Know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. It's said all over Las Vegas at the gaming tables, and the Mountain West Conference may hear a lot of opining in the offseason by several coaches who sound upset that they have to play the postseason men's basketball tournament on UNLV's home floor.

Is it best for the league to hang on to, or walk away from, its arrangement that runs through at least 2010?

The situation gets brought up this season because there are five new coaches in the league. They're new to the league's arrangement, and mostly upset by it. New Mexico's Steve Alford is the most vocal about wanting change. He said Monday that he'll do whatever he can to make his voice heard that Vegas' Thomas & Mack Center isn't a proper meeting ground.

His comments echoed what he said last month:

"If we had it in The Pit every year, I'd feel confident that we'd be playing for an automatic bid," Alford said in January. "I think that's why I don't like it. I'm new to the league, I don't have a lot of say yet. ... But this will be one of my major fights. I believe, if you don't want to be a mid-major league, which I would hope the Mountain West has a little more pride to it that we're a major player on the national scene, you cannot have a tournament that is your automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament at one of the (member) schools. You can't do that. It's not a neutral site."

Alford would prefer to even have a neutral city that isn't in the same town as an MWC school. Salt Lake City and a recent three-year run in Denver haven't been attractive to fans, though.

And it does not appear the MWC has the appeal worth trying another warm-weather destination that's not part of the seven-state footprint, like Phoenix.

BYU coach Dave Rose paused for a few seconds when asked for his thoughts, saying it was a "tough question," and that he'd like the league to follow the path of "major" conferences which tend to have the tournaments in big cities on neutral floors. He also pointed out that the majority of coaches are toeing the company line right now.

There are conference tournaments, like the Big Sky, which award the location to the regular-season champion. The West Coast Conference's is at a member school.

In the MWC those suggestions propose all sorts of problems, from arena sizes to the simple fact that there wouldn't be many ticket buyers in some locations (it also, of course, fails to ease the home-court concerns.)

UNLV won last year's tournament, though it would've been in the NCAA tournament field regardless. It wound up going to the Sweet 16, further than the other MWC representative BYU. Cougars assistant coach Dave Rice, a former UNLV player and longtime aide, has had no qualms publicly calling it a major advantage for the Rebels to be at home.

This year's tournament, which starts next week, will require three wins (or four for the potential play-in game winner between the Nos. 8 and 9 seeds). UNLV will likely be the second seed, setting up what appears to be a showdown in next Saturday's title game with the first-place Cougars.

BYU built an early lead in last year's matchup before losing.

MWC commissioner Craig Thompson pointed out a poll (conducted with the help of San Diego State) that gave numbers suggesting there was overwhelming support to Vegas, and little interest by fans in moving it.

Utah coach Jim Boylen, one of the new bosses, gives a shrug about the situation.

"I am not going to make a big deal of it. I have gotten about 50 requests from people I know around the country who want to come see us play, and I think a big reason for that is it's in Vegas," Boylen said. "Is it an ideal situation for everybody? Maybe not. Is it ideal for the league and where it is right now? I think it is."

It's been hinted plenty of times that the MWC is hopeful of a new arena being built in Vegas, if the city lands an NBA team. Playing there would be more ideal.

Otherwise, the commissioner said it'll be up to the nine schools to decide the next move after two years from now.

•No respect? Two wins last week, including an overtime version at hot New Mexico, barely budged the needle on BYU's progress in the two polls.

The coaches moved the Cougars up a spot, to No. 24, while Rose's team is still out of the Top 25 voted on by media (Associated Press) -- 26th. That's still four spots higher than last Monday.

•Out of mind? Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer called Saturday's post-game shout-fest with Boylen something that was being "blown way out of proportion."

Boylen apparently hasn't let go of what he's deemed poor sportsmanship. He let Schroyer know as much, in a profane manner, after the Cowboys finished off a home win with an alley-oop dunk at the buzzer.

"When I asked Heath about it, he said, 'I was telling them to pull the ball out'," Boylen said at his Monday conference with local media. "Well, he wasn't telling them to pull the ball out. We got it on film."

Boylen thought an apology was in order, though Schroyer hasn't complied. He's said a few times since the incident that he has "respect" for Boylen and the job he's doing at Utah. Both are first-year MWC coaches.

Conflicting emotions may have played a big part in the moment: It was Wyoming's final home game -- the slam dunker, Joseph Taylor, was a senior -- while Utah has now lost four in a row.

After the game, Taylor went searching for more scrutiny: "Tell (Trent) Plaisted I'm coming for him," he told a TV reporter as a preview to Wednesday's game at BYU.