Larry Nance Jr. (22) is a great player that not many folks outside of the Mountain West Conference. (Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports)
Thoughts from 38,000 feet somewhere over Nebraska, heading back to Birmingham from covering the first two days of the Reese’s Mountain West basketball tournament …
Everybody knows what the Mountain West has been in college football in recent years. Former members Utah and TCU were there, highly ranked and muddling things for the BCS conferences.
Of course, current member Boise State, which considered bolting to the Big East before staying where it should be in a better football conference, has been a thorn in the side of the BCS leagues for a long time.
Here’s some trivia for you. Do you know what team is the winningest in all of college football for the past decade (2003-2012)? Sorry Southeastern Conference, home of the past seven national champions. It’s not you.
Boise State ranks as the No. 1 winningest program in those 10 years. How about those four SEC national champions … LSU ranks second, Florida is eighth, Auburn is 15th and Alabama is 16th. Maybe those guys should paint their fields blue! (By the way, TCU is sixth, due much to those Mountain West years.)
The “new” expanded Mountain West promises more of the same in football in 2013, complete with the excitement generated by its first-ever championship game.
But, the best kept secret in college sports this year has been Mountain West men’s basketball, or at least it has been until just recently.
At the end of the regular season, the Mountain West had the highest conference RPI ranking of any league in the country. Five of their teams had at least 21 wins, and how many leagues can say that?
Remember there are only nine conference basketball schools. Hawaii is football only. Five league teams (CSU, San Diego State, New Mexico, UNLV and Boise State) made the NCAA Tournament. That’s more than half of the conference’s membership that made the Tourney. The SEC only got three teams in the field. The Pac-12 and Big 12 had five teams. The Broncos kick off the league’s slate on Wednesday in Dayton when they take on La Salle in the Tournament’s play-in games.
After watching five tournament games, take this piece of advice. When you fill out your brackets for the big tournament this week, you’ll be wise to look real closely at the Mountain West teams and who they play. Don’t take these guys too lightly. They play a good brand of basketball. …
In case you haven’t been to a Mountain West basketball tournament or even to one of the league’s regular season contests, don’t doubt the fans passion for the game.
Boise State had over 11,000 for a home game this season, while San Diego State had a 12,414 sellout for every home game. UNLV averages over 15,000 at every home game and had a season-high 18,577 against San Diego State in February.
But, nobody does it better than New Mexico. The Lobos, a legit Final Four contender if things fall their way, have perhaps the nation’s most hostile home crowd advantage at “The Pit” in Albuquerque. The Lobos average over 15,000 for every home game. And, when the team goes on the road, the fans go with it.
If you’ve been to the SEC men’s tournament, you understand. It’s a sea of blue regardless (Kentucky faithful) of where those games are played. It’s the same with New Mexico. It was a sea of red and black on Wednesday at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, and that was just a first-round game.
When the home-standing UNLV Lady Rebels faced the Lady Lobos in the women’s tournament first-round on Thursday, the home fans were drowned out by the Lobo crowd that filled at least half the seats.
Lady Rebel head coach Kathy Olivier summed it up best when asked “how strange was it to play in your own building and have that kind of support for the opposing team?”
“Strange? I wouldn’t say strange,” she said. “That’s what they do. I’m pretty sure if they played in Alaska, they’d have 4,000 or 5,000 people there. They’re a great fan base. This is the Pit West.”
Wyoming’s Larry Nance Jr. may be the best player you never heard of.
OK, you old guys have heard of Larry Nance. He had an outstanding career as a Clemson Tiger, then a better career in professional basketball playing with the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers. He won the first NBA Slam Dunk contest.
But, this is Larry Nance, Jr., son of the guy from decades ago. He’s a sophomore forward for the Cowboys, and he shows the same smooth play around the basket, the same versatile scoring touch, the same rebounding prowess that his father had. And, he can dunk it, too. The younger Nance lost about 15 pounds recently when he was under the weather and apparently it caused his play to improve, according to league and team contacts. If that’s the case, his sickness had a silver lining.
Look for Nance to make some noise next season.
Same for Deonte Burton, a junior guard for Nevada, who averaged almost 16 points per game for the Wolf Pack, the ninth seed in the tournament. He was WAC Player of the Year in 2011-2012 before moving to the Mountain West and it’s easy to see why. Remember his name next season. …
And last but certainly not least, to the raucous crowd when UNLV took the court against Air Force last Wednesday night, with former Running Rebels head coach Jerry Tarkanian making an appearance.
Sitting at an elevated perch just behind the end line in front of the pep band, Tark the Shark – with no towel to be seen – looked sometimes like an elder statesman intent on the game, sometimes like an old man almost asleep about to fall out of his chair.
It really didn’t matter. He did nothing to bring attention to himself, but he didn’t have to. Everybody knew that he was there.
And, as the large, loud crowd in red and black roared with every UNLV basket, and with assistant coach Stacey Augmon on the Running Rebel sideline, it seemed a lot like the glory days of a couple of decades ago.
Basketball is still alive and well at Thomas & Mack.
Thanks, Coach Tark, for everything.
