Benson hopes four teams get NCAA invites

      Karl Benson is leery of three and hoping for four.
      We're talking Western Athletic Conference basketball teams advancing to the NCAA Tournament.
      Benson, the WAC commissioner, will be watching intently the broadcast of the seeding for the 64-team tournament today at 3:30 p.m.
      Benson made it clear he believes the WAC should send four teams to the tournament.
      "If you look at the WAC's fourth-, fifth- or sixth-best teams, there doesn't appear to be a wide gap between them and the other conference's four, five and six teams," Benson said. "It's almost like splitting hairs."
      The top three Mountain Division schools (Utah, Tulsa and New Mexico) should be accompanied by a fourth team (either UNLV, Hawaii or Texas Christian), Benson said Saturday before the start of the WAC Tournament championship game between Utah and Texas Christian.
      "What I hope is that the tradition and history of a conference that has been rewarded in the past is not rewarded again," Benson said. "There's talk of sending seven teams from a particular conference just because that conference has a lot of tradition, and I think that's wrong."
      Benson said he feels nine WAC schools should make the NCAA or National Invitation Tournament and said Utah, Tulsa, New Mexico, TCU, UNLV and Hawaii were locked into the postseason.
      "If we get four into the NCAAs, I would not be disappointed," he said. "I think SMU played its way into the NIT. I think Colorado State didn't play its way out of the NIT. Fresno State is also a team you also have to talk about for the postseason."
      It would better benefit the conference to have a smaller number of schools selected and play deep into the tournament then have a high number lose early, Benson said.
      "If you look at last year, we only got two teams in but they were very good teams," he said. "New Mexico got into the second round and barely lost to Georgetown and Utah made it to the final 16. That helped us.
      "To me, it's greater for the long-term benefit of the league to have that happen then to have a lot of teams advance and all of them lose in the first round. That may even hurt a conference."
      Benson said if the NCAA seeding committee didn't select more than three WAC schools, his mind might drift back to the end of the WAC football season, when Air Force was shut out of the major bowls by the Bowl Alliance.
      "It would be hard for me not to remember that," Benson said. "I hope I don't have to."
      -- MORE BENSON -- With Utah coach Rick Majerus repeatedly criticizing the conference's decision to hold the tournament in gaming-rich Las Vegas, Benson countered by defending Las Vegas.
      "We've been able to maintain separation between athletics and the gaming industry," Benson said. "We're not going to apologize for holding our tournament on the campus of one of our member schools."
      Benson said the tournament was a hit for the people who matter most.
      "If we ever took the tournament out of Las Vegas, the first people we'd hear from are our fans," Benson said. "They've embraced the tournament and the city of Las Vegas. ... (The tournament) is not for the coaches; it's for the student-athletes and the fans."