Last year, UNLV was banned from postseason play. Top seed UC-Santa Barbara went out in the first round, and New Mexico State won the Big West Tournament. Neil McCarthy's Aggies used the championship as a springboard to the NCAA's Sweet 16.

This season, UNLV's back, but New Mexico State is top seed at the Big West Tournament that got under way at Long Beach Arena at 2 p.m. MST today with the Santa Barbara Pacific game.New Mexico State 15-3, 23-6) took on UC-Irvine at 4 MST. At 8 MST tonight, second-seeded UNLV, runner-up in the conference for the first time, plays No. 7 Utah State, with the Cal-Fullerton Long Beach State match set for 10 p.m. MST.

Semifinal games will, in a change from years past, pit highest-remaining seeds against lowest-remaining seeds in games at 8 and 10 p.m. MST. The championship is Sunday at MST.

McCarthy says his regular-season champions are a very different team from last year's troopers. "I really didn't know what to expect," he says of a team he now calls the most talented he's had in Las Cruces. "This team has its own identity. It has been able to win the close games," he says.

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Point guard Sam Crawford leads the nation in assists (9.2 a game), and Tracey Ware led the league in field goal percentage (.616). Dixie College product Cliff Reed has come back strong from injury and personal difficulties, and Eric Traylor is among the league's best rebounders, McCarthy says. Marc Thompson is the big defender at off-guard. And depth is the big difference over last year, McCarthy says.

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