Jim Boylen will walk into a basketball conference that gobbles up coaches.

This past season, four coaches were dead men walking.

Within a month, BYU's two-time Mountain West coach of the year, Dave Rose, finds himself the second-longest tenured coach in the conference.

Boylen and three other rookies will paint a target right on the back jacket of Rose.

It's not a quaint little pile of doo-doo spread around the Rocky Mountains. Within Mountain West boundaries, teams cannibalize one another. Road trips can be taxing. Players can battle to catch their breath at 7,220 feet in Laramie or the 7,163-foot elevation at the Air Force Academy.

The Pit, the Huntsman Center, the Thomas & Mack and Marriott Center can be as intimidating as any places in the country. San Diego and Las Vegas can be distracting to teams that lack discipline and focus.

Going from Fort Worth to San Diego is a 1,327-mile trip, and then there's Laramie. Boylen has nothing to compare with it in the Big Ten, where roadies to Columbus, Ann Arbor, East Lansing and Bloomington are hops, skips and jumps. MWC travel is seriously more complex than the ACC, where Tobacco Road stops are as far apart as the next Wal-Mart.

Rose sat behind his desk in the Marriott Center Monday morning, clearing up loose ends before leaving for the NCAA Final Four. Rose is a convert on how competitive the MWC is. Always has been.

The good news for Boylen is that he's inheriting a job with solid Ute talent, and like Rose proved, you can get a quick turnaround to a title — if you can coach. The bad news is that the league has a ton of good players returning in 2008. Only Air Force is a major rebuilding project. In 2007-08 the MWC will be rats after cheese again.

Rose said the coaching changes in the MWC were "surprising" to him this winter.

Down went Steve McClain, Ritchie McKay, Dale Layer and Ray Giacoletti. Those four represent 24 years of MWC head coaching.

But the expectation for this rookie class of Boylen, UNM's Steve Alford, CSU's Tim Miles and Wyoming's Heath Schroyer is that they get it done and win a title, said Rose.

"Fans and administration want that to happen. Obviously, I know Wyoming's coach, I've followed Alford's career. I don't know the guy at Colorado State, but he's been a winner. We got to see (Boylen) Michigan State when we played them this year. They all have good talent returning, so I'd expect they all have expectations to challenge for a conference championship next year."

Rose said the MWC games this past year were not only highly entertaining but extremely competitive.

"But it's been that way ever since I've been in this league. I think sometimes people from the outside see this league is rated here or there with others. But one thing that never changes is that this is a very competitive league. There are great venues all around the league."

Rose said it is obvious the NCAA Selection Committee thought highly of Air Force this past month by the way they seeded the Falcons No. 1 in the NIT. "The last three or four teams in the NCAA tournament came down to 15 or 20 teams and one could have easily been Air Force."

UNLV hit its stride just in time to excite Rebel Nation and awaken a sleeping giant in the MWC. A Sweet 16 appearance?

Now, Rebel officials will have to be on alert, checking hot tubs and who the players are splashing around with once more.

SDSU? Like football, they get the best talent but somehow skid around and run off the road as witnessed this year. Perhaps the Dean of the League Coaches, Steve Fisher, is the next victim.

In Laramie, Schroyer is going to get the Cowboys to play defense, so they could be rabid dogs. The Rams return their twin towers (Jason Smith and Stuart Creason), who should have dominated more than they did the past two seasons.

Utah? Well, the core of that team that knocked off Air Force, Virginia and Washington State returns ... and if they play defense. ...

TCU isn't a bus stop any more.

The Cougars? Rose isn't backing down from his plan that's steadily found traction the past two seasons in which he's had the Cougars finish second and first in the league. He's got key players back and will reload with JC transfers and some incoming freshmen, plus missionary center Chris Miles.

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Outsiders may not fully appreciate MWC hoops.

It's a basketball war zone.

And it's a circuit where fans and administrators show little patience for losers.


E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com

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