Las Vegas takes its annual place as the “center of the college basketball world” during conference tournament week, but with the Pac-12 all but dissolving next season this “could be the final year that the local schedule is so crowded,” according to Case Keefer of the LAS VEGAS SUN. This week, four conferences will hold their championship events in town, with the Pac-12 at T-Mobile Arena, the Mountain West at the Thomas & Mack Center, the Big West at the Dollar Loan Center and the WAC at Orleans Arena. However, if it is the final year of the current schedule, at least Las Vegas is “set up to make the most of it." The final four tournaments scheduled here this year -- the West Coast Conference wrapped up at the Orleans Arena on March 12 -- are “particularly intriguing” (LAS VEGAS SUN, 2/14).
MOVING UP A NOTCH: In Las Vegas, Ed Graney noted the MWC still holds its conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV, where it has been for 22 tournaments, but with the fall of the Pac-12, T-Mobile Arena would “likely have an opening during tournament time come each March.” The Mountain West contract with the Thomas & Mack expires this year, and even if reports are true that the two entities have “agreed on a one-year extension for 2025,” Graney wrote it is “essential the conference strongly pursues T-Mobile Arena as a future host.” An 8-year-old “fancy venue such as T-Mobile Arena would immediately raise the conference’s profile” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 3/13).
