Cummard is the straw that stirs

The Cougars will play San Diego State, one of two teams they split with in league play, in the semifinals of the Mountain West Tournament Friday night at 7:35 p.m., here in Las Vegas.

Lee Cummard showed why he is co-MVP in the blowout win over Colorado State when he simply took over the game, making mid-range jumpers, 2-pointers, rebounding, blocking shots and making pin-point passes to his teammates.

Sam Burgess had one of his best all-around games and freshman Chris Collinsworth absolutely did have his best, a double-double, the first of his career in the Cougar 27-point win.

The story of the night, however, was the outstanding performance of TCU, who put on a spectacular shooting display, knocking down 70 percent from beyond the arc in what would be a record-setting combined team 3-point night only to lose the game on a referee whistle.

The Frogs led host UNLV with seven seconds to play and had done everything needed to knock out the No. 2 seed. But Wink Adams tied the game with a running jump shot in the lane with a few ticks left on the clock. With three TCU players standing in front of him with their arms held high, one was called with a foul, putting Adams to the line for the game winner.

This game shouldn’t have ended that way. Normally, in such high stake games like this, officials swallow their whistles and let the players make plays to win it. Adams got bailed out and it was a tragedy. UNLV might have won in overtime, but it robbed TCU of a chance to win this game while there was actual action taking place. Instead, the clock was stopped and Wink was given a gift, he got bailed out.

The tournament has been an exciting event. BYU looked invincible in staging a second-half explosion over the Rams, working their fast break and putting on a passing clinic.

CSU coach Tim Miles said the Cougars reminded him of the Harlem Globetrotters. And he meant it. The Rams looked good in the first half, but were steamrolled when they started missing shots and the Cougars got out and started to run.

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Interesting, this TV deal has taken its toll on league officials, even with the DirectTV deal in the bank. Commissioner Craig Thompson, who has been lambasted by MWC fans, has made himself scarce. He’s been pretty much secluded in his box. He rarely makes appearances at league games. CSU folks say they haven’t seen Thompson at any of their games since 2005.

I had dinner with some key corporate people tied to the Mtn network and they shared a tale of woe for the TV network’s CEO, Kim Carver. Over the course of the past year, Carver, who is one of the nicest and most decent people you’ll deal with, has been brought to tears time and time again with rude, insulting, threatening and obscene phone calls by irate fans who identified themselves as BYU fans.

Apparently some folks on the Internet have discovered and posted her public private numbers and those communication points, plus e-mails have been hammered for more than a year.

These callers have dropped F-bombs and been threatening to her children. According to these executives, who are all LDS, Carver has been puzzled by the rudeness of these fans who claim ties to BYU and wondered if it represented the type of culture in the faith.

It was an interesting exchange over some bread and water in Vegas. The TV deal has been an ugly affair. There are plenty of folks to blame. I think there are a lot of victims in the battle and Carver is one of them. CSTV and Comcast primarily threw her out in front of the lines and had her take a lot of bullets. She deserved better from them… and from a lot of fans who I believe lost perspective.

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Dave Rose told reporters after watching the AFA-SDSU game that his club expected a highly competitive game once more from the Aztecs. A key, he said, was to keep SDSU’s jumpers off the offensive boards where they win games by getting second and third shots after an initial stop.

A reminder. SDSU had two chances to beat the Cougars in the Marriott Center in the closing seconds and complained about officiating no calls. At their place, the Cougars lost 69-65 and had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds. The SDSU game in San Diego was BYU’s last loss. The Cougars have won 15 of their last 16 games.

It should be a great semifinal matchup.