UNLV last won the Mountain West Conference tournament in 2008.
Las Vegas, NV (Sports Network) -
The 20th-ranked UNLV Runnin' Rebels again get to enjoy some home cooking as they entertain the Wyoming Cowboys in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center in Sin City.
The third-seeded Rebels, winners of this annual event a total of three times, but not since claiming the trophy in 2008 thanks to a 76-61 beating of BYU, has a distinct advantage against the Cowboys and the rest of the league members because the team has gone undefeated at home (17-0) in 2011-12. Also good news for UNLV is the fact that the team closed out the regular season with three wins in the last four outings, and that final triumph was a 74-63 in this very building against this same opponent only five days ago.
As for the sixth-seeded Cowboys, a program which has appeared in the title game only once in the previous 12 years of this event and lost to San Diego State in 2006 in overtime, they had one of their best overall seasons in recent memory with 20 wins in 30 opportunities. The squad hit a number of snags in conference play, but did manage to take down these same Rebels at home in early February by a score of 68-66, so there is certainly reason to believe Wyoming can make it happen tonight.
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Race for top seeds: Kentucky, Syracuse and two question marks
By Jared Trexler, Contributing College Basketball Editor
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) -
The college basketball regular season unofficially came to an end with William Buford's last-second shot to beat Michigan State, forcing a three-way tie in the Big Ten and leaving the race for the final two top seeds for the NCAA Tournament even more up in the air.
No matter what Kentucky and Syracuse accomplish in their respective conference tournaments, both are locked into the top line when the brackets are unveiled this Sunday (can you believe it's here already?). The Wildcats are the nation's top team, and regardless of the SEC's reputation this season, it is nearly impossible to run the table in your league, taking every team's best shot and winning, in Kentucky's case, eight conference road games.
Syracuse is deemed the nation's top club by the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) and finished 17-1 in the Big East, the second hardest conference by RPI standards and a league vying for as many as 10 bids to the big dance.
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