The mirage: Toreros search for American Dream in Vegas

The American Dream is somewhere in Vegas. It's in slot machines and strip clubs and behind the dumpster around the corner from the Flamingo. Starving souls striving for a heaping slice of the Great American Pie; souls with lustful eyes and greedy hands, reeking of desperation, make the pilgrimage to the Mecca of the American Dream. Pure Horatio Alger. But Dreams die in the desert. Slowly and painfully they shrivel up as the intense heat sucks out every last drop of hope. Here, the American Dream is a mirage.
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For the second straight year the Mecca of the American Dream will host the WCC Tournament. A fitting locale. USD enters the tourney as the six seed, a fortuitous turn of events considering their 3-11 conference record put them in a three-way tie for last place. But the details matter not, for in the WCC Tournament the house always wins. The deck is heavily stacked against the lower seeds.
The top two seeds, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's, earn double byes - tax cuts for the wealthy. While the three and four seeds, Portland and San Francisco, earn single byes. Thus the five through eight seeds must win four games in four days to win a seat at the March Madness table. If USD gets past Santa Clara in the first round, they then play a well-rested Portland the next day. If they win that game, they play an even more well-rested Gonzaga in the semi-finals.
The WCC Tournament is structured to hinder unlikely upsets and limit upward mobility. It rewards teams for their regular season success, an especially notable factor in a college basketball world where the regular season is essentially meaningless for top-tier programs.
And yet, 340 miles away, the oasis is visible. After all, last week's pair of games, a 69-72 loss to Loyola Marymount and a 65-48 win over Pepperdine, were the first time the Toreros posted back-to-back 60 point outputs in over three weeks. Gears of offensive competency are beginning to turn, it seems.
The Torero freshmen are starting to look comfortable in the Billy-Ball system and Brandon Johnson, Devin Ginty and Chris Lewis provide experience from the 2008 championship run. Furthermore, USD's strong defense, fanatical hustle and domineering tempo have the potential to keep each game close.
Of course the Toreros (10-20, 3-11) have lost all season, including 11 of their last 14 games. Why would this suddenly change now? The mirage.
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 Of the bottom four seeds, Loyola Marymount possesses the only discernible chance at a deep run. LMU, the five seed, is a young team. They have no seniors and three of their four leading scorers are sophomores, but they are fast, hungry and fearless. Very reminiscent of the 2008 Toreros. The Lions are led by scoring machine Drew Viney, the springy and afro'd Kevin Young and the crafty Vernon Teel, who is seeking to avenge his disappointing performance in last year's tournament, where he shot 1-7 from the field and 1-9 from the free throw line in a six point first round loss to USD.
The most legitimate sleeper, though, is four seed San Fransisco, because they will have the most talented player on the court in every contest. Dior Lowhorn can take over games for long stretches at a time, and on both ends of the court. His energy and passion are overt and contagious. No WCC bench brigade cheers with more fervor or trades more high fives than the Dons. A recipe for a dark horse.
Every few years a moderate underdog wins the tournament. This ensures that the illusion of upward mobility subsists; that the mirage lingers.
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 The Orleans Arena feels like the inside of a snare drum. Three sides of theater-style seats form a horseshoe around the polished parquet. The fourth side is a high, white, sound-reverberating wall. Chants, rim clangs, grunts and cross-overs echo off the wall and saturate the arena with a rich aura of college basketball. Senses are enhanced in Vegas and the atmosphere is vibrant. Fans of all West Coast Conference ilk converge to prowl Las Vegas Boulevard like wildebeests high on Red Bull. Wild-eyed and loud-mouthed California college kids fuse the exuberance of a big-time sporting event with the revelry of spring break. A perfect storm of zeal and frenzy, a massive celebration of WCC hoops; we tourney where you spring break.
Torero Nation will venture north on the I-15 in search of the American Dream, with hopes that the oasis at the end of the highway will not vanish at nightfall. Bulldogs and Lions and Broncos await, clutching the same hope, and dreaming the same Dream.