WAC basketball coaches hail equal footing with Vegas move

Taking a page from the West Coast Conference, the Western Athletic Conference has eliminated the opportunity for its basketball coaches to complain about a team having a home-court advantage during the conference tournament.

WAC coaches praised the move to Las Vegas and a neutral venue Wednesday after the league officially announced it will play its 2011 and 2012 tournaments at the Orleans Arena.

"From an equity standpoint, it makes a lot of sense," said Utah State coach Stew Morrill, whose Aggies overcame UNR's home-court edge in March to win the WAC tournament at Lawlor Events Center in Reno, which also will host the 2010 event.

"It seems like there are fewer and fewer at-large (NCAA Tournament) bids for non-BCS schools, so the automatic bid becomes even more critical. You just want an equal chance and not to have to play on someone's home court."

Hawaii coach Bob Nash said the move might improve attendance by his team's fans.

"Vegas is a destination of choice for a lot of our fans. ... It could definitely help us," Nash said. "But the most important thing is having a neutral floor. It's a very good deal for all the teams to have that level playing field."

WAC commissioner Karl Benson said coaches have pushed hard for a neutral site and Las Vegas made the most sense. The hard part was convincing the school presidents.

"This has been a three-year process," Benson said. "We ran into a red light in 2007 when the presidents didn't want to accept a bid from Las Vegas. But when the WCC decided to come to Las Vegas, our presidents looked at that and instructed me to explore coming to the Orleans. That was a blinking yellow light. And after what we saw of the WCC's success at the Orleans, we got the green light, and here we are."

The school presidents voted 9-0 to move to Las Vegas. A few details remain unfinished, such as whether to allow betting on the WAC tournament at the Orleans sports book and whether to serve alcohol in the arena.

Benson said neither issue would be a deal breaker. The WCC asked to have its tournament games kept off the betting board at the Orleans, and the property agreed.

The 2011 WAC tournament will be played March 9 to 12, the same dates as the Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center. But Benson said he doesn't envision any conflicts.

"Las Vegas is big enough for both of us, and I think we can do some things together and complement each other," he said.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913.