Many suitors for WAC top seed: Other notes

By JEFF PASSAN
Fresno Bee

In one scenario, Nevada can lock down the Western Athletic Conference tournament's top seed.

And just as easily, the Wolf Pack can take a dive to No. 5.

Packed within 1-1/2 games of each other, the top five men's basketball teams in the WAC will tangle this weekend for seeding in the March 9-13 event at the Save Mart Center. Fresno State will snag the No. 6 or 7 seed, depending on how it fares in home games against San Jose State and Hawaii, and how Louisiana Tech does in its two road games.

More than 25 possible scenarios for first place could play out this weekend, with Texas-El Paso, Nevada, Hawaii or Rice earning the top seed. Boise State, at one time 3-5 in the conference, could boost itself as high as the No. 2 seed with a victory Saturday against the Miners.

The musical chairs hinge on that game. At 13-4, UTEP could lock up an outright conference championship with a victory against Boise State, the only team to win in El Paso this season. A UTEP loss throws everything into flux. The Miners still could earn the No. 1 seed. They could drop to third. And they could cause the conference's top seed to be determined by a draw.

That's right. When the WAC exhausts its tie-breaking procedure, it holds a draw. Not exactly a fold-some-paper-and-pick-out-of-the-hat draw, but the same idea.

One scenario yields just that.

Nevada, 13-0 at the Lawlor Events Center, hosts San Jose State and Hawaii this week. Rice, 12-2 at Autry Court, hosts Louisiana Tech, then travels to lowly Southern Methodist.

Let's say they both sweep both games, Boise State beats UTEP and Hawaii defeats Fresno State. That puts the Wolf Pack, the Owls and the Miners at 13-5.

The first tiebreaker is head to head, and each of the three split their season series.

Second tiebreaker: record against the team next in the standings. That would be Boise State and Hawaii, both 12-6. The three first-place teams then would take their records against the Broncos and Warriors and combine them.

Nevada is 2-2. Rice is 2-2. UTEP is 1-3.

Bye-bye, Miners.

On down the list they'd go. Nevada and Rice both swept Fresno State and Louisiana Tech.

Then comes Southern Methodist and Tulsa, both 4-12 entering the weekend.

Nevada went 2-0 against Tulsa but 1-1 against SMU. Rice beat the Mustangs twice but split with the Golden Hurricane.

So if SMU finishes ahead of Tulsa, Rice earns the top seed. If Tulsa is ahead of SMU, pencil in Nevada for No. 1.

And if the Mustangs and Golden Hurricane end up with the same record, grab some scrap paper and a hat.

That's because Nevada and Rice both swept San Jose State, meaning the final tiebreaker would come down to the draw.

Yikes.

"Just the confidence of finishing in that top spot or the top two spots for a couple teams is going to mean finishing strong," Rice coach Willis Wilson said. "Just the imagery of being on top and getting one of those seeds."

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I don't think anything prepares you for what happened Friday."

_ SMU coach Robert Lineburg, who took over when athletic director Jim Copeland fired ninth-year coach Mike Dement three games before season's end.

WHO'S HOT

Boise State. Eight victories in nine games is nothing to scoff at, particularly when five consecutive have come without the Broncos' best player, Jermaine Blackburn.

WHO'S NOT

Dement. Sorry, but unemployment trumps any poor shooting performance.

That said, Dement should have no trouble latching on as an assistant somewhere. Almost 18 years of head coaching experience is invaluable to a young coach in need of a veteran assistant.

GAME OF THE WEEK

UTEP at Boise State, Saturday

Billy Gillispie deserves conference coach of the year for the job he did in taking the Miners from worst to first, only the third time in league history that has been accomplished. Even if the Miners lose tiebreakers, they still would be considered co-champions.

Equal props to Boise State's Greg Graham, who did what few others could: win _ and win big _ in Boise.

FINAL WORD

"It's time the politics of all this speculation cease and people start paying attention to substance. The substance is that the WAC has five teams within two games of first place with a week to go in the season. We could have five teams with 20 wins. ... This league deserves to have three teams in the NCAA Tournament."

_ Rice coach Willis Wilson, chiming in with his annual WAC-deserves-better rant.