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3. SMU, March 4, 1999 WAC Tournament
Head Coach: Bill Bayno

In spite of having talent with Mark Dickel, Shawn Marion, Kaspars Kambala (was out for the second half of the season) and Kevin Simmons, UNLV probably never underachieved more than in this season. But still, there was hope. After all, UNLV had run the WAC tournament the year before in glorious fashion. The tournament was again at home, so it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that the Rebels could repeat the feat. But that came to a screeching halt when after a mad scramble for a loose ball, Chad Elsey hit a three pointer out of the corner at the buzzer for a 71-70 SMU victory. It was the third time that SMU had beaten the Rebels that season. The game ended with Mustang superstar Jerryl Sasser shouting "This is our house!" after dominating Shawn Marion.

I was in Vegas for both the Pony/UNLV games that year, and they may be the most fun I've ever had watching my Ponies play. Oh yeah, they serve beer in the T&M, good times.

Aww yes, those were the days. They had the men's and women's tourney combined. Those were good times!

I was at that UNLV tourney game too….made the trip from LA. Sass had a phenomenal season that year – won WAC Player of the Year as a Soph and I really thought Dement had us on the verge of breaking through. That next season with Stephen Woods (one of my favorite SMU players ever) as a senior, Sass coming off a POY season, Willie D as a junior, DeWayne Floyd as a soph and Q as a freshman we should have made the NCAA tourney…instead we settled for the NIT. That year I went to the games at San Jose (a terrible loss) and at Fresno – in which Sass and Woods both played great. Sass almost had a triple double with nearly 30 pts in the SMU win…..and at that time a win on the road against Fresno was huge. I remember the place was sold out (10K+)…..SMU and Fresno were both 7-2 in WAC play going into the game. If I remember correctly, after that win we came close to cracking the top 25 at 20-5 and 8-3 in the WAC. Those were good times.