New Mexico went from being a middle-of-the-pack pick to the MWC champion, BYU proved to be worthy of its preseason hype and San Diego State and UNLV showed they are no pushovers.

Now those teams and the rest of the Mountain West Conference converge in Las Vegas this week to decide the tournament crown.

Which team will it be? New Mexico enters with the top seed for the first time in the league's 11-year history and is undoubtably the team to beat.

The Lobos, who are 5-9 in the tournament and won their only tournament crown in 2005, play the winner of Wednesday's game between Wyoming and Air Force on Thursday.

Those two teams have struggled all year and whichever one gets the honor of playing the Lobos has a big challenge to win.

However, the biggest challenge might go to Utah, which lost to Colorado State on Saturday and slipped to the sixth seed.

The Utes' reward is a matchup with UNLV, which not surprisingly has the league's best record in tournament play (17-6) and has won the championship in 2000, 2007 and 2008.

BYU has a slightly easier game, at least on paper, getting the TCU Horned Frogs. BYU swept the Frogs, including Saturday's 107-77 win.

The tournament might seem a little predictable, but only twice in the MWC Tournament's 10-year history has the top seed won.

Can the Lobos pull off the rarity?

Who's hot

There is no team hotter than the Lobos, who started league play losing their first two games, to San Diego State and UNLV, and then won their next 14 to win the conference title. Darington Hobson leads the Lobos, averaging 15.8 points a game, but three others average double figures, too, giving the Lobos all kinds of offensive options.

Who's not

As an academy school, Air Force has enough challenges when it comes to competing against other schools, but this season was even worse than expected thanks to numerous injuries that left the Falcons short-handed. The only league win was against Wyoming.

On the bubble

San Diego State can probably get an invite to the tournament with two wins, and UNLV also needs a good showing. It gets the benefit of playing at home, and a win over Utah in the first round might be enough to do it for the Rebels.

Favorite

Hard to pick any team but the Lobos given the season they put together, but BYU certainly deserves respect, and if New Mexico gets too relaxed and falls, perhaps the Cougars can be the team that profits. BYU lost to the Lobos 76-72 and 83-81 in close contests.

Dark horse

UNLV has home-court advantage and gets the pleasure of opening its tournament against Utah, a team that it lost both games to in the regular season. Avenging those losses, plus the knowledge that a bid to the NCAA Tournament is at stake might be enough motivation for the Rebels, who finished league play on a four-game winning streak.

Schedule

All times MST

Wednesday

Wyoming vs. Air Force, 3 p.m.

Thursday

Quarterfinals

New Mexico vs. Wyoming/Air Force, 1 p.m.

SDSU vs. Colo. St., 3:30 p.m.

BYU vs. TCU, 7 p.m.

UNLV vs. Utah, 9:30 p.m.

Friday

Semifinals

New Mexico vs. Wyoming/Air Force/SDSU/CSU, 7 p.m.

BYU/TCU vs. UNLV/Utah, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday

Championship, 5 p.m.