The 2010-11 season saw freshman Carlos Lopez, who redshirted his first year and transfer Quintrell Thomas, who sat per NCAA transfer rules, join big man Brice Massamba in UNLV’s pool of big-men. Almost instantaneously, many of the fans began to ask, ‘when is Coach Kruger going to play 2 big men at once?’ Coach Kruger normally only played one of these guys at a time, using them in short bursts, especially Massamba and Lopez. Thomas gained more minutes when he overcame his propensity to commit fouls, which thankfully was over by before the conference schedule started. Nonetheless, despite the Rebels success (or because of lack of success dependant on your perspective) all year the same question, when are they going to play two bigs at once? A lot has changed in the off-season, let’s examine if this will be a possibility under Coach Rice.
Coach Dave Rice’s stated mission is to win basketball games, and do so by playing up-tempo Runnin’ Rebels basketball such as the style made famous under Coach Tarkanian. Does having two big men in your starting lineup make sense in an up-tempo game?
NBA examples
Some of the most obvious examples of the two-bigs scenario come from former NBA teams. The Duncan-Robinson era Spurs are one of the successful – but they didn’t win by playing up-tempo basketball, they did it by shutting down the paint, and relentless defense. In their seasons together, the team never cracked the top-ten in points-per-game scored, but they did hover around #1 in least points allowed.
An earlier example of the two-bigs or “twin towers” as they were more commonly referred to pre-9/11, was Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson together on the Houston Rockets. They collaborated from 1985-88 and produced deep pushes into the post-season, they also did so by having respectable middle-of-the-pack team points per game levels.
Bill Cartwright and Patrick Ewing pulled off the duo in 1986-88, but like the Spurs had back-of-the-pack offensive production, yet some success. No surprise, Knicks basketball has remained slow until D’antoni took the helm, but now the defense sucks so they continue to lose.
As seen by the professional level, two bigs can be seen as an asset and quite effective – if the defense makes up for the lack of offense. With few exceptions such as Shaq and Dirk Nowitzki, the guy playing center normally does not account of the bulk of points. If you are essentially playing two centers, that puts the scoring burden more on the three perimeter players. Granted, having two big guys in the lane does shut down the paint, but unless they are especially good offensively, nobody is doubling them and they aren’t really opening up much for the others. Normally, the bigger the player the slower they are. Coaches also want their centers to put on muscle and not be stick figures so they can bang in the post and rebound, that tends to slow them down ever further. This does not normally bode well for fast-break basketball.
UNLV
UNLV’s three bigs are Carlos Lopez, Brice Massamba, and Quintrell Thomas. Thomas is actually only 6’8, so he is more of a power-forward sized and type player who has volunteered to play starting center. The good thing is that at 6’8” he has a better chance of being able to run up and down the floor. Playing Thomas along side Lopez or Massamba is a possibility, but that would put Thomas filling the roll of a power-forward, which right now, may be not the most comfortable for him. Playing Lopez and Massamba together would be a disaster, that would slow things down to a Utah Ute’s pace and put a tremendous scoring burden on the other three.
My take on it, is although UNLV has three big-men on their bench, it is unlikely that Coach Rice would play two of them together at once. Playing two together runs contrary to his style of play. The only scenario under which I see Coach Rice doing it, would be Lopez and Thomas together, if our team is being severely beaten by the other teams offense and we need to employ a gimmick defense.
Otherwise, we will likely see these three players swapped out more consistently, as they will be tired quickly under the fast-break style. In fact, look for Coach to go deeper into the roster on every position on a regular basis, running all the time will wear out even the best conditioned player.
Once Coach Rice’s brand of basketball is seen and proves successful, nobody should be asking about two bigs again.
UNLV’s rival New Mexico Lobos’ Coach Steve Alford has banned his players from using Twitter, and has forced current ‘tweeters’ to close their accounts. In addition, Coach Alford allows players to have Facebook accounts, but has informed them they would be monitored by the athletic department. As far as consequences for indiscretions, any violation would warrant disciplinary action, a third violation would warrant pulling that student-athletes scholarship, suspending them, or removing them from the team. Coach Alford has not explained his rationale for doing so, but it is implied and obvious that Twitter could be seen as a distraction, a portal for trouble, and accentuates the individual over the team.
Could this be a trend in college sports, and specifically could Coach Dave Rice implement a similar policy? The UNLV Athletic department is no stranger when it comes to student-athlete trouble caused by ‘tweeted’ comments. Take the case of UNLV Football wide-receiver Phillip Payne. In October of 2010 he was suspended by Coach Bobby Hauck due to tweeted comments critical of the coaching staff. He was suspended for two games, which would be the equivalent of 4-6 basketball games due to length of schedule.
UNLV Basketball has not yet experienced such problems, a statement which I don’t mean to imply that they will in the future. Coach Rice has not formally announced a policy in the manner that Coach Alford of New Mexico has, but it is possible that players have been encouraged to curtail Twitter accounts or at least what they are tweeting.
Take the case of UNLV player Anthony Marshall. He previously had an active account www.twitter.com/ANT_MARZ , that has since been closed. While I didn’t officially log when the account ceased to exist, I would guesstimate it was sometime in May. Sadly, I had meant to take a screenshot of the twitter page because it featured a cool new team photo of the Runnin’ Rebels on a chessboard motif – possibly a leaked new wallpaper of the team. If anyone has a copy of that, I’d like to have it and display it. UPDATE: Anthony Marshall has opened another Twitter account, http://twitter.com/#!/ant_marz3 (still cool backgound). Here is a twitter roster for this year’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels:
Given that two of the four members of the coaching staff themselves have and use Twitter, it would be hypocritical to ban it, unless of course everyone including coaches were banned.
The potential for trouble in the context of UNLV Basketball and twitter is very real, and many hypotheticals could cause problems. Here are some purely hypothetical but possible indiscretions: Coach / player posts something that raises the eyebrows of the NCAA compliance investigators, embarrassing photos tweeted (i.e. Congressman Weiner, Brett Favre), player trashes coaches or their decisions (Phillip Payne), strategic information leaked (injuries, starting lineup change), or off-color slur (see Tim Hardaway, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett). But are there any positives beyond a player communicating with his friends and fans?
The benefits beyond those rely on the fact that Twitter is an addictive technology. It is commonly said that the perfect invention is the one you never knew you needed, but now somehow can’t live without it. Many say Facebook and Twitter fall into that category. Many advertisers, stupidly, believe that Facebook and Twitter are some kind of second internet and they have to be a part of it or be killed by the competition. Why does Glidden paint feel that it is a good business strategy to try and get people to ‘like them on Facebook’? Tangent aside, many high school ballers have taken to Twitter like syrup to pancakes. Should the trend of banning Twitter accounts spread among schools, but not be outright banned by the NCAA, it could be a real boon to those universities who continue to allow it – a Shabazz Muhammad could say, no thanks I don’t want to give up Tweeting to play ball at your university. We also know Muhammad is a very active tweeter: http://twitter.com/#!/phenom15balla
This debate is likely to last awhile….
Rebels land commitment from Daquan Cook closely eyeing others
As widely reported, UNLV received a verbal commitment from Baltimore native Daquan Cook who is a 6’1” point guard. Besides other targets, Coach Rice and Staff may be locking up two others soon - Katin Reinhardt and Matt Willms. Not coincidentally, feature stories on both players recently ran in the Las Vegas Sun.
Incoming freshman and UNLV target Steven Zimmerman has turned down a scholarship offer from UCLA. This is good news for the schools who have already offered, Rebels included. Link
Here is some video of Reinhardt:
Here is some video of Matt Willms (caution, over 9 minutes):
2011-2012 Non-Conference Schedule Finalized
As mentioned in the newspapers and now officially publicized on the Rebels website, the non-conference schedule is now finalized. New additions include Canisius (remember when and where you heard about that one) and Cal State San Marcos.
As far as Cal State San Marcos goes, this has to be seen to be believedand speaks to the level of competition we’ll be getting:
Everything is good, everything is great, but something needs to be pointed out and there is lots of room for improvement. A glaring area is the music played at the Thomas and Mack center during the basketball games. I’m not talking about the band whose normal standards include the fight song, Reeebbels, and Viva Las Vegas - I’m talking about the AV people.
The particular bone I have to pick with the T&M crew, is the music that was picked seemingly for the student section is dated, boring, and does not help anyone get into a cheering or winning mindset.
The songs that have been played (and frankly played-out) are Biz Markie’s – Just a Friend; and Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff’s theme to Fresh Prince. From what I’ve seen, they are played sometime during the second half and the student section sings along with these tunes. Does anyone else see a problem with this?
Let’s look at each one and highlight why it’s a bad choice for Rebels games.
Biz Markie’s – Just a friend
This is the song that everyone loves to sing along to, it has that going for it, but is it really right for a sporting event? This song is about a guy who finds out his relationship with a girl is less exclusive than was believed. The reason why the song was catchy was that people could relate to the theme, the silliness of Biz’s voice, and the campy piano music. What the heck does this have to do with sports, let alone the Rebels – not a damn thing. The song moves along at a snails pace, clocks at 86 B.P.M. which is tame enough for an old folks home. As far as old goes, the song debuted on the charts in 1989, so the song is approximately 22 years old. This slow old school jam has no place at a Runnin’ Rebels basketball game.
Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff – Theme to Fresh Prince of Bel Air
A catchy tune that educates the viewers as to how Will Smith, a kid from Philly, ends up living with relatives in Bel Air, CA. Its only tie to basketball, is that Will happens to be playing basketball when he is roughed up by some troublemakers in his neighborhood while playing basketball (poorly). Ironically, he seems to be awesome on his preppy high school team, even though he is lousy on the show’s intro. Besides people remembering the lyrics to this theme, there is no real reason why this song has any place at a Rebels game. The internet lists the speed at 112 B.P.M. which is generous for this sleepy little irrelevant tune. The show and the song were on the air from 1990-96, but have been in syndication ever since. The theme from a mid-90’s comedy sitcom just isn’t right for Runnin ‘Rebels basketball.
Speed / Standards
Looking at what needs to be played, you need quick paced music to give a boost to the fans and the players. Count out all slow-jamz, unless remixed to make them play quicker, and definitely quit the TV theme songs. In a perfect world, music that would be played would be something that did have some crowd participation, such as “the hey song” or the “ole ole” song commonly played at soccer games. T&M staff could pick one or two songs for the entire season, maybe something by Kanye West, Jay-Z, the Black Eyed Peas or even something by Daft Punk, Modest Mouse. It would be nice to get the entire arena singing, not just the student section. There are a lot of gray-hairs (not that there is anything wrong with it) in the RAF seats, the music needs to be something they can sing along with as well. Someone has to find a song that the young and old alike are comfortable and proud to sing together, maybe that’s why ‘the hey song’ as endured.
Player’s tunes
UNLV has always done cutting edge things, they put the spectacle into basketball and were ahead of the game entertainment value-wise before even some NBA teams. How about this for an idea, in Major League baseball they often times will play a piece of music specific to a player when he comes to bat. Music is extremely important to athletes, a lot of the time you’ll see a player be they amateur or professional come to practice or to a game sporting headphones listing to their favorite jam to hype them up, calm their nerves, or get them in the right mindset. How about the arena put together a mega-mix or mashup of players favs to pump them up, and then play that mixtape every game at the designated timeout.
The blowout tune / clip
How about a clip / music for a blowout? Most fans will sing ‘na na na na hey hey hey, goodbye’ when it’s a blowout, the Celtics have a great clip from Soul Train in the 70’s where a guy named Geno dances and he is essentially their ‘victory cigar’. We need to get something. How about Wayne Newton signing danke schoen, very Vegas, very classy.
Music and sports go hand-in-hand. Changing the music costs basically nothing, and takes a few minutes - let’s make a change for the better, Rebel fans.
< Originally posted on The Mountain West Connection>
Too quickly, the Rebels lost another alumni of basketball greatness. Curtis Watson died on July 11, 2011 of complications from pancreatic cancer. Curtis averaged 21 ppg in the 1968-69 season and was a major offensive force in general, leading the Rebels to impressive seasons and 100+ point games. Condolences go out to the Watson family.
Better mobile devices display
This website's platform has been upgraded, and now it should display in a more droid/iphone friendly format when you access it from your smartphone.
Sadly and far too abruptly, a member of the UNLV Basketball community has died. On July 5, 2011 the Hammer died at the young age of 47 of a heart attack. He was playing pick-up basketball when he died. As a tribute to Armen Gilliam, here is some highlight clips of the Hammer. Rest in peace.
Loyalty to UNLV and Coach Rice: The success of keeping the roster intact
On April 1, 2011 drips of information about UNLV head basketball Coach Lon Kruger’s decision to leave UNLV for Oklahoma trickled out, as if they were from an unreliable faucet. After many hours of partial and misinformation (largely distrusted because Kruger himself just a few days earlier said he was staying at UNLV) it became a certainty, UNLV’s entire coaching staff was leaving. Once the shock subsided, it was common sense that replacements would be named, and the athletic director said it would be a quick process, and it was. Coach Rice was named, and he assembled a dream-team staff that embodies our championship heritage, and seeks to bring that back. Fortunately, none of Coach Kruger’s former players have decided to leave UNLV in the wake of his departure, and this is a testament to the character of the players, Coach Rice and his staff, and the reputation of UNLV.
In the landscape of college basketball, it is not unheard of and actually quite common for coaches to come and go. NCAA coaches are given a bit more latitude than NBA coaches as far as being fired quickly if they they don't produce wins, so among the 300+ division I teams, things are relatively stable.
The fallout of a coaching change, be they fired or leave under good or bad circumstances, is that the people who actually put the points on the scoreboard are left in the balance. The dynamic that plays out in college sports is one where normally the student athlete and their family are looking somewhat at the college, but a great deal at the coaching staff when the initially choose a school. The staff, which would include the head coach and his assistants normally had been recruiting that player for several years while he was in high school, playing AAU basketball, or maybe even playing internationally. That staff has put in many hours answering questions, showing the player and his family how he would figure into his basketball offense (to a lesser extent defense), and most important to the athlete who has pro ambitions - how this staff will make him better so he can be a well-paid professional athlete. If the athlete was a transfer, they have had a similar recruitment, but obviously time wise to a much lesser extent. That said, as in the case of many UNLV players who have transferred into Lon Kruger’s program, they were people who he formally recruited out of high school – so the foundation had already been built.
Although this topic has only received passing mention by the news outlets, there would have been real danger should a significant number of players decided to transfer. UNLV has some built-in factors that could have made that danger a reality.
Our Roster
In terms of homegrown talent on the current UNLV roster, there is only one player who fits that category on this coming season’s roster – Anthony Marshall, a junior this season and a product of Mojave High School. Assuming that he felt that UNLV was always his best option, no matter the coaching staff, then he’s safe. There are many telling signs that he has immense loyalty to Las Vegas and UNLV, but surely we would understand if instead of Coach Rice some clown was installed by the A.D. and Regents, then Marshall might have left.
The next closest thing to a local, would be players from Findlay Prep - not locals but people who did attend high school here in Las Vegas specifically to be a part of a national powerhouse high school program. From Findlay we have Brice Massamba, a native of Sweden and Carlos Lopez, who hails from Puerto Rico. Brice Massamba is a senior this year who never redshirted, so theoretically he could have decided to transfer and have 1 year of remaining eligibility – but what’s the point of going to a new program with only one year left, that makes very little sense for Brice or for another program. Carlos Lopez is a redshirt sophomore this year, meaning he has used his redshirt as a freshman. If he were to transfer to another program he would only have two years of eligibility remaining, and would have to sit out this season.
Also in the category of next-closest-thing to a local, would be Karam Mashour. All indications is that UNLV’s good fortune of having this talented Israeli player on our roster is because his uncle lives in Las Vegas and is his United States roots. That makes it less likely that he would want to leave Las Vegas to find another program to play in. Also drawing assumptions from past actions, he was told he would have limited minutes as a freshman if he did not redshirt, but he played last year anyhow. It is less likely that he would want to ‘not-play’ this coming season by red-shirting at another program. He could have always gone back to Israel, but the basketball scenery there is uncertain, and exposure would likely be less than at UNLV.
Regarding the rest of the roster, Oscar Bellfield, Chace Stanback, and Kendall Wallace are all seniors this year. Stanback and Wallace have each already used their redshirt year (Stanback for transferring from UCLA, Wallace for injury), so transferring would be forfeiting their final year of eligibility. Bellfield never redshirted, but transferring to sit one year and then play later doesn’t make too much sense. Bellfield played more minutes than any other player last year, and he has a great thing going here.
Justin Hawkins will be a junior this year, but he could have elected to transfer, redshirt and have two years of eligibility remaining. Mike Moser has just finished sitting a redshirt year after transferring from UCLA. Although I am not fully apprised of the NCAA rule on this, theoretically, he could have elected to transfer out of UNLV to another program and played this coming season since he has already sat the year already and has not yet played for the Rebels. The same situation exists with Reggie Smith who transferred in from Marquette will be eligible in January 2012 to start playing. Since he will have sat the year, nothing prevents him from choosing another school to play ball at. Quintrell Thomas, the Kansas transfer who will be a junior this year, has already used a redshirt season getting to UNLV. Thomas would jeopardize an entire season by trying to play somewhere else.
Previous Recruits
As far as recruits who were in place under Coach Lon Kruger, shortly after the regime change Findlay Prep product Nigel Williams-Goss rescinded his verbal commitment to UNLV, stating that it was Coach Kruger that recruited him and who he was sold on, he has a lot of time to remake the decision and will still consider the Runnin’ Rebels when making that choice. Grandy Glaze was a recruit who, for was appears was a mutual decision, has chosen another school (St. Louis). The all-time Nevada high school scoring leader, Dantley Walker, was recruited by both Lon Kruger and Dave Rice, and Rice appears to be a Coach both he and his family are happy with, so his commitment was solidified.
Other familiar teams
Other teams that we know and play against have not been so lucky when it comes to coaching changes and players staying.
The Utah Utes have been an absolute disaster since they fired Jim Boylen. They hired Larry Krystkowiak and soon thereafter nearly half the team decided to transfer. J.J. O’Brien was one of the transfer players UNLV was targeting, he ended up choosing the SDSU Aztecs as his destination team. The team only returns four players from last years squad (David Foster, Chris Hines, Josh Washburn, Jiggy Watkins) and has been patched back up with JUCO and small school transfers, as well as a lot of walk-ons. They will try to compete in the Pac-12, but even living up to their 12-16 record from last year seems like a challenge under these circumstances.
The Wyoming Coyboys fired Coach Heath Schroyer (now an assistant with UNLV) ten games into last season. Interm Coach Fred Langley was not retained, and Wyoming snagged Larry Shyatt, who had been assistant to Billy Donovan with the multiple national champion Florida Gators. He’s probably the best they could do given the circumstances. Not long after the hire, Amath M'Baye, Wyoming’s best player with several years of eligibility left, decided to join Coach Kruger in Oklahoma. Wyoming has also lost Desmar Jackson to Southern Illinois.
Conclusion
The fact that not a single player from this year’s roster has defected is a tribute to the faith and optimism that the players have for Coach Rice and his assistant coaches. Although each player has their own circumstances that extend well off the hardwood, a Coaching staff has to be there for the players, not just for X’s and O’s but for mentorship, guidance, and security. With the change, a lot of familiar faces are gone, but none of the new faces are strangers. Talent, winning, and tradition bind the new staff and everyone is confident that the success that Coach Kruger built can be maintained and even capitalized on. All of the players and coaches should be given our sincere thanks for helping to maintain a highly successful roster that is expected to go deeper into the tournament this year.
Originally published on The Mountain West Connection Link
Canisius date update
One of their loyal fans has alerted me that they believe Canisius will be visiting and playing the Rebels on November 17, 2011.
Christian Wood orally commits to the UNLV 2013-14 class
(Video fixed 10:30a.m.)
Points of emphasis about his recruitment
Appreciates the reputation and tradition at UNLV
Believes UNLV is young and on the rise
Looked at the Rebels due to AAU coach’s relationship with Stacey Augmon
Says looks forward to having Augmon as a mentor, aspires to be similar type of swingman player, appreciates him having helped develop Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith
Appreciates that Augmon was a NBA player, what he brings to the table
Wanted to pick a school close to home (Palmdale, CA)
May attend Finlay Prep this coming season
Major point (hidden in plain sight): Looks at the UNLV coaching staff and sees the former coaches of both Jimmer Fredette and Kawai Leonard, both NBA lottery picks
Profile
Christian Wood is 6’8”, entering his junior year, and plays power forward currently at William J. Knight High School in Palmdale, CA. As exhibited in his game footage he has an excellent 3-point-shot and dunks with regularity and authority. He has been described as extremely athletic for his size, and has been compared with Kevin Durant for body type. Overall, he has been described as a cross between Austin Daye and Tracy McGrady. By his own admission, he needs to build strength so he can rebound and fight for loose balls. Missed all but three games of last year’s high school season with a broken wrist. At his age, growing taller is still within the realm of possibility, but even if he does not grow another inch, he is the correct size for a power-forward. His shooting range will draw the defense out, allowing better looks for his teammates. He has the potential to be a 1st team all-MWC type of player, and a good shot at being selected and competing at the next level. This is excellent news for UNLV and for Christian Wood and his family, he figures to be a prominent key to the Rebel’s future.
Rankings
Scout.com lists him as a 4-star prospect, 33rd best player overall and 9th best power forward
Espn.com lists him as a 4-star prospect (94 points), 37th best player overall and 11th best power forward
Rivals.com lists him as a 3-star prospect
Neil Neves @ Coast 2 Coast recruiting believes by the time 2013 arrives Wood could be the #1 west coast prospect.
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Video
Interview done by West Coast Hoops – May 22, 2011 (Topic, recruiting, people who influence his decision)
