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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — There’s always a traffic jam of major sports events in this market this time of year, with UNLV’s Mountain West Conference and three other college basketball leagues sharing space in Las Vegas with the MLB Athletics’ Big League Weekend, NHL Golden Knights home games (like VGK vs Pittsburgh Thursday), NASCAR’s stock car big boys this weekend and UFC fighters.
In case you’re wondering about pubic money flowing to the Mountain West and West Coast conferences, their tournaments are publicly subsidized by the LVCVA’s Las Vegas Events, with each league receiving $300,000 each. (The A’s and NASCAR race also gets LVCVA sponsorship money).
UNLV has the distinction today at 12 noon of playing the first men’s tournament game against Wyoming, which wiped out the Runnin’ Rebels by more than 30 points in a regular season game in Laramie, Wyoming, one of the windiest states visited by LVSportsBiz.com in the U.S.
UNLV played a superb first half, leading Wyoming, 44-31, after the Cowboys nailed a three-ball at the first half buzzer. Wyoming made its move in the second half thanks to a nice run and trailed, 52-48, with 11:44 left in the game. UNLV had a a 16-point lead right before halftime.
It was a 50/50 game in the final minutes, with UNLV eking out the 73-70 win, with a block by high-flying freshman Tyrin Jones, sealing the first-round win. Jones was the league’s top shot-blocker and had six in the win over Wyoming. UNLV’s Kimani Hamilton asserted himself in the second half and led all scorers with 23 points for UNLV (17-15) while MWC top scorer Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn added 15 points (all in the first half).
Let’s take a look at that Jones block that saved the game for UNLV:
UNLV coach Josh Pastner, in his postgame presser, has a flair for a Dick Vitale/Casey Stengel style of chatting. He thanked one UNLV basketball reporter for showing good attendance at press conferences even though Pastner said he disagrees with a lot of what he writes about. Pastner also focused on the topic of health with two other sports reporters.
Pastner and his crew go for win number three of the season over the top-seeded Utah State squad. The game starts Thursday at noon.
On the women’s side, Colorado State knocked out UNLV in the semis in the MWC women’s tourney and then defeated Air Force to win the automatic bid to the women’s Big Dance.
If you like roller-coaster rides, you would have enjoyed UNLV’s crazy up-and-down season that featured big overtime wins against Boise State (in Boise, Idaho) and Nevada (in Las Vegas) and an unexpected two-game sweep of Utah State, including a one-sided walloping May 3 when the Runnin’ Rebels wiped out Utah State, 92-65, in the building that’s hosting this week’s Mountain West tourney.
This is the last MWC tourney for Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Sand Diego State and Utah State. All five will migrate to the newly-resurrected Pac-12 league, while the Mountain West offices will re-locate from Colorado Springs, Colorado to right here in Las Vegas. The league office is under construction and should be open in June, MWC Commissioner Gloria Nevarez told LVSportsBiz.com before the UNLV-Wyoming game.
This might be UNLV’s basketball arena, but the Mountain West tries its best to make it a neutral site by covering up all UNLV branding and bringing in its own hardwood court. You will hear announcements for Mountain West sponsors and not UNLV sponsors.
Besides the West Coast Conference and Mountain West Conference being in Las Vegas, there are two more leagues staging their tourneys here — the WAC at Orleans Arena and the Big West at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson.
PSA