SAN JOSE, Calif. — An unlikely spokesman stepped up this week to promote New Mexico, UNLV and the rest of the Mountain West. Charles Barkley is as serious as a comedian, but when he talks, people listen.
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NCAA Tournament
The Mountain West stuck out its chest a little farther Sunday when five of its nine basketball teams were selected to the NCAA Tournament, but that’s already old news. What matters now is how each performs when the madness begins.
The sight of Carlos Lopez-Sosa standing in front of the bench in his warmups applauding teammates and trying to ignite the crowd has become an indelible image for UNLV fans.
It was a little past 3 p.m. Sunday when Bryant Gumbel’s brother announced that seventh-seeded San Diego State would play 10th-seeded Oklahoma in the NCAA Tournament in Philadelphia on Friday.
Brittney Griner and Baylor’s path to a second straight national championship will have a familiar feel.
UNLV is seeded No. 5 in the East Region and will open NCAA Tournament play Thursday against No. 12 seed California at San Jose, Calif.
One of the most dramatic wins of UNLV’s season was a 76-75 December victory at California on an offensive rebound and putback by Quintrell Thomas with 1.2 seconds remaining.
It’s tough to predict how far Oklahoma State will go in the NCAA Tournament, but few teams are loaded with better young talent, starting with freshman point guard Marcus Smart. He’s a good bet to go early in this summer’s NBA Draft.
This is what happened at some point in a conference room Sunday that housed the NCAA Tournament selection committee in Indianapolis: UNLV was placed in the bracket as a No. 5 seed and Cal was placed opposite it as a No. 12, and a red flag appeared on the movie theater-size projection screen displaying the matchup.
This was the condensed version. The appetizer. The 15-hour edition of something that takes the actual selection committee five days to complete. This was NCAA bracketing on speed and chocolate sauce.