ESPN’s Lunardi still has UNLV in his bracket

If you think Saturday night’s loss at San Diego State knocked UNLV off the NCAA Tournament bubble, think again.

ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, who usually comes within a team or two of predicting the NCAA Tournament’s field of 65 each year, still has Lon Kruger’s squad in his bracket that he released today.

In fact, Lunardi has four Mountain West teams in the tourney with a fifth — San Diego State — as his first team out.

Five MWC teams in the NCAA Tourney? Don’t count on it. But going by Lunardi’s calculations, that pretty much makes Thursday afternoon’s MWC Tourney quarterfinal rematch between the Rebels and Aztecs an NCAA Tourney elimination game.

Lunardi has both Utah and BYU comfortably in the tournament as No. 8 seeds while he has UNLV and New Mexico as No. 11 seeds. He has the Runnin’ Rebels playing Syracuse in Greensboro, N.C., as part of a Midwest Regional pod.

No doubt UNLV’s 56-55 upset of Big East champ Louisville still carries a lot of weight. Lunardi has Rick Pitino’s Cardinals as the No. 1 seed in the West Regional.

Lunardi’s last four teams in the tournament this week are New Mexico, South Carolina, Penn State and Arizona while San Diego State, Creighton, Florida and Miami are his first four teams out.

Of course, a lot of juggling can happen depending on how conference tournaments play out this week. But if the Rebels can at least get to the MWC Tourney finals, I’d like their chances to still go dancing for a third straight year. And they still might make it with just a win over the Aztecs on Thursday afternoon, especially if New Mexico should be upset by Wyoming later that night.