A bittersweet goodbye to my favorite event of the year — I’m really going to miss the Mountain West Tournament

LAS VEGAS — Thanks for the memories.  

Sitting in the airport on Saturday, observing the chaos that is Harry Reid International, I couldn’t help but think about how much I’m going to miss covering the Mountain West Tournament. 

There will be great competition in the new iteration of the Pac-12 and covering that basketball league is a challenge I’m looking forward to. But after 10 years of making the trek out West to the UNLV campus for a couple of days of nonstop hoops action, and maybe a cold one or two out on the strip, the thought of Friday night being the last time we’ll see San Diego State and New Mexico fans fill the Thomas and Mack Center is genuinely sad. 

The first time that I got to attend the event was back in 2017. After earning my stripes for a few years with the Rocky Mountain Collegian, it was the first big event that I got to travel for as a credentialed member of the media. I’ll never forget how exciting it felt the first time that I picked up my press pass and walked down to the court of the Thomas and Mack Center. I was basically working for free but it meant everything to a 21-year-old who felt like he had made it to the big time. 

Within the first few hours of being in the building, I got to meet and have a real conversation with Reggie Miller. In hindsight he was probably appeasing me out of politeness, but the whole moment felt so surreal. I mean, can you believe it? A real-life NBA legend talking about Gian Clavell and the CSU Rams with me? At that moment you couldn’t tell me a thing. I felt like Dan Patrick, like Bill Simmons, like all of my heroes. 

Now a 30-year-old who has been around the block a time or two, the glisten in my eyes might be a little less apparent than it once was. I don’t feel quite as starstruck around every recognizable face in the arena. Thankfully, I’m not sweating through my shirt with nerves, just hoping not to ask too dumb of a question during the postgame press conference. My love for the Mountain West Tournament is as strong as it ever was though. There’s just nothing quite like it. 

I’ve covered games in SEC football stadiums, NHL playoff series, you name it at this point. All of them were fun and unique experiences in their own way. In a decade-plus of covering CSU athletics, though, without a doubt my favorite tradition has been coming out to ‘Sin City’ and watching teams from the only league I’ve ever known battle it out on the hardwood. 

This league isn’t the Big-12. It doesn’t typically get the respect that even conferences like the Big East seem to command nationally. But anybody who truly loves the sport knows just how high-level the competition is within the Mountain West. 

From Jimmer Fredette to Kawhi Leonard, Josh Adams to Sam Merrill, Andrew Bogut to Nique Clifford, and everybody in between, this has always been a basketball conference that is deceptively stacked. And year after year, these teams produce some absolutely electric matchups — both over the course of the regular season and then out at the conference tournament as well. 

The 2020 championship game between SDSU and Utah State was one of the best matchups I’ve ever seen at any level. I can still look back and see Merrill cashing the game-winning three in my mind and it gives me the same chills it did back then. 

Seeing Jaelen House lead New Mexico to four wins in four days in 2024 was one of those runs that felt straight out of an NBC show. As did Nique Clifford’s tear through the conference in the spring of 2025. But regardless of who seemed to come out on top, every year I would leave thinking how I can’t wait to be back. That is, of course, until now. 

Conference realignment is nothing new. I was all of 3 years old when former CSU President Albert Yates spearheaded the creation of the Mountain West, along with representatives from the Air Force Academy, BYU, Utah and Wyoming. The league would later bring New Mexico, San Diego State and UNLV into the fold after word had gotten out about the potential of a split of the WAC. 

Over the years we’ve seen significant changes when it comes to the members. TCU came and went. BYU and Utah bolted for greener pastures and bigger paychecks 15 years ago, which resulted in the MW essentially killing the WAC by taking in Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, San Jose State and Utah State; a move that frankly was incredibly savvy and allowed for a really fun stretch of competition over the last decade-plus. But the point is that this is not exactly new territory for the conference or the sport — even if it feels like much of the romanticism that once existed is all but gone now, as schools across the country abandon their history in hopes of keeping pace in the modern arm’s race. 

While I unapologetically agree with CSU’s decision to bet on itself in this turbulent time for college sports and in doing so strive for something bigger in the Pac-12, the sentimental sports fan in me is frankly going to miss the conference I’ve spent a quarter of a century being obsessed with. 

I was 8 years old when CSU men’s basketball went on one of the craziest runs the league has ever seen, upsetting each of the top three seeds en route to the most improbable conference tournament win of all-time.  It was really the first time that I became enthralled with college hoops, and from there, my love for the sport, and for this league specifically, just seemed to grow with every year. 

I was in high school when CSU finally got its act together and became relevant again in the Mountain West hoops conversation, and though it might sound insane to some, those late-night games on CBS Sports Network were part of what affirmed my decision to attend my dad’s alma mater. I wanted to experience Moby Madness. I wanted to see players like Jimmer come to town. I wanted to be a part of it all. 

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that all these years later, I’d still be just as obsessed with MW hoops as I was in my childhood. But I’m eternally grateful for all of the opportunities I’ve had to hear SDSU fans scream “WE WILL BE VICTORIOUS” while the band plays Uprising by Muse, or to chuckle to myself while watching the USU students do their Scotsman routine.

I’ll miss seeing the way Lobo fans take over Vegas when UNM has a shot to go dancing, and walking to In-N-Out with colleagues from around the league, some of which I won’t get to be around as frequently moving forward. I’ll even miss getting the occasional harassment from Wyoming fans, who love to remind me the Pokes stole CSU’s bid back in 2015. 

There are a lot of great conference tournaments across the country and maybe someday I’ll experience a few more of them. The Mountain West Tournament will always have a special place in my heart though. I’m really going to miss this chapter.

Thanks for the memories, old friend. It’s been one hell of a ride.