Mountain West Tournament 2013 bracket: Deep MWC field full of NCAA Tournament subplots

The final days of an especially exciting Mountain West basketball season are upon us, as the league’s championship tournament tips off Tuesday, March 12. As of Sunday, the Mountain West is projected to have five teams in the NCAA Tournament field. New Mexico, Colorado State, San Diego State, and UNLV are tournament locks, but fifth-seeded Boise State is firmly on the bubble and could play themselves into our out of the field of 68 this week. The Broncos open against San Diego State, a team they defeated 69-65 in the regular season finale.

The top seven seeds earn a spot in the quarterfinals of the nine-team tournament by virtue of their conference records. The final two participants, No. 8 Wyoming and No. 9 Nevada, will face off at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday for the right to face New Mexico in the quarterfinals. The Cowboys, who won their first 13 games and snuck into the No. 25 spot in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll in week 10, collapsed in conference play; Wyoming went just 4-12 in the Mountain West and lost their last five league games entering the tournament. They did win their two previous meetings with Nevada this season, however.

CBS Sports Network will begin television coverage of the tournament on Wednesday, March 13, and will also air the tournament semifinals on Thursday, March 14. The championship game will be shown on CBS on the afternoon of Saturday, March 15.

The full tournament schedule is available at the Mountain West’s official site. The tournament schedule is below (all times Eastern):

8:00: No. 8 Wyoming vs. No. 9 Nevada (Game 1)

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