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Colorado State head coach Tim Miles takes to the court for a time out during their game against BYU Thursday, March 13, 2008.
Wyoming's "Man in the Can Fan" watches as his team is defeated by Colorado State Wednesday, March 12, 2008.
An unauthorized look at Day 2 of the Mountain West Conference basketball championships at the Thomas & Mack Center:
--- Let's see, how do I put this without overstating it. OK, I think I've got it. UNLV's 89-88 quarterfinal victory over TCU might have been the best college basketball game I've ever seen. Without going back into the media guide (because finding it among this stack at press row would be nearly impossible), I'd put it right alongside the Rebels' 120-117 double overtime victory over Ruben Douglas and New Mexico in the 2002 MWC quarters and the Rebs' 97-92 win against Wyoming in a pulsating semifinal in 2000. I don't have grandkids, but if I did, I'd be bouncing them on my knee someday and telling them about the 3-point play that Wink Adams made with 3.4 seconds to play in 2008. And hearing the Thomas & Mack Center roar as if a locomotive had gotten loose on Paradise Road and came crashing through the wall in Section 202.
--- But was it a foul? It was a heck of a shot, as Adams dribbled right with time running out, propelled his body in the air as only he (at least among this year's Rebels) can and sank the game-tying basket over what seemed like half the state of Texas, and maybe part of Oklahoma, too. A split second later the whistle blew. The foul could have been on any one of three Horned Frogs. Or, perhaps, none of them, which is what the replay seemed to show. "I was fouled," Adams said with a wide grin that seemed to say he wasn't. Neil Dougherty, the TCU coach who recently was reprimanded for criticizing the officials, entered the postgame press conference with a band-aid on his tongue from having to bite it. "I'm already in trouble, what do you guys want me to say?" said the top Frog in the pond. "I think he made a tough shot. I'll watch the tape, as I always do. Then I'll keep it to myself." So mark Dougherty down for a "no." It wasn't a foul. But lordy, was it ever a great shot.
--- TCU made 17 of 23 from 3-point distance -- 17 of 23! -- and still lost. Is that even possible? Curtis Terry, the UNLV point guard who sank a couple of his own from way out there, didn't think so. "It was like I told Brent Hackett (the TCU guard who was in a zone with his jump shot that previously didn't exist) late in the game. 'It's gonna be a shootout.' He just said 'Yeah, it's gonna be that way." Added the Frogs' Kevin Langford, "We made a lot of shots that we don't even practice."
--- This is normally the place where I'd write something about the New Mexico-Utah game. It's shaping up as a great one, too. A lot of people are yelling and screaming and making wolf sounds. But I'm still catching my breath from the Rebels' game and it's going on 11 o'clock. Sorry, but I'm tired.
--- OK, nothing like a can of cold Mountain Dew. My eyes not only are open again, they sort of look like Steve McClain's (the bug-eyed former Wyoming coach). Utah won. In overtime. With guys dunking all over the place, a shot rolled off the rim at the buzzer. What did you expect, somebody would win by seven? Uh-uh. It's the Mountain West tournament. And it's only Thursday for cryin' out loud.
--- He's on his way home now, but if there was an an all-tournament team based on coaches making glib comments to the media, Colorado State's Tim Miles would be a lock for the first team. On Wednesday, Miles walked into the postgame press conference invoking the names of George McGovern and Walter Mondale after his Rams ended a 17-game losing streak with a victory over Wyoming in the play-in game. On Thursday, after CSU was bounced 89-62 by top-seeded BYU, the monologue continued. "You've got to use your imagination on this one, but BYU reminds me of the Harlem Globetrotters," said the youthful-appearing Miles, who looks more like an accountant than a basketball coach. "And oddly enough, didn't the Washington Generals wear green and gold?" Somebody in the media congratulated Miles on the victory over the Cowboys, and on playing hard against the Cougars. Then he asked if Miles would do his tax return.
--- I'm no Natalie Vickers -- for those who don't get The Mtn., she's the host of the MWC postgame show -- when it comes to breaking down the motion offense. But it seemed the difference in the BYU-Colorado State game, besides the fact the Cougars are pretty good and the Rams are not, is that BYU made an awful lot of shots and missed very few, although I don't have the stats in front of me to back it up. Wait a minute, now I do (thanks MWC stat guy). Yup, the Cougs chucked the ball at the rim 46 times and it went in 30 times. That's 65.2 percent. Pretty good.
--- After watching Colorado State the past two days I have come to the conclusion that No. 43 is a bad number for a guard. That's the number Willis Gardner, a 6-foot-1 sophomore from Norristown, Pa., wears. It just looks wrong on him. Forty-three looks real good on a stock car. Maybe even on a power forward who comes off the bench. Not on a guard. About the only time you see No. 43 on a guard is in Boston, because all the cool jersey numbers there are hanging from the rafters. Sometimes you even see No. 28 on a Celtics guard. Bob Cousy times two, I guess.
--- BYU's Lee Cummard, the MWC co-player of the year, just walked past me wearing this ball cap -- as my Grandma used to call them -- that looked two sizes too big with a brim roughly the size of Nebraska. And just as flat. He didn't exactly look like Curly Neal or, for that matter, any of the other Globetrotters. But I'll take Tim Miles' word for it.
--- Me: "I'll take 'Hodge Podge' for $80, Alex." Trebek: "Death, taxes, the over on Rex Grossman interceptions and Air Force losing its quarterfinal game in the Mountain West tournament." Me: "What are two things that will kill ya', one that will make you angry if you're a Bears fan and one that defies logic?" Trebek: "No, sorry. Sure things. What are sure things is the answer we were looking for." Air Force fell to 0-9 in MWC first-rounders, even though San Diego State spent the second half playing the home game of "Concentration." Or Lack of Concentration. The Aztecs went 14 minutes without a field goal after the break yet somehow still managed to win, 53-49.
--- When it comes to the X's and O's, San Diego State's Steve Fisher is rarely confused with Hank Iba or Pete Newell or Clair Bee or one of those other old-school coaching legends Bob Knight is always paying homage to. Put another way, Fisher's no Wizard of Westwood. But he sure made the right move at the end of the game after the Aztecs took a three-point lead. Rather than letting Air Force run the Picket Fence one more time and risk one its B-52 bombers sinking a game-tying trey, Fisher had the Aztecs foul Tim Anderson with 3.3 seconds left. Anderson made the first free throw, missed the second on purpose and San Diego State got the rebound, also on purpose. Game, set, match for the Wizard of Pacific Beach.
--- During halftime of the UNLV-TCU game, they had some sort of cheerleading extravaganza featuring megaphones and mascots from all nine schools. When the BYU cheerleaders ran onto the court, the pro-Rebel/anti-Cougar crowd booed as if somebody had just booted a routine double play ball at the old Vet in Philadelphia. Or maybe they were just chanting "Lou."
Click here for recaps of the games that won't mention any of this stuff.
Good call on the 2002 UNM game. Sitting on my couch 1,000 miles away, that was precisely the flashback I was having, right down to pulling out what hair I have left... except back then I was doing it in Section 111, not some place where "The Mtn." is the thing Ducks fans drive over to get to Wazzu games.
Yeah, a lot of the guys on press row mentioned that New Mexico game after the Rebels and Horned Frogs finally stopped making 3-pointers. Not as many people remember that Wyoming game, but it was something special, too.