They’re rooting, tooting fans

Saturday, March 10, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

By Ron Kantowski, Las Vegas Sun

T hey hail from dots on the map both big and small, from rugged outposts that once were military installations (Fort Collins and Laramie) to bustling cities named for Spanish dukes (Albuquerque) and Catholic saints (San Diego).

They come from far and wide, from dusty Texas cow pastures where they keep them doggies movin' to California beach towns where the only fragrance in the air is the scent of a warm sea breeze.

They are doctors and lawyers and, if you hang around the New Mexico cheering section long enough, you just might find an Indian chief, too.

They are ranchers and farmers, public accountants and private businesspeople, current-day major generals and Latter-day Saints.

They are Mountain West Conference basketball fans, driven to Las Vegas by a shared belief and a denominator more common than a painted face in the student section - that when the indifference of February yields to the Madness of March, there's only one place to satisfy an underlying need to be true to your school.

And it ain't Denver.

It was three years ago when somebody had the not-so-bright idea that what happened in Vegas shouldn't stay here. Despite playing to sellout crowds and generating a buzz that would impress Cheech and Chong, the Mountain West kowtowed to Rick Majerus, the roly-poly Utah coach who believed that playing on its home floor provided UNLV with too much house money.

The tournament was moved to the Pepsi Center, a 4-liter-sized arena in downtown Denver, where attendance and interest fizzed like a can of flat diet soda. But with Majerus having retired and Craig Thompson, the Mountain West commissioner, having come to his (business) senses, the tournament was moved back to Las Vegas.

"It's a million percent better here," Wyoming fan "Cowboy Ken" Koretos said. "We love you guys."

Perhaps I should point out that Koretos was wearing a well-worn cowboy hat, beige and tan cowboy boots, an oversized beer barrel (if there is such a thing in Wyoming) around his midsection - and nothing else.

Welcome home, Ken. It's nice to have you back where you belong.