Albuquerque Journal

Flanagan Against MWC Shift
By Ken Sickenger, Journal Staff Writer

New Mexico women's basketball fans thoroughly enjoyed last season's improbable Mountain West Conference tournament final.
   
Fourth-seeded UNM edged No. 6 San Diego State 62-59.
   
Other MWC coaches didn't care for the low-seed final and have since voted to make such title games even more unlikely.
   
Starting in March, an altered MWC women's bracket will give the top two seeds byes to the tournament semifinals. The No. 3 seed starts in the quarterfinals, while seeds four through nine must win four games to grab the conference's automatic NCAA berth.
   
The MWC men's bracket (previously used for women's teams) will not change.
   
New Mexico coach Don Flanagan and San Diego State's Beth Burns voted against altering the women's tournament format, while new UNLV coach Cathy Olivier abstained from a vote held during a coaches' meeting earlier this summer.
   
Other coaches felt the new bracket would reward teams that excel during the conference regular season. They approved the change by a 6-2 vote, and the format was recently posted on the MWC Web site.
   
"Three months of playing everyone twice has to mean more," Utah coach Elaine Elliott said Tuesday, "instead of just going to the tournament and everyone starts over."
   
Elliott and Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said MWC coaches have considered changing the tournament bracket for several years. However, the new format was adopted following an upset-filled conference tournament in which top-seeded Utah lost to No. 9 Colorado State, and No. 6 SDSU knocked out both No. 3 Wyoming and No. 2 TCU.
   
Flanagan, whose team has won five of the past six MWC tournaments, believes the new format will make it difficult for a squad seeded fourth or lower to prevail.
   
"To me, the old bracket gave everyone a level playing field to win the tournament," Flanagan said. "Now you're asking lower seeds to win four games, while the top seeds only have to win two. Fatigue's going to play into that."
   
Other conferences use various brackets for postseason tournaments. Some, like the ACC and Pac-10 give first-round byes to high seeds, while others don't include low regular-season finishers in their brackets. MWC coaches settled on a bracket similar to one used by the West Coast Conference.
   
"It was important for us to have something where every team participates," Legerski said, "but we felt like having some byes would reward teams that prove themselves over time."
   
Elliott said the new format should help top MWC teams build RPI and NCAA r鳵m鳮
   
"Right now there's a big gap between the top and bottom teams in our league," she said. "When you play lower teams, your RPI drops, win or lose. It actually hurts your RPI to be one of the top seeds in the tournament and have to play a low seed right away."
   
Last season's MWC tournament certainly did nothing to help its top seeds. Utah and Wyoming, both of which were ranked in national Top 25 polls most of the season, got little respect from the NCAA committee. The Utes (27-4) were seeded sixth and had to face Purdue on its home court, while Wyoming received a No. 11 seed. TCU had to settle for a WNIT bid.
   
Elliott conceded that her team's NCAA standing was hurt by its much-publicized loss to lowly Colorado State, but she believes upsets won't be as damaging under the new MWC format.
   
"People can say, 'You should've won the (CSU) game,'" Elliott said, "and I can accept that. But we would've lost RPI points either way.
   
"With the new bracket, a top seed is more likely to play a No. 4 or No. 5 in the semifinals. Then a win helps and a loss doesn't hurt as much."
   
One positive about the change is that it will relieve some of the early-round court congestion at UNLV's Thomas and Mack Center during the MWC tournament. Three first-round women's games will be played on Tuesday, March 10, with two second-round games accompanying the men's play-in game on Wednesday. Last season there were five Wednesday games, with the last beginning at around 10 p.m.
   
A potential bug in the plan is that low-seeded women's teams will play twice before the top two seeds ever take the court.
   
"That is a concern, that a team could get on a run," Elliott conceded. "But if that happens, it happens. I still think this benefits the best teams."
   
Legerski believes MWC tournament upsets will continue, which could lead to more bracket tinkering.
   
"Low seeds can still get on a roll and there will still be upsets," he said. "Our league is so strong, this all may turn out to be a work in progress. We'll see."
   
    Flanagan Against MWC Shift
   
    Women's Bracket Benefits Top Seeds
   
    women's hoops