Las Vegas gamblers are licking their chops at an endless supply of Super Bowl prop bets this week. (AP)The Super Bowl and college hoops are crossing paths this weekend … in Las Vegas.

Various sports books around the Vegas valley are offering just about any prop bet you can dream up when it comes to Sunday's clash between the Patriots and Giants. Heck, if you were so inclined — or felt like blowing that much money — you could have action on every single play of the game.

Here is a closer look at — along with our picks — some of the crossover props involving college basketball offered up at a couple of Vegas shops.

Lucky's Sports Books

• Who will have more: UNLV points Saturday at Wyoming (-3) or Aaron Hernandez receiving yards?

Well, the Cowboys have only allowed more than 60 points three times this season and UNLV has struggled offensively on the road. On the other side, Aaron Hernandez figures to be a prime target for Tom Brady with Rob Gronkowski still working back from a high ankle sprain. PICKS — Ryan Greene: Hernandez; Jeff Eisenberg: Hernandez.

• Who will have more: Nevada points Saturday vs. Idaho or Wes Welker receiving yards (-2)?

Nevada should be able to score big at home in this one, but Welker figures to benefit just like Hernandez should … and he averaged just a shade under 100 yards per game this season, including 136 in a Week 9 loss to the Giants. PICKS — RG: Welker; JE: Welker.

Nevada is surging behind sophomore point guard Deonte Burton. (AP)Dario Hunt nipped it in the bud.

He was along for the bumpy ride that was a 13-19 campaign at Nevada a year ago, and after being picked by the league's coaches as the preseason favorite this fall, a 68-46 home loss to Missouri State to open the season shocked many.

The senior forward took charge in the locker room right afterwards.

"He definitely got us together and said we've got to step up," sophomore point guard Deonte Burton said. "This is what we did last year, and we don't want this season to be a repeat of last year. It started with practices and went from there."

Almost three months later, the Wolf Pack is 18-3, has won 15 straight games, including its first seven WAC contests, and is possibly eyeing its first NCAA tournament bid since 2007.

"We just haven't gotten much attention because of those three losses," Burton added.

If Nevada keeps on the same path it's been on, the attention will surely come.

Following that opening loss to Missouri State, Nevada mounted a late comeback before falling to in-state rival UNLV by four. The third loss came two weeks later against BYU, but the win that seemed to turn things for the Wolf Pack was a 76-73 home triumph over Washington.

In that game, Burton — the WAC's preseason Player of the Year — tied the game with a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of regulation, then scored eight of the team's 10 points in overtime, taking over the game in every way en route to scoring 31 points.

"Just how last year we started off so bad and overall, we didn't have a good season, and we were nervous of that happening again — We just used it as motivation," Burton said.

Iowa State students linger at Hilton Coliseum following Iowa State's Saturday upset of No. 5 Kansas. (AP)The term "Hilton Magic" was coined more than 20 years ago, but hasn't been used much in the last decade when it comes to describing upsets on the Iowa State campus.

It officially returned with a bang on Saturday afternoon, as fledgling Iowa State pushed aside No. 5 Kansas at Hilton Coliseum, 72-64. It was the program's first victory at home over a Top Five opponents since upsetting — surprise, surprise — Kansas on Jan. 14, 1995.

"I've said it all along — they're definitely an NCAA tournament team," Kansas coach Bill Self said afterwards. "Fred (Hoiberg) has done a nice job in a short amount of time, and they've got a matchup that not too many people have."

The matchup Self was referring to was sophomore forward and former McDonald's All-American Royce White, who had his signature stretch of the season at the perfect time.

Iowa State led by three at the half, but trailed by as many as six in the second stanza. Kansas was still threatening with five minutes left to play, trailing 56-53.

That was when Iowa State decided to simply feed White, and nothing more. Over the next three minutes, he took all four of the Cyclones' shot attempts, executing smooth move after smooth move underneath to connect on three layups, and he also hit two game-icing free throws with just under two minutes remaining.

White finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists — three categories in which he leads the Cyclones in on the season. This came just two weeks after he had 18 points and 17 rebounds in a nine-point loss at Allen Fieldhouse.

White is one of three key transfers leading the way for Iowa State, along with guards Chris Allen (Michigan State) and Chris Babb (Penn State). Given that overnight infusion of talent, many figured that Iowa State could legitimately contend for its first NCAA tournament berth since 2005 this season.

Now, at 15-6 overall and 5-3 in Big 12 play, they might not be able to get on top of the heap in the league standings by the end of the year, but the at-large tourney bid is definitely in play. The Cyclones have a golden opportunity to cement a premium postseason date over the next couple of weeks.

Third-ranked Syracuse could have won it outright on a final possession in regulation, or the game could have been decided in overtime, but we'll never know.

A crucial non-call on what should have been goaltending against the Orange in the final seconds on Saturday helped them escape a serious home scare from West Virginia, 63-61.

Deniz Kilicli grabbed an aired 3-point attempt by teammate Truck Bryant with just over 10 seconds left to play and went up for what was about to be a gimme to tie the game at 63-63.

However, after the ball bounced off of the glass, Baye Moussa Keita 'blocked' it, which, by rule, is a clear-as-day goaltend. It was missed by a referee standing roughly 10 feet away right under the hoop, sending the nearby West Virginia bench into an absolute frenzy. Even three of the Mountaineer players, with the ball still live, threw their arms in the air in disbelief.

It was an obvious call to make for those watching it in real time, and it was made to look even worse during

Xavier Thames (2) and San Diego State escaped Wyoming with a crucial 52-42 win. (AP)During an 18-2 start to the season with more than a few eye-opening wins along the way, San Diego State established itself as one of the nation's most consistent teams.

On Tuesday night, it firmly established itself as one of the nation's toughest.

Ultimately, a 20-hour trip to Laramie, Wyo., that stretched over two days and included pit stops in Cedar City, Utah, and Grand Junction, Colo., turned out to be tougher than the Aztecs' 52-42 victory over upset-minded Wyoming.

The Las Vegas oddsmakers set the game as a dead-even 'Pick 'em' on Monday night, but due to the assumptions that the travel woes would derail the 13th-ranked team in the land both mentally and physically, the Aztecs actually tipped off against the Cowboys as 2.5-point underdogs.

"I didn't feel like it did," senior forward Tim Shelton said when asked if the extended trip affected his team. "If we weren't a team with such strong character, it would have. It was something we talked about while spending the night in Utah."

So, how did this all come about? The travel woes were well-documented over the last two days by the San Diego Union-Tribune's Mark Zeigler as they unfolded. The highlights …

• 10 players, four coaches and five staffers boarded a 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D twin-engine turboprop plane, which was far from spacious. This was what the team's best option was after the 30-seat plane the team was originally supposed to take — owned and operated by a different aviation company — was taken out of service due to an issue with the wing. The 19-seater was all the team could find after opting not to fly commercial to a road conference game for only the second time in coach Steve Fisher's 13 years at the helm. The trip from San Diego to Laramie when flying commercial involves a long flight to Denver, followed by a 2.5-hour bus ride. The charter option was decided upon so that the Aztecs could leave Laramie after the game instead of having to wait until Wednesday morning. In theory, it was a good idea, since they fly back into the region for Saturday's game at Colorado State.

Duke's Cameron Crazies are not showing up like they used to. (AP)Maybe it really is the theory that college kids these days would rather watch their team play on their laptop screen while multi-tasking and studying than camping out in the freezing cold just to ensure a better seat.

Whatever the real reasons are, the average attendance by students for Duke's men's basketball games — the famed Cameron Crazies — is down.

It's not a new problem, necessarily, but it was brought to light yet again in a piece by the Duke Chronicle, which reported that approximately 650 undergrads have attended each home game this year — 150 fewer than during the 2008-09 season.

In turn, the school — as it should — has turned the student absences into a nice opportunity for profit, selling roughly 300 general admission tickets per game in the 1,200-seat Section 17. They've been priced at $65 a pop.

"It has nothing to do with the revenue — We just want it to be full," Director of Marketing and Relations Mike Forman told the Chronicle. "If there were 1,200 students every game, we would love it."

The story comes roughly a week after 400 tickets were made available to the general public for Duke's blowout of Wake Forest, which was a result of the school's fraternity and sorority rush going on at the same time and the Demon Deacons' lack of appeal as a competitive opponent. With empty seats in Section 17, the story claims that Mike Krzyzewski even motioned across the court during the game, trying to get more noise from what was once, without question, the greatest sixth man in all of college hoops.

Several possible reasons for the drop-off are included in the story …

Steve Alford (AP)

With eight members this season instead of nine, the Mountain West Conference's hoops schedule dropped from 16 games to 14.

That makes for less room for error if teams in the title hunt give up ground early.

And that makes Saturday crucial for a handful of teams in the league's upper crust.

The league's most intriguing story so far is, without question, San Diego State.

After escaping a scare at home last Saturday against UNLV thanks to a Jamaal Franklin buzzer-beater, almost no one gave the Aztecs a chance heading on the road to face red-hot New Mexico — the league's preseason favorite.

Despite falling behind 10-0 to start the game, SDSU responded with a monster second-half run and escaped with a 75-70 win. But Steve Fisher's club left Albuquerque left town with more than a win.

Through one week, SDSU and surging Colorado State are tied atop the Mountain West standings, both at 2-0.

The Aztecs get a nice landing spot after their two-game grinder to start conference play, hosting banged-up Air Force at home on Saturday.

Keeping pace will be tougher for Colorado State, who travels to face a very improved Wyoming team that was going toe-to-toe with New Mexico last Saturday before the Lobos' late surge led to a 10-point win.

Maybe even more interesting is what's brewing directly below the league's two undefeated teams, as UNLV and New Mexico are both at 1-1. The two will meet on Saturday night in Las Vegas, with the loser potentially falling two games out of first place right out of the gates.

Kansas coach Bill Self wants the national anthem left alone. (AP)Kansas coach Bill Self has little to be upset with these days.

His thinnest roster in nine years on the job in Lawrence is overachieving, in the driver's seat early on in the Big 12 race and fresh off of an 18-point thumping of third-ranked Baylor on Monday night.

But everything at Allen Fieldhouse isn't perfect at the moment, in Self's opinion.

One key flaw in the game-day atmosphere involves the national anthem.

For years, the vast student section has replaced "… home of the brave" at the end of the anthem with a boisterous "… home of the Chiefs," which is what fans at Arrowhead Stadium about 50 miles down the highway traditionally do before Kansas City Chiefs home games.

"That's one tradition that, in my opinion, certainly we could do without," Self told the Lawrence Journal-World. "I think it'd be more respectful toward the anthem and what that stands for to go ahead and use the actual words to it than putting in their own. I think they should stick to Francis Scott Key's words. I think that would be appropriate."