MWC Men's Basketball

The Mountain West Conference is a Division I athletic conference which encompasses nine schools ranging from California all the way to Texas. The conference began play in 1999 after being created on May 26, 1998 when eight schools split off from what was the then sixteen team Western Athletic Conference. http://www.themwc.com/about/mwc-about.html Eight of the nine schools currently in the conference were charter members, with only TCU joining late, before the 2005-06 season. http://www.themwc.com/about/mwc-about.html

Teams in the Mountain West Conference play each other school twice during the regular season, once home and once away, for a total of sixteen conference games. There then is a conference tournament with the winner advancing to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament affectionately known as March Madness via an automatic bid.

The University of Utah is the defending champion from the conference tournament, after upending San Diego State 52-50 in the conference title game in 2009. In the history of the conference, only UNLV (three times) and San Diego State (twice) have won multiple conference tournament titles. http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/mwc/sports/m-baskbl/auto_pdf/mensbasketball-2009.pdf

MWC 2009-2010 Season

Mountain West Conference 2009/10 New Mexico has clinched the regular season title and the top seed in the conference tournament thanks to an 83-81 victory in Provo, Utah last night over BYU. http://www.themwc.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/022710aac.html They have won 13 games in a row and sit at 13-2 in the conference, while BYU fell to 11-3. UNLV is in third place with a 10-5 conference mark, followed by San Diego State at 9-5. Utah (7-7), Colorado State (6-8), TCU (5-9), Wyoming (2-12) and cellar dwelling Air Force (1-13) round out the standings. http://www.themwc.com/sports/m-baskbl/mwc-m-baskbl-body.html

Jimmer Fredette of BYU is the conference's leading scorer, averaging 21.1 points per game. Meanwhile, Kawhi Leonard of San Diego State is the leading rebounder, pulling down 9.5 boards a contest, and Ronnie Moss of TCU leads in assists with 6.2 a game. http://www.themwc.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2009-2010/confldrs.html#conf.wki

The Mountain West Conference tournament kicks off on March 10. 2010 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference title game will be held on March 13, 2010 at 7:00 pm ET on Versus. http://www.themwc.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/mwc-m-baskbl-sched-full.html

History

The Mountain West Conference celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2008-09. It was established on May 26, 1998 of presidents of eight institutions. The Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV, Utah and Wyoming. TCU is the newest member of the conference.

The UNLV won the MWC Tournament title back to back over BYU, Rebels defeated the Cougars in 2006-07, 78-70 and in 2007-08, 76-61. The team earned automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for second consecutive season. Craig Thompson is the commissioner of the Division I Men's Basketball since 1998.