Dave Rose will miss being hated.

A certain amount of animosity makes his BYU basketball team attractive in the Mountain West Conference. Becoming that kind of draw in the West Coast Conference will take awhile.

"As you travel around the league, you really appreciate the fans and their passion for their teams," Rose said Monday. "When BYU comes in, it's a special game. That's one of the fun things about coaching at BYU: You get good crowds, wherever you go."

That should remain true in the WCC, although the Cougars will be supplying their own fans on many of those campuses.

Wednesday, the Cougars will begin their farewell tour of the MWC at UNLV, while preparing to join the WCC as a side effect of the BYU football program's move to independence. Utah's last trip around the league also starts Wednesday, at Air Force.

As much as I'm anticipating Utah's Pac-12 competition and the variety of BYU's schedule in football, I'll miss Mountain West basketball. The Utes and Cougars are leaving this league when it's getting good, for one thing. And the history, the venues, the coaches and the fans of those schools will not easily be replaced.

Something about having Wyoming play BYU and Utah a combined 334 times in basketball since 1925 makes the Cowboys part of the fabric of life around here.

In contrast, how many BYU fans can identify every WCC school? Hint: There are three in Southern California, three in the Bay Area and two in the Northwest.

And how many Utah fans could name the preseason top five in the Pac-10? Hint: Oregon is not included.

(Answers below).

This week's AP Top 25 will not offer many clues to either question.

Two members of the WCC are receiving handfuls of votes; a Pac-10 school is No. 23. In addition to BYU, San Diego State and UNLV are ranked. The Mountain West should have another four NCAA Tournament contestants in March.

In the West, "Everybody talks about Pac-10, Pac-10, Pac-10, Pac-10. Where I'm from, it's Big Ten, Big Ten, Big Ten," said Jeff Smith, a fourth-year Utah assistant coach. "From top to bottom … this is as good a basketball league as there is in the country."

Beyond that, there's a level of familiarity with the schools. Far fewer fans travel to basketball arenas than football stadiums. Yet even if you've never visited New Mexico's Pit, Colorado State's Moby Arena or Wyoming's Arena-Auditorium, you know how those gyms look and feel, right?

The Pac-10 can offer the tradition of UCLA's program, but the Bruins won't be coming to Salt Lake in 2011-12, thanks to the scheduling rotation.

And while I've endorsed the WCC as a nice landing spot for BYU basketball, the league's cozy gyms are nothing like UNLV's Thomas & Mack Center.

Rose believes BYU's coming in as a conference opponent will create more of a revved-up atmosphere than the Cougars have experienced when visiting WCC venues in the past, but let's just say his team will be treated a lot better in California than in Laramie or Albuquerque. Maybe that's a good thing, but it sure won't be the same.

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com

Answers: West Coast Conference members: Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Portland, Saint Mary's, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Clara. Pac-10 preseason top five: Washington, Arizona, UCLA, Arizona State and Washington State.