Commissioner says event still on rise

Rob Miech and Ron Kantowski

Thursday, March 13, 2003 | 10:03 a.m.

Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson has been very pleased that the popularity of the league's basketball tournament has grown with each year.

Heading into Wednesday's games, the conference had taken in about $1.3 million in ticket sales. Thompson is confident that the gross take in the tournament will surpass last year's $1.385 million, which will translate to a record attendance figure.

"Can we reach $1.5 million?" said Javan Hedlund, the director of communications for the Mountain West. "Yeah, I think we can, because fans just keep coming."

With 20 more points, he will pass Kenny Page's 1980 production of 784 points for the best single-season total in school history. His 1,764 points top the Mountain West career scoring list.

"Just playing hard every night, trying to be consistent," Douglas said of what's driven him. "That's what it came down to. One of my goals, coming into this season, was to be consistent. As the season went by, I was consistent. I gave it my all every night. I didn't take a night off."

"I didn't watch the game, but my players did," Utah coach Elaine Elliott said. "They love to follow the game. They were on their cell phones, telling each other the score. The kids were into it."

The coach, however, didn't think the Huskies' loss was the end of the world.

"They lost. So what? I'd hate to feel like that's the big focus right now," she said. "You just have to pick it up and play the next one."

"Start the jet!" they yelled.