To understand the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament, you must understand that Air Force was involved in a one-possession game in the final two minutes 10 times in conference play.

	“	These are not tournament games for UNLV. They are not neutral site games. They are home games. Their beds, their fans, their structure, their time zone, no travel, a familiarity in shooting. It is a tremendous advantage for them. They have all the things that are germane to a home team having success. ”
		— Rick Majerus, Utah coach

You must understand that Colorado State won just three Mountain West games, but trailed by just two with under a minute left on the court where BYU has won 35 straight.

You must understand San Diego State went 2-5 in the first half of league play and 5-2 in the second.

You must understand Nevada-Las Vegas is hotter right now than the guy at Caesar's holding a straight flush.

You must understand Wyoming won the regular-season title outright, but that five of its 11 wins came by five or fewer points.

You must understand that Utah has the league's player of the year.

You must understand this: Any team, one through eight, can walk out of Las Vegas a champion on Saturday night.

"I know Wyoming is the No. 1 seed and by that should be the obvious favorite, but I'm not so sure there is an obvious favorite," said BYU coach Steve Cleveland. "This is all up for grabs."

So says, well, everyone.

SDSU played three overtime games in conference. UNLV played four. Wyoming played three. Air Force and CSU played two each. Utah and New Mexico played one each. Thirty-seven league games were decided by 10 or fewer points.

"We feel if we go in there and play our best basketball, we can win the tournament," said SDSU coach Steve Fisher, whose team opens as a No. 5 seed against No. 4 BYU. "That's the beauty of our league, that we can legitimately say that. But there is also some fear in that statement, because five or six other teams can say the same thing."

So you look for any advantage. Two to consider: