the second-leading scorer but fifth-leading rebounder for UNM? Not quite so much.
As for the Pac 12, regular-season POY Allen Crabbe of Cal might have received the most mention and, certainly, conference FOY Shabazz Muhammad of UCLA – who grew up in Las Vegas and was the consensus national Prep POY at the town’s Bishop Gorman High – would have been neck and neck with Crabbe in consideration.
How many votes would Oregon’s 5-8 junior Jonathan Loyd – the team’s seventh best scorer and sporting something in the neighborhood of a 35 percent field goal shooting percentage – have received? Perhaps three if girl friends and parents were suddenly deemed “Pac 12 media”.
The beauty of this whole “March Madness” phenomena is the time and time-again example of players “rising to the moment” and turning in performances that capture not only the appreciation of their coaches, teammates and program fan bases but of the college hoops-watching and –obsessed nation as well.
And two of the latest – and most pronounced – examples of that did their things in Las Vegas last week.
If someone would have mentioned a possible storyline last week of a Las Vegas high school graduate bagging MVP honors while leading his club to the Pac 12 tourney title – and I’m sure some writer, or two or three, in print or the Internet, did just that – Muhammad would have been the subject matter.
But the delicious irony was that it was the Gorman grad some nine or so inches shorter than Muhammad and wearing one of those glow-in-the-dark, key-lime pie-looking uniforms, clutching the MVP hardware while the Oregon Ducks were celebrating and being celebrated for their 78-69 title victory over Muhammad and his teammates Saturday night in the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Some five hours earlier, barely two miles east on the campus of UNLV, it was Snell who was being saluted by 1000s – and probably something like 8-9,000 – of Lobos fans’ who made the trek from Albuquerque and watched Steve Alford’s team hold off the host Rebels, 63-56, for the conference title.
By the time the buzzer had sounded in Thomas & Mack Center early Saturday evening, the identity of the soon-to-be announced MVP was beyond a foregone conclusion.
*Wednesday night, Snell scored 15 points, with three rebounds, two assists and two steals, in during the Lobos’ 59-46 victory over No. 8 seed Wyoming.
*The semifinals were played on Friday night, and – although he certainly wasn’t thinking such – Snell began his MVP campaign in earnest.
He hit five of eight shots from behind the arc as part of a 17-point performance, coupled with five rebounds and four assists, to help the Lobos polish off No. 4 seed San Diego State, 60-50.
*He removed the last of any remaining MVP suspense on Saturday, knocking in another five 3-pointers (in seven attempts) en route to a 21-point, three-assist effort in the pandemonium that was Thomas & Mack with its tourney-record and ear-piercing dueling 18,500-plus UNLV and UNM enthusiasts.
Gonzaga has long been considered the best team in the west region this season and was elevated to No. 1 in the national polls a few weeks ago as it continued to mow down West Coast Conference competition while Indiana and Duke were taking turns getting knocked off the perch.
Truth to told, though, I’m not sure how much better – if at all – the Bulldogs are than Steve Alford’s Lobos.
And, based upon the look of the tournament when the bracket is released Sunday evening, I’d think there is a strong chance they’ll hook up at some point in West regional action.
I’m assuming the Bulldogs will be the No. 1 seed in the West, with the Lobos a 2 or 3 in the same region, meaning they couldn’t possibly meet until the March 30 West final at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
And that would be a dandy – one of the first “true West” title games in a while.
Loyd was a lightly recruited standout at Gorman when signed by Altman and his staff in the spring of 2012 as their first prep recruit after coming over from Creighton.
An on- and-off starter his first two seasons, Loyd was a reserve behind freshman Dominic Artis this season under Artis suffered a foot injury and was sidelined in February.
Loyd’s play over three days in the MGM was nothing short of scintillating.
In fact, the Ducks would have likely been on a flight to Eugene early Friday morning if the for the little fella.
Loyd came off the bench in relief of Artis against Washington and contributed four assists and the most critical steal of the tournament.
With jump shooter-deluxe C.J. Wilcox of the Huskies about to launch what could have been a game-winning jumper in the closing seconds of regulation, Loyd stripped the ball from him to help his team live to play another five minutes, which they used to pull away for an 80-77 victory.
No such heroics were needed out of the soon-to-be hometown hero Friday night, when he had 10 points during the 64-45 semifinal win over Utah.
But his play – while mostly matched against Larry Drew II, the best PG in the conference – was the linchpin of the team’s performance against the Bruins, delivering 19 points, three assists and two steals, seemingly delivering a jump shot or dish a for a teammate’s bucket every time Ben Howland’s team was on the verge of launching another of the comebacks that got them into the building for Saturday night.
Loyd’s play helped make Oregon’s performance in Las Vegas as successful as was Commissioner Larry Scott’s – and the Pac 12 presidents’ – decision to move the tournament from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
The building was mostly stuffed Thursday-Saturday, something that was a rarity in recent years at the Staples Center.
I doubt seriously the tourney will be played in other city, at least in my lifetime – which, of course, I’m all for lasting a quite a bit longer.
Larry Drew III is the best point guard in the Pac-12?
There is not a quick guard in the conference that D-3 could stay in front of. But yes he was the best point that Coach Howland has had starting since Darren Collison graduated. Seven years and counting the Bruins haved failed to bring in a PG that would be a worthy starter for more than one season. (Holiday was a worthy starter, but was there only one season and did not play point).
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