BYU basketball: Post-game thoughts after Cougars down Wyoming

A few random thoughts following BYU’s 78-61 win Wednesday night over Wyoming, clinching a second straight regular-season Mountain West Conference crown for the Cougars …
MARRIOTT CHECK-OUT: With Wednesday night’s home finale and all remaining games to be played away from Provo, the Cougars close out the season with another perfect home record. That’s 47 on hold for the next eight months – during which time it remains the nation’s longest current streak of consecutive home victories.
That’s 16-0 this year, 17-0 last season and 14-1 the year before, with BYU falling to Loyola Marymount in the 2005-06 season-opener, which was the debut game for BYU head coach Dave Rose.
WAKE-UP CALL?: Who are the nonconference contenders to test the Cougars’ home-winning streak next year? That remains to be seen, since the nonleague schedule won’t be announced until late next summer. However, thanks to a home-and-home arrangement started this season, one guaranteed visitor will be ACC powerhouse Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
BACK-TO-BACK: The Cougars are the first team to win consecutive Mountain West Conference regular-season titles. No MWC team has won back-to-back conference tournament championships. UNLV, which again hosts the league tournament this year, won the ’07 tourney crown.
BYU’S TOURNAMENT LOCKS: There are a few guarantees when it comes to the Cougars and the NCAAs, but they have to do with sites, not seeds.
Because of BYU’s policy against Sunday play, the Cougars will end up at one of the four Thursday-Saturday subregionals – Washington, D.C.; Omaha, Neb.; Anaheim, Calif.; or Denver. The latter three are the closest 2008 subregional sites to Utah.
The Friday-Sunday subregionals will be played at Birmingham, Ala.; Little Rock, Ark.; Raleigh, N.C.; and Tampa, Fla.
And the regional sites? Hosting Thursday-Saturday games are East Regional host Charlotte, N.C., and West Regional host Phoenix. The other sites are Detroit (Midwest) and Houston (South), with the Final Four set for San Antonio, Plaisted’s hometown.
NCAA SEEDING: It’s been interesting to watch BYU’s fluctuations in the recent NCAA seeding projections – particularly in ESPN.com’s “Bracketology” by Joe Lunardi.
The Cougars soared to a No. 6 seed after beating UNLV and Utah at home and winning at San Diego State, given a red “up-arrow” icon as a team on the rise. The Cougars then win in OT at New Mexico (a tough task – just ask UNLV, which lost at the Pit Tuesday night) and then romped over Air Force on Saturday, and BYU drops to a projected No. 7 seed with a blue “down-arrow” icon as a team on the decline.
Oh, and UNLV beats SDSU and TCU at home and moves up as a red “up arrow” to a No. 8 seed. Go figure.
Even if the Cougars continue their winning ways to – and even through – the MWC Tournament finale, don’t be surprised if the seeding remains stagnant or even drops some more. Here’s the thinking – some higher-projected teams will falter, but not below BYU, in the eyes of prognosticators, who will also become enamored with some of the hot-of-late teams who may post a couple of upsets in major conference tournaments.
Especially since many of those conference tournaments will be shown on the likes of ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports … and the Mountain West’s tournament will be on The mtn. (quarterfinals), CSTV (quarterfinals and semifinals) and Versus (finals).