BYU betting favorite to win Mountain West tourney

By Jeff Haney

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 | 7:03 p.m.

Coming off a torrid run in which it covered the point spread in nine of its 10 final regular-season games, BYU has been installed as the betting favorite to win the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament.

BYU, the tournament's No. 1 seed, opened as a 7-4 favorite (risk $1 to net $1.75), according to odds posted at the Las Vegas Hilton sports book.

Play begins Wednesday with a game between the event's eighth and ninth seeds, Colorado State and Air Force, and continues through Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

UNLV and Utah each opened at 3-1 to win the tournament, followed by New Mexico (4-1), San Diego State (7-1), Wyoming (40-1), TCU (40-1) and the field, or all others (75-1).

The following are odds from the Las Vegas Hilton to win other conference tournaments (as always, betting lines are subject to change):

ACC

North Carolina 4-7

Duke 7-2

Wake Forest 5-1

Florida St. 18-1

field 9-2

Atlantic 10

Xavier 7-5

Dayton 9-2

Rhode Island 9-2

Temple 3-1

field 7-2

Big Ten

Michigan St. 6-5

Illinois 4-1

Purdue 7-2

Wisconsin 7-1

Ohio St. 8-1

field 6-1

Big East

Louisville 5-2

Pitt 7-4

UConn 5-2

Villanova 7-1

field 4-1

Big 12

Kansas 7-4

Oklahoma 8-5

Missouri 4-1

Kansas St. 15-1

field 3-1

Big West

Cal State Northridge 2-1

Long Beach St. 3-1

field 1-2

Conference USA

Memphis 1-9

field 6-1

MAC

Bowling Green 7-2

Ball St. 8-1

Buffalo 3-1

Miami 3-1

field 7-5

Pac-10

UCLA 6-5

Washington 5-2

Cal 7-1

Arizona St. 5-1

Arizona 10-1

USC 10-1

field 20-1

SEC

LSU 3-1

Tennessee 3-1

South Carolina 5-1

Auburn 10-1

field even money

WAC

Utah St. 6-5

UNR 6-5

field 2-1