The Mountain West conference was easily the best conference in the west and could easily be considered one of the best in America – and all of this in a year where they lost one of their better programs, BYU, to the WCC.\u00a0 UNLV, New Mexico, and SDSU are all nationally legit programs that are, at least, in the same area code as any league’s top 3.\u00a0 Plus, comparing conferences isn’t exactly easy when they all are different sizes.\u00a0 Let’s look at the “middle” of this conference – Colorado St., TCU, and Wyoming.\u00a0 Do they stack up with the 8-9-10 in the Big East (WVU, UConn, Seton Hall)?\u00a0 Not quite, but it’s close.\u00a0 What about the 5-6-7 in the Big XII (K-State, Texas, Ok State)?\u00a0 Again, probably not, but it’s close.\u00a0 Or, the 6-7-8 in the SEC (Miss St., Ole Miss, LSU)?\u00a0 I might take the MWC.\u00a0 The ACC’s 6-7-8 (Miami, Clemson, Maryland)?\u00a0 I’ll definitely take the M-West.\u00a0 Okay, enough senseless rambling, we’ve got 49 great games today…<\/p>\n
Interestingly, only 3 people went with the top-seeded Aztecs to win this tournament.\u00a0 The majority of the field took #3 UNLV, actually.\u00a0 But, even though people don’t seem to believe in the top two seeds, not one person picked either of them to get upset before the semifinals.<\/p>\n
Championship Picks Biggest Upsets Previous CTC Champions<\/em> #1 San Diego St. vs. #8 Boise St. All 20 people took SDSU, but only 3 have them winning this tournament.<\/p>\n #4 Colorado St. vs. #5 TCU 5 people went with TCU in the mild upset here (KA, Lil Lohse, RSmith, Stri, Waters), with KA taking them to reach the finals.<\/p>\n #2 New Mexico vs. #7 Air Force All 20 people took New Mexico here, with 6 of them picking them to win the whole thing.<\/p>\n #3 UNLV vs. #6 Wyoming Dave and J both have Wyoming winning here, but going no further.\u00a0 The other 18 have the Runnin’ Rebels here, with 11 of them tagging them as their champion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Mountain West conference was easily the best conference in the west and could easily be considered one of the best in America – and all of this in a year where they lost one of their better programs, BYU, … Continue reading
\n<\/em>3 for #1 San Diego St. (Dave, Rikey, RSmith)
\n6 for #2 New Mexico (Alexi, Gross, Lil Lohse, RDoc, Stri)
\n11 for #3 UNLV<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>QF – #6 Wyoming (Dave, J)
\nSF – #5 TCU (KA)<\/p>\n
\n2011 – Bry\/J*
\n2010 – Stri
\n2009 – Lynch
\n2008 – J<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Another fantastic job by Steve Fisher, as his team from last year was gutted (and now in the NBA), and yet they still won this great league and are heading for a white-jersey seed next week, with the possibility of a protected seed.\u00a0 Boise St. is no walkover, though, as the Broncos are as good as (if not better) than every single last-place team in America.\u00a0 In fact, I’ll make that an official opinion.\u00a0 With the possible<\/em> exception of Penn St., Boise St. is the best last-place team in America.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>TCU isn’t exactly on the bubble because the beginning of their season was terrible, but they are playing as well as anyone in this conference right now, so the bubbilicious CSU team better be careful.\u00a0 I love this Colorado St. team, but, like most teams in that great state, it is always interesting to see them play away from the altitude.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>People talk about UNLV and SDSU, but tend to forget about how good New Mexico has been this year.\u00a0 But, like SDSU in the opener today, they better be careful because Air Force is no pushover.\u00a0 They can rise up and beat you, if you’re not ready.<\/p>\n
\n<\/em>Wyoming made a name for itself with a gaudy non-conference record that was built on the back of a borderline pathetic strength of schedule.\u00a0 But, the Cowboys were learning how to win, and they brought it to the MWC.\u00a0 They play fantastic defense, which is always a good thing this time of year.\u00a0 And, remember they already have a UNLV victory on their resume this year, so this wouldn’t be a total shock.<\/p>\n