Stephen Madison is rolling in Vegas in school's final year in WAC

Stephen Madison is going to be a handful.

Idaho's senior forward said the difference between this year's team and his previous three years of failing to win a WAC Tournament game has been its cohesiveness as a team entering tonight's WAC Tournament championship game.

"It's great," Madison said. "Every year you prepare for this. Sometimes you have more talented teams, but our team is coming together at the right time and that's all you can ask."

Idaho has fielded more talent on its roster in head coach Don Verlin's first five years, but he failed to advance before this year. Madison and guard Connor Hill played with the WAC Player of the Year, Kyle Barone, last year, but the Vandals lost as a No. 6 seed to NMSU. They were bounced two years ago as a No. 3 seed.

Madison has been on a roll in Las Vegas, averaging 25.5 points per game on 67 percent shooting from 3-point range in wins over UMKC and Utah Valley this week.

Madison leads the Vandals this year in points, rebounds, steals, blocks and field goal percentage and will no doubt be the focal point for the Aggies to stop.

As the Vandals leave the rebuilding WAC for the Big Sky next year, it's only fitting they face New Mexico State in tonight's final since the schools joined the league together in 2005-06. NMSU is 7-2 against the Vandals since Madison joined the team. NMSU is . Madison has scored 16.5 points per game against NMSU this year, scoring 24 in Idaho's victory in Moscow.

"New Mexico State is one of the most dominant teams in the WAC since I've been in college," Madison said. "You want to play them. There has been one or two times where they got us good, but the rest of them have come down to the wire."

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WAC Commissioner Jeff Hurd said Thursday he expects fans to remain in the stands during tonight's trophy presentation.

"We will have our security in place regardless of who is playing in the game but we want to avoid having fans on the court after the game," Hurd said. "If they want to celebrate, they can celebrate, but do it in the stands. We would prefer it to be that way."

Hurd said the WAC will instruct all of its member schools in game management expectations in the offseason.

"It will be a focus in our May meetings (in Kansas City)," Hurd said. "I don't know the form it's going to take yet. We will review them all and I will get information from other conferences and what they have in place. Some people ask why don't we take the SEC model and fine schools for fans coming onto the court. I don't know if that's really appropriate for our league at this point."