Columnist Dean Juipe: Home court is big plus for Rebels

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Feb. 29, 2000 | 10:04 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

It's a sweet deal for UNLV, no two ways about it.

While every other team, both male and female, in the Mountain West Conference has to come to Las Vegas for their postseason tournaments, both the Rebels and Lady Rebels will enjoy the comforts of home.

In the Rebels' case, that's no small advantage for a tournament that appears increasingly wide open now that Utah looks susceptible and has dropped out of the top 25.

As a result of the tournament's location, UNLV has a homecourt advantage that can't be minimized.

And that homecourt advantage makes the Rebels' seeding position something of a non-issue. While they're apt to come in as the No. 2 or No. 3 seed, whether they're No. 1 or No. 8 doesn't really matter in terms of winning the tournament championship.

We all know why the tournament is being held here and why it's under contract with the Thomas & Mack Center: Las Vegas has the hotel rooms and the night life out-of-towners crave. As a result, the Mountain West Conference -- like the Western Athletic Conference before it, when UNLV was a member -- sees Las Vegas as a central hub and the ideal location for its annual showcase events.

The fact that it's blatantly unfair to the other teams in the league is a curiosity, if nothing else. While they could have lobbied for rotating tournament sites, MWC bigwigs are so anxious to come to Las Vegas for a long weekend that they've agreed to a situation that penalizes seven of their eight members.

This year's tournament will be held March 9-11.

In the interim the Rebels, who are 8-4 in league play and 18-7 overall, have two regular-season games to be played.

The first of those games, Thursday at San Diego State, shouldn't tax the Rebels too severely, while Saturday's game with New Mexico at the T&M presents a far greater challenge.

UNLV, of course, is playing for more grandiose stakes than Mountain West tournament seeding, and feels a need to win its remaining games in an effort to slip into an NCAA Tournament that seems increasingly distant.

It's clear the Rebels will have to win out to qualify for an NCAA tourney berth.

It's equally clear that as few as one MWC team may be summoned to the Big Dance and that Utah, in spite of its recent downturn in fortunes, is going for sure unless it suffers a complete collapse. As a result, teams such as UNLV and New Mexico that are still alive in the NCAA sweepstakes cannot lose another game and keep their dream alive.

Purely by luck and Las Vegas' ability to successfully market itself, each of UNLV's remaining key games will be played on its home court.

So while their seven MWC colleagues joust with elements such as hotel life, distractions and ordered-out food, the Rebels come to the most crucial point in their schedule with everything tilted in their favor. They'll be rested, they'll be playing in a familiar building with familiar sight lines, and they'll even be within walking distance of school (for those who are concerned by such things).

Fair or not, the Rebels -- no matter their tournament seed -- will have advantages their opponents can only envy.

They're living proof that it's good to live in Las Vegas.