2008 Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
| 2008 Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Division I |
| Season | 2007–08 |
| Teams | 9 |
| Site |
Thomas & Mack Center Paradise, Nevada, NV |
| Champions | UNLV (3rd title) |
| Winning coach | Lon Kruger (2nd title) |
| MVP | Wink Adams(UNLV) |
| Television |
MountainWest Sports Network, CSTV, Versus |
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The 2008 Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournament was played at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada from March 12–15, 2008. The tournament was sponsored by Phillips 66 and all first round, quarterfinal, and semifinal games were broadcast live on the MountainWest Sports Network and CBS College Sports Network, while the championship game was broadcast on Versus.
For the second straight year, tournament host UNLV defeated regular season league champion BYU 76–61 to win the Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
BYU entered the tournament as the first team in Mountain West history to win back-to-back regular season titles.
* Denotes regular season champion.
Source:
Note: Asterisk (*) denotes game ended in overtime.
Source:
Before the game, Wyoming held the lead in all-time matchups against Colorado State, 125–83, and had won every matchup this season. It was the third meeting of the two teams in MWC Tournament play. The Rams are now 7–7 in Mountain West tournament history, while the Cowboys are 6–9. 9th seed Colorado State entered the contest with 8th seed Wyoming having gone 0–16 in conference play during the regular season, but stunned Wyoming with a 68–63 win during the first round game of the tournament. Junior Marcus Walker led the Rams with 22 points followed by true Freshman Andre McFarland with 18. Wyoming received 29 points from Junior Brandon Ewing, 19 of which were in the first half. Colorado St. went on to play top seed BYU.
Colorado St. kept it close through the first half by shooting threes, but BYU took off early in the second half. BYU shot over 70% in the second half. BYU's Lee Cummard was the player of the game.
Lorrenzo Wade sank four free throws and grabbed a critical rebound in the final seven seconds, allowing San Diego State to edge Air Force 53–49.
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