Three-Peat...

BYU played "Senior Night Survivor" with the Air Force Falcons last night, and the Cougars' tension-filled 54-49 win means that for the first time in the short history of the Mountain West Conference, a team has won three consecutive conference championships. It also means BYU has won the conference crown in five of the league's ten seasons of existence (three shared and two outright--no other MWC team has more than one outright championship).

As noted previously, it's the first time BYU has won three consecutive league titles since the mid-1930s.

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Saturday's results also ensure that for a third straight year, the Cougars can pack light for their upcoming trip to Las Vegas--white uniforms only, as BYU has secured its third consecutive number one seed in the conference tournament.

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BYU has won its previous two quarterfinal matches as the #1 seed, topping #8 TCU 77-64 in 2007, and crushing #9 Colorado State 89-62 in 2008. BYU's record as the #1 seed is 4-2, with both losses to UNLV in the 2007 and 2008 tournament title tilts.

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In nine previous MWC Tournaments, the #1 seed has won the event just twice--UNLV in 2000 (over BYU at the Thomas and Mack Center), and San Diego State in 2006 (over Wyoming at the Pepsi Center in Denver). The #1 seed has advanced to the championship game five times in nine tournaments, with an overall record of 2-3.

Every year UNLV has been eligible for the tournament at the T&M, the Runnin' Rebels have played in the championship game, going 3-2 in five appearances--all three wins over BYU.

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By seed, the MWC Tournament champions were as follows:

#1-UNLV 2000, SDSU 2006

#2-BYU 2001, New Mexico 2005, UNLV 2007 and 2008

#3-Utah 2004

#5-SDSU 2002

#6-Colorado State 2003

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Air Force is on a 16-game conference tournament losing streak. The Falcons are 0-9 in the MWC Tournament, and lost their last seven WAC Tournament games. Air Force's last win in a conference tournament came in the 1990 WAC tourney in El Paso, 58-51 over Colorado State--the Cadets' opponent on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

As I've noted a few times, it would be ironic if Air Force finally wins a tournament game following an 0-16 conference campaign--after so many first-round exits following recent otherwise successful seasons.

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An Air Force win over CSU on Wednesday would set up a Thursday rematch with BYU, which has now won seven in a row over the Falcons. As I'm sure you noticed, every other Thursday quarterfinal is a rematch of Saturday's regular season finales.

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BYU is 1-0 v. Air Force in the MWC Tournament and 3-1 v. the Cadets including WAC Tournament competition. BYU is 1-1 v. CSU in the MWC Tournament, and 2-3 including WAC Tournament competition.

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This is the third year in four seasons that Colorado State has been involved in the "play-in" game. The Rams are 2-0 in the opening round, beating #9 seed TCU 64-60 in 2006, and upsetting #8 seed Wyoming in 2008.

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UNLV enters this year's MWC Tournament as a #5 seed--it's worst-ever. In the previous nine seasons of MWC competition, UNLV had never entered the conference tournament lower than the #4 seed. Playing in the 4/5 quarterfinal three times (as the #4 seed), UNLV has a 3-0 record, advancing through the ensuing semifinals to the championship game twice (0-2). UNLV has only been the #1 seed once, but has beaten the #1 seed three times--once in the semifinals (as a #4 seed, over top-seeded Utah in 2003), and twice in the championship game (as the #2 seed, over top-seeded BYU in 2007 and 2008).

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The Mountain West Conference will release its list of all-conference honorees Monday at 2:00pm, MST.

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Perhaps you'll agree with my belief that that NCAA Tournament play will be almost a relief to the players and coaches--if for no other reason than the opportunity to face a team that isn't so familiar with the Cougars. Coach Dave Rose noted that BYU's subpar shooting numbers in the latter part of conference play are due in part to the familiar and well-scouted nature of the second go-round in league competition. Note that while BYU's first-half performances have been less than stellar over the last couple of weeks (54/182 fg, 29.7% in the first 20 minutes of the last six games), it's been a two-way street, and the Cougars are not letting teams run away from them--even when BYU's shots are not dropping.

Either way, the ability to "start fresh" in the NCAA Tournament may be liberating, in a way. Of course, BYU prefers that the lid come off the basket in time for the conference tournament, familiarity notwithstanding.

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BYU's 24 pre-conference tournament wins (24-6) represent the second-highest such win total in BYU Basketball history--surpassed only by the 25 wins (25-6) the Cougars accumulated heading into Las Vegas last season.

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Dave Rose's last three seasons represent three of the top seven regular season (pre-conference tournament or other postseason) records in BYU Basketball history. Rose's Cougars were 23-7 in 2007, 25-6 in 2008, and 24-6 in 2009.

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Rose has four 20-win seasons in his first four seasons of coaching. The record for 20-win seasons is six, held by Stan Watts (in 23 seasons) and Roger Reid (in 8 seasons--including his first six).

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The BYU record for single-season wins is 28, held by the 28-9 team of 1950-51, which played in the NCAA Tournament (2-1), and won the NIT (3-0). The six postseason games played that season are also a BYU record. The Elite Eight team of 1981 played four NCAA Tournament games, but there was no conference tournament in the WAC at that time. In seasons including a conference tournament, BYU has never played more than five post-regular season contests (1991--three WAC Tournament games, plus two games in the NCAA Tournament).

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BYU and Utah are comfortably in the "Locks" column in ESPN.com's latest "Bubble Watch. Three MWC teams are listed in the "Work Left To Do" section.

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