To build his Mountain West Conference from a backwoods newborn into an emerging national power, Craig Thompson knew he’d have to work. He just struggled to figure out how.

Work harder? With 32 Division I conferences trying to do the same thing, that hardly seemed realistic.

Work longer? Every coach and commissioner employed the same strategy. Thompson would just be another in a nationwide rat race.

So Thompson, the Mountain West’s commissioner, decided his conference would work later, a decision that’s propelled the 4-year-old Mountain West to national attention.

In order to get his eight-team conference on national television, Thompson signed a deal with ESPN in 1999 to have the network broadcast a Mountain West game Mondays at midnight. Four years later, the move has helped conference coaches lure national recruits and build a deep, threatening conference.

“That national audience has been big in shaping this conference,” Thompson said. “Anytime your teams are on across the country, people will be watching. I don’t care what time it is.”

Over the last two years, the midnight games have drawn an average rating of .45. ESPN’s average college basketball broadcast draws a .46.

“The quality of the product kind of offsets the time of the game,” said Chris Hill, athletics director at Utah. “People start watching because they know it will be good basketball.”

And they keep watching because the games are usually close. Over the last three years, 60 percent of the ESPN midnight games have been decided by seven points or fewer. Last year, three of the nine games went to overtime. In what’s become the typical midnight game, Utah edged Brigham Young on Monday, 71-64, because of clutch free-throw shooting in the final minutes.

Thanks in part to the respect that comes with positive national publicity, three Mountain West teams — Utah, Wyoming and San Diego State — made last year’s NCAA Tournament. This season, No. 22 Utah (21-4, 9-1) and BYU (18-7, 7-3) are considered locks to make the Field of 65. Wyoming and UNLV could also squeeze in.

Based on conference RPI, the Mountain West ranks No. 7, behind the traditional six power conferences — Big East, ACC, SEC, Pac-10, Big 12 and Big 10.

“On the surface, it seems like we’re getting respect,” Wyoming assistant coach Leroy Washington said. “And no doubt the Monday game has helped. But we’re still, without any doubt, the most underrated conference in the country. I’ve never seen a conference this balanced top to bottom.

“I’d put us against the Pac-10 any day. If you’re going to consider six power conferences, then I think you have to factor us in and consider seven. We can stand up in every category.”

The Mountain West has crowds — the average conference attendance is nearly 10,000, better than the Big East’s 9,000 — and a fierce home-court advantage (conference teams are 83-23 at home).

In New Mexico’s Ruben Douglas, who is scoring 28.5 points per game, it has the nation’s leading scorer. It has big-name coaches in Utah’s Rick Majerus and San Diego State’s Steve Fisher.

“The only thing we’re missing is publicity,” said Dale Layer, Colorado State’s head coach. “You turn on ESPN and teams like Syracuse are on every time. If you’re on the East Coast and watching us, you’ve got to be an insomniac.

“Now that’s not to say the midnight game doesn’t help. It’s gotten us this far. When I’m recruiting, I call kids on Tuesdays to see if they watched the game. But it’d be nice if people could watch us at a normal hour.”

Said Thompson, the commissioner: “We’re a young conference. It takes some time to really explode onto the scene. Right now, we get our publicity by playing at midnight, which has worked well. Hopefully soon, we’ll get it by playing on prime time.”

Rocky Mountain high

Just when Colorado seemed to have reached the breaking point, the Buffaloes came up with a breakout year.

Colorado (16-10, 6-7 Big 12), which hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since Chauncey Billups led it to the second round in 1997, could make the Field of 65 despite an 81-55 loss at Iowa State last night.

“This is the best Colorado team I’ve seen,” Kansas coach Roy Williams said. “They’re talented, and they have experienced talent. In the past, they’ve had good individuals, but they haven’t played together this much.”

Colorado is 12-1 at home this season, including wins over No. 7 Kansas and No. 5 Texas. With two of its last three regular-season games at home, CU should finish with a .500 record in conference and have a shot at an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.

The Buffaloes’ home success is especially impressive considering that, last year, CU averaged just 5,006 fans, lowest in the Big 12. This year, the Buffs average 8,600.

“The crowds have been great,” CU head coach Ricardo Patton said. “And our guys, for whatever reason, now understand how important it is to take care of your home court.

“But there’s a long way to go. What we try to do as coaches is make them realize that it doesn’t matter who’s talking about you now. They haven’t given out any NCAA spots at this point. You need to make sure people are talking about you at that point.”

Movin’ back?

The NCAA Rules Committee continues to consider moving back the 3-point line nine inches.

Early in the season, the NCAA moved back the arc to the international distance of 20 feet, 6 inches for 144 experimental games. For those games, teams shot 33.7 percent from 3-point range. Last season, the D-I average was 34.6 percent.

The change would aim to decrease logjams under the basket and allow for more movement down low. The rules committee will likely decide over the summer, and the change could be implemented as soon as next season.

This and that

With a 105-81 loss to Howard on Monday, North Carolina A&T (0-23, 0-15 MEAC) remains the only winless team in Division I. … Feb. 15 has been designated annual Bob Knight Day in Lubbock, Texas, to honor the former-Indiana, current-Texas Tech head coach. … Former McDonald’s All-American Jason Parker flunked out of South Carolina last week less than a year after getting kicked out of Kentucky.

Published on February 25, 2003 at 12:00 pm