Coaches have high hopes for hoops season

By Rob Miech

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008 | 10:51 p.m.

A businessman passed out by the pool at the off-Strip Renaissance Hotel missed a few hours of Mountain West Conference hoops excitement Tuesday afternoon.

Under an umbrella, he lay on his right side. A cheese Danish could have been slipped into his open mouth. His dark sport coat and black dress shoes lay on the lounge next to him.

His Blackberry sat 18 inches from his nose.

He completely whiffed on hearing coach after coach say, top to bottom, the league will be as strong as ever, that multiple teams will make the NCAAs, that you have to win on the road.

He missed Utah coach Jim Boylen sitting, and shifting, and moving to a lounge chair within a 3-point shot of him, Boylen’s cell phone permanently stuck, as usual, to his right ear.

He missed a peppy Colorado State coach Tim Miles be extremely frank about his team’s chances this season after not winning a game in the conference last season.

“I’m a talker,” Miles said of media day. “I love to talk. This is nothing. It’s fun. The big deal is, I just try not to make a jerk of myself. I don’t want to say something too stupid.”

Has he in the past?

“No,” Miles said. “I could never admit to that.”

The poor, passed-out soul also missed someone calling Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer “Joey,” from the long-running “Friends” television show, for the first time.

Coach, the first time?

“You know what?” he said, about to erupt in laughter, “I’ve been called a helluva lotta things, but Joey might be the nicest.”

Boylen couldn’t sit still as Sinatra – “You’re too marvelous, too mar-ve-lous for words” – echoed off the lobby’s marble floors.

San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said the conference is going to be very strong this season, because 39 of a potential 45 starters return to Mountain West squads.

A quick check of the league media guide revealed that 30 starters are back.

Back to Boylen. If he had just slowed down and lowered his phone for 15 seconds, the world would know what he thought about matching wits against Schroyer on the court.

It looks like Al Bundy (Boylen) vs. Joey.

Boylen, no doubt, would have laughed like Schroyer. A blue-collar coach who learned the finer points of coaching basketball from Tom Izzo at Michigan State, Boylen has a great sense of humor.

Those two are the most enthusiastic coaches in the Mountain West, and Schroyer no doubt spoke for both when asked what fans should think when they see him jumping around in front of his bench.

“Man, I love the game,” Schroyer said. “I love my guys, especially now in my second year. I pinch myself. I’m like a kid in a candy store. I’m passionate about this game and the competition.

“Really, at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”

UNLV coach Lon Kruger appears in dark slacks and a slick-looking burgundy Polo shirt bearing his team’s logo on the left side

“No tricks,” he said, smiling, about lasting through the rigors of interview after interview before official practice starts Friday.

“It’s a matter of trying to keep water around and just keep going. It’s not bad duty, for sure.”

Craig Thompson, the only commissioner the 10-year-old league has ever had, beamed about the conference cable network’s affiliation with DirecTV.

He said he’s heard from fans in all 50 states.

“There was some skepticism that we’d lose a step in recruiting,” Thompson said. “Now, I think we’ve really blown past that, with more than 100 basketball games on three networks.

“Now, instead of being on ESPN twice, each of our teams will be on Versus, CBS College of the mtn. 18 to 20 times. If Johnny comes out here and plays, you’ll be able to see him if you have DirecTV.”

BYU has won the past two regular-season titles. UNLV has claimed the past two Mountain West tournament crowns, and the Rebels were picked in a preseason media poll as the favorite to win the league.

It won’t be easy, said UNLV guard Wink Adams. He mentioned getting new teammates to play like underdogs and taking nothing for granted as keys for the Rebels.

“You know, everyone is entitled to his own opinion,” Adams said. “We have to play defense and take teams out of their offense. Like coach says, it won’t be handed to us. If we play defense, everything else will fall into place.”

As seniors, Adams and teammate Joe Darger only had to endure a Mountain West media day and its endless inquiries about RPIs and the league’s softest rims one time.

The guy outside on the lounge chair, with the drool gathering in one of the green pad’s dimples, must have already been through one.

By the time Darger and Adams walked upstairs for another round of interviews, that guy by the pool still hadn’t moved.