Monday, March 1, 1999 | 11:49 a.m.
Consistency was rewarded Sunday as the Western Athletic Conference's coaches selected UNLV star forward Shawn Marion to the Mountain Division first team all-conference squad.
Marion, who also was accorded WAC Player of the Week honors after averaging 25 points and 16.7 rebounds in three games last week, was the lone UNLV selection to either the first or second team.
Southern Methodist guard Jeryl Sasser was named the player of the year in the Mountain Division. He and Marion were joined by Colorado State's Milt Palacio, Rice's Robert Johnson and Texas Christian's Lee Nailon on the first team.
The second team consisted of Tulsa's Michael Ruffin and Brandon Kurtz, Wyoming's Ugo Udezue, Air Force's Tyron Wright and TCU's Marquise Gainous. Rice's Willis Wilson was the Mountain coach of the year and Tulsa guard Greg Harrington was the freshman of the year.
On the Pacific side, Utah's Andre Miller, as expected, was the division player of the year and headed the first team that included teammates Alex Jensen and Hanno Mottola, New Mexico's Kenny Thomas and Fresno State's Courtney Alexander.
The second team had Texas-El Paso's Sharif Fajardo and Brandon Wolfram, New Mexico's Lamont Long, San Jose State's Michael Quinney and Brigham Young's Mark Bigelow, who also was the Pacific's freshman of the year. Utah's Rick Majerus was selected coach of the year.
The WAC also selected all-newcomer and all-defensive teams and Marion made both while teammate Greedy Daniels was an all-defensive selection in the Mountain. Former Western High star Prince Fowler of TCU also was tabbed to the Mountain all-defensive team.
* LATE START: Normally, WAC officials are setting up the Thomas & Mack Center Sunday afternoon for the start of the women's tournament today. But because the building was hosting an LDS conference during the afternoon, the WAC couldn't begin preparations until after midnight.
It forced some juggling of practice schedules for the eight women's teams that are in action today and made for a long day Sunday. But everything was expected to be in place for the start of play today.
* SORTING OUT SCENARIOS: Before Thursday's games, there were so many possible scenarios for qualifying and seeding for the WAC tournament that conference officials decided to wait a day to see how things shook out.
Good move. What were 256 possibilities prior to Thursday had dwindled to a much more manageable 16 by Friday morning. And with only one coin flip needed and the flip involving two future WAC teams (Fresno State and UTEP), commissioner Karl Benson opted to handle the proceedings himself.
Benson was prepared to have a representative from the KPMG accounting firm handle it so there would be less controversy had a future Mountain West school been involved. But that wasn't necessary, and with Fresno winning at Hawaii and UTEP losing at BYU, everything was moot.
* A STREAK NOT TO SHOOT FOR: Air Force lost at Colorado State Saturday, it marked the Falcons' 39th straight WAC road loss. But with the Academy leaving for the Mountain West, it won't get a chance to put a halt to the skid. Air Force's last WAC road win came Jan. 14, 1995 at Fresno State, 72-62.
* RPI CHECK: No doubt everyone will be watching the Ratings Percentage Index this week as NCAA at-large berths are on the line.
As of Sunday, Utah led the WAC at No. 27. Tulsa, by virtue of its road wins at SMU and TCU, improved to No. 30. The Golden Hurricane is a team to keep an eye on though Bill Self's team is looking at a possible semifinal matchup with the Utes Friday.
Despite losing to Tulsa, TCU still is in decent shape at No. 34. But the Horned Frogs may have to get to Saturday's championship game to have a realistic shot at an at-large. From there, it drops off significantly to UNLV at No. 57 and Fresno State at No. 70. Rice is at 80 and Colorado State is 86.
New Mexico got drilled at Utah Saturday and sits at No. 87. The Lobos' strength of schedule is rated No. 227 out of 310, yet they were still in the Associated Press' Top-25 last week. They could be the wild card in the WAC's search for bids.
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