March 5, 2011

SALT LAKE CITY (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV men's basketball team won at Utah on Saturday afternoon, 78-58, and finished the 2010-11 Mountain West Conference season in third place, earning the No. 3 seed for next week's Conoco MWC Men's Basketball Championship, which will be held at the Thomas & Mack Center, March 9-12.

The Runnin' Rebels (23-7, 11-5) will face No. 6 seed Air Force (15-14, 6-10) in the 8:30 p.m. quarterfinal game on Thursday, March 10, which will be televised live on both The Mtn. and CBS College Sports. All eight games of the MWC Championship will be broadcast in high definition.

The Runnin' Rebels and Falcons will be squaring off for the first time in MWC Tournament play. UNLV holds a league-best 19-7 all-time record in the MWC Championship, while Air force is 2-11 overall in the tournament. The Runnin' Rebels hold a 25-8 lead in the all-time series with the Falcons after sweeping both meetings this season.

UNLV is 9-1 all-time in the quarterfinals of the MWC Tournament, with its only loss coming in 2009 to San Diego State. The MWC Tournament has been held in Las Vegas eight times (2000-03, 2007-10) and UNLV has won the title three times (2000, 2007, 2008). The Runnin' Rebels have advanced to seven MWC Tournament championship games (six in Las Vegas and one in Denver).

BYU enters the MWC Tournament as the No. 1 seed for the fourth time in the league's 12-year history. The Cougars (28-3, 14-2) finished in a tie with San Diego State for the regular season championship, but won the tiebreaker by virtue of their 2-0 record vs. the Aztecs during MWC play. BYU will face the winner of Wednesday's first-round game between No. 8 seed Wyoming (10-20, 3-13) and No. 9 seed TCU (10-21, 1-15) on Thursday at 12 p.m. (The Mtn. HD). Wednesday's first-round game between the Cowboys and Horned Frogs will be at 2 p.m. (The Mtn. HD).

No. 4 seed Colorado State (19-11, 9-7) and No. 5 seed New Mexico (20-11, 8-8) will face off at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday (The Mtn. HD/CBS College Sports HD), while No. 2 seed San Diego State (29-2, 14-2) and No. 7 seed Utah (13-17, 6-10) will meet at 6 p.m. (The Mtn. HD).

The semifinals will take place on Friday, March 11 (6 and 8:30 p.m.), and the championship game is scheduled for Saturday, March 12 at 4 p.m. The winner of the tournament will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

All-session and single-session tickets for the 2011 Conoco Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Championship are now on sale at the Thomas & Mack Center box office, online at UNLVTickets.com or by calling 702-739-FANS. The Thomas & Mack Center box office will be open Monday, March 7 at 10 a.m.

The MWC Tournament has produced six different champions in its 11-year history. UNLV (2000, 2007, 2008), San Diego State (2002, 2006, 2010) and Utah (2004, 2009) are the only teams to have won multiple titles, followed by BYU (2001), Colorado State (2003) and New Mexico (2005) with one apiece.

The No. 1 seed has won the tournament just twice in 11 years. UNLV won the inaugural championship as the top seed in 2000, while San Diego State became the second No. 1 seed to claim the crown in 2006.

Teams seeded No. 2 through No. 6 have all captured tournament championships, while the No. 7 seed is 0-1 in title games. The No. 8 and No. 9 seeds have yet to appear in the championship game.

A MWC regular-season champion has made it to the finals of the MWC Tournament seven times in 11 years (UNLV in 2000; BYU in 2001, 2007 and 2008; Utah in 2005 and 2009; and San Diego State in 2006), winning the championship four times. San Diego State is the only team to win both an outright regular-season title and the tournament crown in the same year (2006).

UNLV has played in the championship game in six of the seven years that the MWC Tournament has been held at the Thomas & Mack Center and it was eligible to compete (2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2010) - UNLV was ineligible to compete in the 2001 tournament.

2011 CONOCO MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

Wednesday, March 9 (First Round)
2 p.m., No. 8 Wyoming vs. No. 9 TCU, The Mtn. HD

Thursday, March 10 (Quarterfinals)
12 p.m., No. 1 BYU vs. No. 8/9 winner, The Mtn. HD
2:30 p.m., No. 4 Colorado State vs. No. 5 New Mexico, The Mtn. HD/CBS College HD
6 p.m., No. 2 San Diego State vs. No. 7 Utah, The Mtn. HD
8:30 p.m., No. 3 UNLV vs. No. 6 Air Force, The Mtn. HD/CBS College HD

Friday, March 11 (Semifinals)
6 p.m., Quarterfinal #1 and #2 Winners, CBS College HD
8:30 p.m., Quarterfinal #3 and #4 Winners, CBS College HD

Saturday, March 12
4:00 p.m., Championship Game, VERSUS HD

2011 Conoco MWC Basketball Championships Central

2011 Conoco MWC Men's Basketball Championship Bracket