MWC needs to balance priorities

It appears the hip meaning of "Best of Both Worlds" refers to a Hannah Montana song. Strange. I assumed it implied those days when there is enough hair left to be moved by a gust of wind and buttoning 2-year-old jeans doesn't result in a stroke.

This is certain: It indicates nothing about the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament.

Las Vegas again hosts the event this week and is by far the best destination in terms of location and entertainment for fans of nine men's and women's teams and monetary gain for the league. Games will be played at the Thomas & Mack Center, by far the best venue for just one school.

In returning its tournament to UNLV's home court through at least 2010, the Mountain West chose the potential for sizable gates over the fairness of complete neutrality. You can understand why.

Money reigns supreme within conferences, particularly those that receive just a crumb of the massive Bowl Championship Series pie. It was impossible to discover both large crowds and a neutral setting when the tournament was staged at the spacious Pepsi Center in Denver, where sparse and often hushed gatherings gave the impression of your average wake.

It's impossible to find both here, also -- at least on UNLV's campus.

The UNLV men have won 21 straight home conference games dating to last year, including three in a league tournament that preceded an NCAA run to the Sweet 16. The Rebels have every chance to be picked among the league's top two teams next season and will undoubtedly contend for titles as long as Lon Kruger runs the program.

(This just in: He's a pretty good coach.)

But the better UNLV becomes, the more right eight teams have to groan about the prospect of playing the Rebels in their own building while pursuing an automatic NCAA berth. It goes both ways. Any UNLV fan that doesn't believe a selection committee wouldn't seriously downgrade the Rebels for an early exit on their floor this week is delusional.

"I understand the concerns," Kruger said. "Absolutely. It's going to be at the (Thomas & Mack) at least three more years, so a lot of this is a moot point. But the ideal thing for everyone would be another site in Vegas."

Long-term deal in place or not, conference officials already should be pursuing such a venue. The best option is moving the event into a proposed 20,000-seat Harrah's/AEG Arena, which could open in 2010 if groundbreaking commences this summer. But another possible choice is the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which for such a tournament could seat 13,000 after space is allotted for media.

"We'd be happy and willing to host such a tournament if the deal made sense," said Scott Ghertner, director of public relations for MGM Mirage. "We've never been approached about it, but would certainly be happy to entertain any calls that come our way."

It's not an easy decision. The league tournament has averaged upward of 14,000 from the semifinals on each time it has been staged at the Thomas & Mack, and last year drew more than 16,000 for the championship. There's no guarantee a deal with the MGM would be as good or better than the current one on countless points it takes to run such an event.

Still, if construction of the AEG project stalls and a reasonable agreement could be made with the MGM, wouldn't it be better to forfeit a few thousand seats for a neutral court in the same city?

One of the smartest things the Mountain West has done is refuse to participate in the Bracket Buster, an annually contrived made-for-ESPN concept that distinguishes programs as midmajors. But it's also the largest league that doesn't host its conference tournament on a neutral court (St. John's only plays a handful of Big East regular-season games at Madison Square Garden), which fairly or not gives the perception of nonmajor status.

"It's a case of all of us wanting our cake and eating it, too," San Diego State athletic director Jeff Schemmel said. "We want that nice big payday and also a neutral site. It becomes very difficult to achieve that balance. All nine teams should have an equal shot at victory, and something other than a venue should determine who wins. It should always be the team that plays best that day.

"I think everyone would agree Las Vegas is the first choice of fans. If we could find a way to make it a more neutral-court setting, that would make it more beneficial."

For now, it's not the best of both worlds.

Unless you prefer Hannah Montana to hoops.

Ed Graney's column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.