PROVO -- BYU guard Michael Vranes is in a New York state of mind.
He knows that if his Cougars can win three games in the National Invitational Tournament, they'll be headed to the most famous arena in the world, Madison Square Garden, for the NIT Final Four."I want to go to the Big Apple," Vranes said. "I want to play in the Gahden.' "
But he also knows it won't be easy getting there.
First up is Bowling Green, which visits the Marriott Center Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Falcons believe they belong in the NCAA tournament, not the NIT, and they can make a strong argument. They posted a 22-7 record and had won the Mid-American Conference's East Division before being upset in the quarterfinals of the MAC tournament on March 5.
"We have to be ready for them," Vranes said. "They'll come out here wanting to prove something."
For Cougar players, it will be their first taste of postseason action in their collegiate careers. Junior Nathan Cooper says it's been a long wait.
"When I was being recruited, that was an attractive thing about BYU -- they went to the NCAAs almost every year," said Cooper, who was a freshman on the 1995-96 team that was the first Cougar squad not to play in the postseason in six seasons. "I didn't think at the time it would take this long for the chance to play in the postseason."
HEROES' WELCOME: Several BYU players were greeted in their classes Monday morning by the sound of applause. It was a sign of appreciation from fellow students for the Cougars' efforts last weekend in Las Vegas, where the Cougars defeated New Mexico and Utah in the Mountain West Conference tournament. It was BYU's first victory over the Utes in five years.
"I walked into class and people started clapping," Cooper said. "People are happy we beat Utah. That whole weekend, nobody gave us much of a chance."
As for the drubbing by UNLV in the championship game on Saturday?
"It was a great week," he said, "just a bad night."
TICKET SALES: When coach Steve Cleveland arrived at the Marriott Center Monday morning to continue preparations for Bowling Green, he was happy to see a long line outside the ticket office.
One of the keys to advancing in the NIT is fan support, Cleveland said. As long as the Cougars win and draw good crowds, they'll keep hosting.
"Almost as important as the final score is how many people we have in the Marriott Center on Wednesday," Cleveland said. The winner of BYU-Bowling Green will face the winner of Colorado-Southern Illinois.
As of Monday afternoon, BYU had sold 3,500 tickets for the Bowling Green game.
NO GO FOR WYO: Cleveland can't believe MWC foe Wyoming was not invited to the NIT. "I'm really surprised," he said. "They were playing their best basketball at the end of the year. They are an outstanding team. I don't understand why they're not in this tournament."
Besides BYU, New Mexico was the only other MWC team to receive an invitation to the NIT.
Last week, Wyoming coach Steve McClain told reporters that his team and Colorado State deserved to be in the NIT more than BYU because the they finished ahead of the sixth-place Cougars in the conference standings.
But that was before BYU's great run in the MWC tournament. Cleveland said league standings are irrelevant when it comes to the NIT.
"There are other factors. We have the best RPI in the conference and we played the toughest schedule in the conference," Cleveland said. "They (Wyoming) won only more league game than us and we split with them head-to-head . . . We earned our way in."