Steve Alford’s New Mexico Lobos beat UNLV 63-56 in Las Vegas, Nevada, in what was essentially home court advantage for UNLV, for the Mountain West Conference title on Saturday.
The discussion immediately turned to where New Mexico, a team ranked No. 2 in the RPI and who has the second toughest strength of schedule, would be ranked.
Alford felt his team should be in the discussion for a No. 1 seed. Though that is not likely to occur, New Mexico may well get a No. 2 seed.
“I’ll put our starting five up against anybody,” Alford said. “I just hope our league gets the respect it should have.”
Tony Snell scored 21 points for New Mexico (29-5).
The Mountain West Conference will get at least four teams into next week’s tourney, but New Mexico’s and UNLV’s strong performance may convince the selection committee of the conference’s strength in order to add Boise State to the tournament field to give the Mountain West Conference five teams in the field.
The conference was home to some tough basketball this year, and Mountain West Conference teams may surprise teams–and the media–who have not paid attention to their games this past college basketball season during the tournament next week.
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