The Mountain West Conference will play an 18-game basketball schedule starting in late December.

The season will begin Dec. 29 and conclude March 6, according to a news release issued Friday.

Each team will play nine home games and make nine road trips, with individual schedules to be released later.

The conference tournament will be held March 10-13 in Las Vegas.

Utah State won last season’s Mountain West tournament by defeating San Diego State in the title game, just before the NCAA tournament was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The NCAA pushed back the start of the 2020-21 basketball season to Nov. 25 because of the pandemic.