For a Mountain West that has 11 members for basketball and 12 for football, including UNLV, how it reacts to a sudden defection could shape the league for its foreseeable future.
Basketball
UNLV is intent on erasing last year’s NCAA Tournament first-round loss when the 11th-seeded Lady Rebels play sixth-seeded Michigan on Friday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The once-proud program has now gone a decade without qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.
UNLV’s basketball team grinded out an overtime win against Air Force in a Mountain West tournament play-in game and next face Boise State.
The trio of Desi-Rae Young, Justice Ethridge and Essence Booker pushed UNLV past San Diego State in the Mountain West semifinals Tuesday.
Desi-Rae Young was the only DI player in the nation to average 18-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and shoot better than 60 percent. And she wasn’t named conference Player of the Year — a certain mistake.