The New Mexico St. Aggies are not a bad basketball this team, but the New Mexico Lobos were the unanimous selection to win the Mountain West. So, we will see if this just a blip on the radar or if New Mexico was over rated.

CBS has decided to pick up the UNLV vs. New Mexico basketball game at the newly renovated Pit. This would be the second time in two years that over-the-air CBS has decided to pick up a Mountain West basketball game. Last year it was the San Diego State vs. BYU tilt that the network picked up. This game takes place on 11 a.m. MT. on Saturday, Feb.18, the game also will be broadcast online at CBSSports.com

"We are very excited about the opportunity to have a national TV game in the Pit again," said head coach Steve Alford. "The UNLV game in the middle of league play on CBS has the potential of a great game and atmosphere."

UNLV and New Mexico should be the two teams to battle for the conference title and hopefully this game will be as exciting as last year's CBS game, and that this trend continues of CBS picking up a basketball game and promoting it CBS. There is nothing to not like about this and I wish that this would happen for football, like say the TCU vs. Boise State game in early November. A 10 a.m. MT kickoff would not be ideal and be a solid lead in for the SEC game of the week (not that they need it). It has been done before when the Mountain West was partnered with ESPN and I even recall a 9 a.m. kick for a San Jose State home game a few years back.

More exposure is better and perhaps when the Mountain West renegotiates their television contract they can get more over-the-air games if they stay with CBS and Comcast who now owns NBC.

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New Mexico and UTEP have played each other 141 times in basketball dating back to their days as conference members in the WAC, and now current Lobo coach Steve Alford is not in favor of continuing the rivalry over a dispute about a shoot around time during a NIT tournament game at the The Pit last year.

The two coaching staffs got in a verbal spat over the warm up times and both sides took their shots to the media after the incident. UTEP head coach Tim Floyd is still in favor of continuing the series even after the incident:

"I think we should play every year until they take the air out of the basketball. We come up here next (season) because it's important to the fans of the programs."

It is a shame that this longstanding rivalry -- dating back to 1929 -- will go to the wayside because of an issue over what time a team was to practice. Hope this is a very short intermission in this rivalry.

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New Mexico athletics seem to have a negative story every few months or so. Everyone is aware of Mike Locksley and his troubles, recently there was the removal of Deshom Marman for having his pants to low, and now there is the report that $4,000 went missing from the basketball offices back in 2010:

Vice President Paul Krebs declined to comment Tuesday on what disciplinary action was taken after the incident but said UNM doesn't have evidence to suggest an employee stole the cash from a locked filing cabinet.

This was found out during a recent audit that faults Krebs for not reporting the missing money sooner. It is not like the Lobos are rolling in cash, so why would no one report that $4,000 was missing from a locked cabinent and contact the police so that they could have been called to try to recover the money or find out who did steal the money.

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Unlike many other conferences the MWC is pretty much set in its NCAA tournament bids.  BYU, SDSU, and UNLV are all getting a invite and have a decent idea what seeds they will be given.  That leaves the NIT, CBI, and CIT the opportunity to pick up some good teams out of the MWC.  I will break it down by tounament and what is expected to play out in the "other" postseasons.

NIT- National Invitational Tournament is a 32 team tournament and is known as the second best tournament  after the NCAA.  The selection process is driven by results and possible TV ratings so there isn't exactly a science to picking teams.  Higher seeded teams get to host games until the semi-finals.

CBI- College Basketball Invitational is a 16 team tournament and also allows teams to host games.  The twist the CBI throws in to get watchers is a best of three series once it comes down to the final two teams.  I personally love this feature as it takes out a fluke game by a team.  Imagine watching Duke and Butler a possible three times last year?  No way the NCAA would do this but its a nice twist for a lower rated tournament.

CIT- College Insiders Tournament will be a 24 team tournament after being a 16 team bracket in earlier years, the 2 its been around.  Not much history to this tournament but think of it as the 4th in line trophy for the winner.

Catch which MWC teams will end up in what tournament after the break.

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The New Mexico Lobos took their first big step in keeping their chances at a NCAA birth alive when they beat the CSU Rams 67-61 in the first round of the MWC tournament.  The Lobos were lead in scoring by Kendall Williams with 16 points and Drew Gordon added a double double with 13 points and rebounds.  The Lobos pulled away late on a big shot by Cameron Bairstow that put the Lobos up 4 with less the a minute to play.

The Rams were led by none other then Andy Ogide with 25 points and 11 rebounds.  Wes Eikmeier and Dorian Green added 14 and 13 points respectively.   The Rams had two starters in Travis Franklin and Greg Smith who failed to score a point and had as many turnovers and rebounds with three.

What I saw of the game was the final 4 minutes as I sat down at a bar after work.  From that point on you saw the disparity in the two teams.  The Rams were out rebounded, had more turnovers, and had less options on offense.  The Rams looked desperate on offense while the Lobos looked confident.  The huge shot by Bairstow was all that was right with the Lobos and wrong with the Rams down the stretch. 

The Lobos took a big step tonight and will need a huge one tomorrow as they face #1 BYU.  They did win the season series against BYU and would look prime for a NCAA tournament bid if they can beat them once more.

As for the Rams they look like a middle bid NIT team depending on how many regular season league winners get booted from their own conference tournaments and into the NIT.   Best case scenario the Rams get to host a game and pull in some revenue and make a run at the NIT for recruiting purposes.  They could be joined by the Lobos depending how their MWC tournament goes.

New Mexico's at-large NCAA Tournament chances are on life-support after losing to Utah at home which was their third straight loss in a row. New Mexico does have a few chances since they play UNLV at home and get a chance to go for the sweep when they travel to take on BYU.

Traditionally, New Mexico is very good at home and prior to this game Utah had not beaten the Lobos at the Pit since 2002. This is the third crippling loss New Mexico has suffered on the year as the Lobos were swept by the Utes with the other loss being on the road against Wyoming which ended in similar fashion where Wyoming hit a buzzer beater to beat New Mexico.

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