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Logan • Utah State coach Tim Duryea doesn't mind the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament being held in Las Vegas.

He just wishes everybody was still invited.

The Mountain West announced recently its men's and women's basketball tournaments will be played at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas through 2019.

In addition, the league announced that, starting in 2017, only the top eight teams in the regular-season standings — not all 11 schools — would qualify for the tournaments.

On Monday, Duryea declined to criticize the fact the tournaments are held in Las Vegas. Like many of his peers, however, he wishes the games would not be played on UNLV's home court.

"Las Vegas is a great site for the Mountain West tournament — that has been proven out," Duryea said. "The issue the coaches have had isn't so much that it's in Vegas, but that it's at the Thomas & Mack [Center]. We would like to see a venue change, either to the MGM or to the new arena. It would make it a little less biased toward UNLV. That's the issue the coaches have had."

Duryea is "disappointed" the Mountain West wants to drop three teams from qualifying for the tournament.

"The issue with only eight teams going … is not something that the coaches are in favor of and never will be," he said. "Everyone deserves to go to the conference tournament."

Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt was more outspoken and, Monday night, the Mountain West issued a public reprimand for his outspoken criticism of the decision to reduce the tournament field.

In a statement, the league said, "It is expected coach Shyatt will address any future concerns he may have via the appropriate internal conference channels. The Mountain West will have no further comment regarding this matter."

According to Shyatt, the conference's Board of Directors, which is composed of the school presidents, made the decision without input from the coaches. He called it a "shocking announcement," which "stripped … 28 percent" of all Mountain West basketball players the opportunity to compete in the postseason.

"When the presidents and athletic directors met a couple of weeks ago," Shyatt said, "there was no — I repeat no — communication or dialogue to discuss any such action. I spoke constantly with our assistant commissioner for men's basketball, who also had no communication or dialogue about the action that would take place.

"In an age of mass communication, it's embarrassing that perhaps the most intelligent group of men and women at our institutions would choose to eliminate, strip and remove from three teams the opportunity they have worked for … without any discussion or opportunity to speak to one single coach or student-athlete involved.

"Furthermore, it would be equally distressing if there was a president or athletic director [who] thought for a moment … something like, 'Who cares what the coaches or student-athletes think about this action?' Could there be a more sad and shallow kind of communication and understanding? Yes, we the coaches and student-athletes were bamboozled, as president Obama would say."

After the decision was announced, Shyatt said, commissioner Craig Thompson told him finances was the No. 1 reason behind the reduction in the tournament fields.

"Men's basketball, however, has been the torch-bearer for our league — specifically since the departure of Utah, BYU and TCU," Shyatt said. "In fact, in men's basketball, we have received 17 NCAA bids the last five years. That is approximately 3.5 bids per year."

Shyatt concluded: "In my opinion, this action was wrong, non-inclusive and quite opposite to where student-athletes' welfare has gone in the last few years. If we can take action for unlimited nutrition and meals and add the cost of attendance money for student-athletes, why would we limit the men's basketball conference tournament opportunities? Simply to save money?

"This goes against the core of where mainstream collegiate athletics has been headed, which is student-athlete opportunities and well-being. Why remove … our young student-athletes' last opportunity and their dream to compete for a berth in the Big Dance? I only pray that these opportunities for these student-athletes will be restored soon."