The incredible shrinking team: Rebels lose 66-59 to CSU

How to lose a basketball game -- flatline

The Rebels have been a lackluster road team in the conference schedule. Besides having to go to overtime twice to gain wins against lower tier teams, there was a loss to TCU where the Rebels coughed up an 18 point lead in the second half. This game was nearly as bad, giving up a 15 point half time lead and losing by 7 points.

It wasn’t all bad, early on the Rebels were a solid, fluid, scoring machine. Without Mike Moser in the lineup the Rebels clicked early and thoroughly dominated the Rams. In place of Moser (who was sitting as a disciplinary measure due to being late to study hall), Justin Hawkins was extremely active with his hands and created a bunch of turnovers. Chace Stanback’s 3 pointer was on target, as was Oscar Bellfield’s. Because of UNLV’s 7 first half three pointers, points off of turnovers, great defense, and CSU’s bad luck, the Rebels had a 41-26 lead. I thought, man we’re going to win this game, I’ve not seen the Rebels play this consistently in a while.

It appears that the basket that CSU started with and the Rebels finished with was cursed, as no team shot well on it. All it took for the Rams to come into the second half was average scoring – nothing superhuman. The Rebels scoring became non-existant. Players who had delivered for the Rebels, such as Chace Stanback and Oscar Bellfield hit far fewer shots. The Rebels, who only had 2 first half turnovers, gave away the ball at an embarrassing rate in the second half with 8 team turnovers. Leading the giveaway fest was Anthony Marshall, with 4 turnovers, but also Mike Moser with 2.

Not even a tourniquet could stop the points hemorrhaging that the Rebels allowed, and with 6:57 left in the game the Rams had tied it. Besides not shooting well and turning the ball over, the Rebels frequent misses were rarely rebounded for second chance points. Colorado State limited the Rebels to 5 second chance points, while overachieving with 13 in the second half. The Rebels were outrebounded in the second half 12-18. While Coach Rice has faith in his guys, the major rebounding guy is Mike Moser, and he failed produce in a way that makes you scratch your head. Two rebounds in 26 minutes of play, to go with only 5 points reignites the inquiry – did Mike Moser reinjure his wrist? Furthermore, it became apparent sometime when Moser was going 1-10 from the field that Hawkins would have been the better choice – especially for his defense and steals. Hawkins had 3 steals in the game.

In a season of many chances to capture and maintain the MWC regular season title, the Rebels have now blown too many to realistically get it. Too many teams have stormed the court at our expense. We play better as the hunters, not the hunted. And its hard to remember a time when both Chace Stanback and Mike Moser both played up to their abilities at the same time. Many say a successful post-season run is about getting hot at the right time – hopefully the Rebels are saving that right time for just down the road. In all likelihood Wyoming will be a tall order in our house as well, hopefully we can take care of business and prepare for our tournament – which is far later than it should be.

No Reign Men this game, it was too big of a disappointment. I will give props to Anthony Marshall not only for offense, but the two amazing blocks he had. Also to Mike Moser for his steal-behind the back pass. I’ve never seen anything like that, degree of difficulty has got to be through-the-roof. Although successful and awesome to watch, I hope I never see him attempt that again.

Have faith Rebel faithful, we are finally done with true road games and better times may be upon us. 

On the mountain top once again: UNLV defeats Air Force 68-58

 

A familiar theme has emerged the last two games – superhuman three point shooting from Chace Stanback, and mere mortal shooting but a ‘Mr. Everything Else’ performance from Mike Moser. Although this is a different recipe than what has worked this season, we’re winning games again and back on top.

UNLV  started the game with good energy – as good as a team could have given the slow pace Air Force tends to play at. Everyone knows the Falcons don’t score a ton of points, but hope to limit their opponents and score just enough to win – that’s how they beat SDSU recently. Link

Chace Stanback established himself early from deep, scoring the Rebels first points, and being a consistant factor throughout the game both outside and inside the three point line. On phenomenal 3 point shooting, the 6’8” forward drilled 5 of 7 three point attempts (71%). In addition to the total 21 points which just moved Stanback past Reggie Theus on the all time scoring list, he had 8 rebounds, 1 block and 3 steals. For a man who often times was incognito on the court even in great games, I couldn’t stop watching Stanback lift the Rebels to victory the right way – by building and maintaining a comfortable lead. The Reign Man of the game is Chace.

Mike Moser was still having issues scoring the basketball, but had a major hand in the win. Most incredible stat to go along with 7 points were 6 steals. Mike was the clear energy guy on the court, keeping the Rebels from being lulled to sleep by the flowless Falcons. Tempering his steals figure, were his turnovers (6). While I’ve heard nothing concrete on Moser injury-wise, a guy who isn’t scoring the ball like he’s capable, and is turning over the ball quite a bit could very well be suffering from a hand or wrist injury of some sort. Remember, Mike had an injury to his right wrist in early December, but has since recovered – so hopefully not a reaggravation of that.Link

One of the points of emphasis for the Rebels besides not playing down to the Falcons tempo, would have been defending the three. Air Force, percentage wise, is the most accurate three shooting team in the MWC. The Falcons were actually shooting the three ball well in the first half (5-11 45%) but then went ice cold in the second (1-8 12%). The Rebels, behind strong outings by Stanback and complemented by Bellfield and Hawkins finished at 47% from three (9 – 19).

Transition basketball for the Rebels was sloppy, but only noticeably on lob and in-the-paint attempts. Regularly, the ball was lost and recovered by an Air Force player with little effort. Having observed the Rebels over now 30 games of basketball, its become apparent that there is regression on transition dunks and layups. Surprisingly (because its not normal for teams), the Rebels’ best transition shot is the in rhythm assisted three because of people like Stanback, Hawkins, Bellfield, and Moser (when he’s on). Give the Rebels credit for being creative in transition, but unfortunately the turnovers are mounting and normally the Rebels are exposed when the ball quickly goes back the other way.

Frustration felt: Two Rebels were cited for technical fouls – Kendall Wallace and Brice Massamba. Wallace had a call go against him when he was steamrolled by an Air Force guard driving to the basket. Massamba got tripped by an Air Force center under the opponents basket, the trip which could have been inadvertent inspired him to get in the players face, as well as have words with the Air Force bench.

Conclusion: We beat an opponent everyone expected us to beat. In winning two in a row and New Mexico losing two in a row, we are now again tied at the top of the standings with the Lobos and SDSU. But, the Rebels are technically the top first place team because our overall record trumps both teams. Two tough games remain on the schedule, Colorado State who have demonstrated their lack of fear for the Thomas and Mack, and Wyoming who handed us defeat in Laramie. Chances are, the Rebels luck in having both SDSU and New Mexico falter will end, and both will win out the rest of their conference schedule. Colorado State is still looking for a resume boosting win, ideally away from home but they would relish beating  the Rebels either way. The Rebels will look to change their road fortune against Colorado State – should be must see TV. 

Confidence Builder – Rebels end losing streak, beat Boise St 75-58.

 BEATS 

This is the type of Rebels game the fan is accustomed and more comfortable seeing. The Rebels put their stamp on this one with great defensive pressure and accuracy from three. A lot of very good things occurred in this one that the team can build upon finishing out the conference schedule .

Active hands – Part of playing Runnin’ Rebels defense is looking to create turnovers and convert them into points. The best part of doing so is it counts as a stop because the opponent missed their opportunity to capitalize, and our team just scored. The Rebels outperformed Boise State in the steals department 10-4. The really cool thing about our 10 steals, was that it was evenly distributed – everyone was looking and successfully grabbing the ball. Three players had 2 steals apiece, Bellfield, Stanback, and Massamba. The following players had 1 apiece, Smith, Hawkins, Moser and Marshall. The Rebels did a great job of capitalizing on turnovers, with 13 points off turnovers.

Chace is back – Although there was talk from players like Anthony Marshall and Chace Stanback about not stepping up previously, playing through injury, and apologizing to the fans – that was just talk, we needed action. Chace Stanback had another effortless game with perimeter shots falling regularly. Stanback led all scorers with 19 points, he was 7 for 11 from the field with 4 of those from the three point line (4 of 6). When Stanback plays well and the Rebels play defense, we are unstoppable. Good to see his shot not altered by his knee troubles. Besides shooting, he really went all out. He had 7 rebounds, a steal and a block. Very solid performance by Chace, if he keeps this up we’re going places. I'll single out Chace for the Reign Man award, but the whole team gets it as well for shaking off the cobwebs and playing Runnin' Rebel basketball again. 

Defensive pressure – The Rebels were impressive with finally employing a full court press, even when comfortably ahead. Several times, especially in the first half, they pushed the Bronocs to the brink of running out the shot clock – not an easy feat with a lengthy 35 second clock. While its easy to see the result of the pressure with the numbers already mentioned, the Rebels forced BSU into 14 turnovers as well. Unfortunately, UNLV had 14 turnovers of our own, but still the effort was good. Fortunately, UNLV played defense in a way where lots of traps were employed, some successful charges were taken, and foul trouble never really became an issue. Teams really fear this kind of defensive pressure, and keeping teams afraid is a battle worth fighting for.

Massamba is fine – Surely Rebel nation was collectively holding their breath when Brice Massamba sprained his ankle against New Mexico. But, tonight Brice started and played very effective basketball, in fact 27 minutes worth. Great news for the Rebels to have Massamba at the ready to deliver. On a side note – who knew he had range? In the second half he popped out to 16 feet and shot a jumper, opponents got to hate that!

Runnin’ is back – besides the obvious defensive component, people want to see fastbreak points. UNLV simply dominated in that category outscoring 13 to 2 in fast break points in the first half, and then 8 to 0 in the second half. The point total could have been even higher, in a few of the plays the Rebels were a little too creative or unselfish with the ball, which ended up in missed shots and turnovers. Also complementing the Runnin’ was assists. Although not exclusively confined  to fastbreak points, the Rebels had a respectable 19 assists as a team. Leading all players in unselfishness was Anthony Marshall with 5 assists.

Moser’s more than a scorer – Mike Moser finished with 6 points. His shooting was still off and was 2-7 from the field. He was still a valuable piece on the court, besides being one of the more active forces stirring up trouble for the Broncos, he had 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. Also worth mentioning was he helped clean up a fastbreak layup by Anthony Marshall that went awry by trailing the play and dunking the putback. Despite the lack of copious points, Mike Moser was valuable in every other way.

Knockout punch – Throughout the game the announcing crew of CBS Sports keep ragging on the Rebels for not being able to step on teams throats, and finish them. When the Rebels finally achieved a 20 point lead, they shut up. In the end, the Rebels gave back very few of the points in the win margin, and those that did fall by the wayside happened in garbage time. At least now the Rebels realize that doing enough isn’t always an easily definable number (see 18 point lead ending up in a loss).

Nickname – I’m christening a new one for the Rebels. Based upon their penchant for shooting the long ball, how about “Threepublic”? (play on Rebpublic). I’m just saying even though it frustrates me to no end to see such an athletic team jacking up threes all the time, maybe you just have to embrace it, for better or for worse.

Elsewhere – In other news, a much more exciting game occurred on The Mtn when Wyoming came to San Diego and pushed them to overtime. The Aztecs fought back and halted their three game losing streak, winning at home 67-58.

3 Pointer Season Trend

How good is UNLV at shooting the three? Take a look:

Nat'l	Conf	3P%	Team	Conf	Games
7	1	41.0	Colorado State	Mountain West	25
18	2	39.4	New Mexico	Mountain West	26
64	3	36.9	TCU	Mountain West	26
71	4	36.5	UNLV	Mountain West	28
117	5	35.7	Boise State	Mountain West	25
217	6	33.3	Wyoming	Mountain West	26
221	7	33.2	San Diego State	Mountain West	26
250	8	32.4	Air Force	Mountain West	24

Who attempts the most threes?

Nat'l	Conf	3PA	Team	Conf	Games
14	1	646	UNLV	Mountain West	28
78	2	554	Boise State	Mountain West	25
125	3	510	New Mexico	Mountain West	26
139	4	501	TCU	Mountain West	26
169	5	481	Air Force	Mountain West	24
182	6	475	Wyoming	Mountain West	26
220	7	443	San Diego State	Mountain West	26
321	8	368	Colorado State	Mountain West	25

Conclusion: Although arguable that the attempts are higher because we have played more games than the rest of our MWC opponents, we take the most threes but are middle of the pack in making them. The three pointer is the most difficult traditional shot in basketball - hence they are worth more points. Unless UNLV can make more of them, or play better defense (limiting our opponents scoring while we are missing), the Rebels should take fewer threes or be more selective. 


I had this chart generated, interesting stuff.

NCAA Basketball Stats

As compared to last season

College Basketball

Carnage at The Pit: UNLV blows first half lead, loses 65-45 to UNM

UNLV has become a version of last year’s Rebels, a team that fires at will from distance but makes far fewer than they take. Last year’s team was superior in one respect,  they played with tenacious defense no matter the opponent, except for the obvious disaster that occurred in the tournament. Clearly, we don’t deserve the #11 ranking, expect us to fall somewhere in the 18-25 range, SDSU as well.

Recaps of the game can be found in the following locations, LVRJ Las Vegas Sun and there is no need to relive the mess that occurred this morning. Looking forward, the Rebels have four very beatable opponents coming up prior to the MWC Tournament. Hopefully the Rebels can watch film of when they were playing great and figure out what the magic was, because everyone has figured out how to beat us right now.

The real disaster has been not having 1-2 key guys step up in the close ones. Throw the TCU loss out, the Rebels executed on offense, but couldn’t figure out how to contain the Horned Frogs.

Chase Stanback in this one was non-existent, 4 points, 4 rebounds and 3 fouls isn’t getting it done. He only had 1 field goal – this from the hero of the North Carolina win. If all Chase Stanback can be is a guy who every 5^th game (much more so in the non-conference schedule) can light it up from three, we are in trouble.

Mike Moser, who had 8 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists is still having shooting troubles. There was an interesting article done awhile back by Kenpom that showed the statistical anomaly that Moser is, a 6’8” guy who gets a ton of rebounds, but jacks up a lot of threes Link. The reason its an anomaly is because a guy of his rebounding prowess should be an inside presence, and have a good short to mid-range game. He certainly is athletic enough to have an inside game, so why not use it when the 3 isn’t falling?

Anthony Marshall, the player who during a two game stretch looked like superman, did have 18 points, but it was on 4-9 field goal shooting and 8-13 from the free throw line. He continues to have difficulty finishing layups that, all be they contested, could easily be dunked or further assured – we know he has the ability.

Justin Hawkins had as many points as Barry Cheaney, none. The only problem is Cheaney didn’t play, Hawkins did. As one of the four who can put up 20 points, his lack of potency against the Lobos sticks out because he’s normally the bench sparkplug who helps push UNLV over.

UNLV is still letting opposing players achieve career highs. Now, it wasn’t quite as bad when it was a seldom successful bench player who had the game of his life, but in the last two – Hank Thorns Jr. and Drew Gooden are known commodities. Clearly, Coach Rice’s plan to contain the most obvious threat isn’t working, and defensive theory needs to be revamped, because the offense is slumping. Did you know, prior to this last game UNLV’s defensive points allowed ranked  #173 in the NCAA (although #1 in the MWC) ?

Reign man – Anthony Marshall tried very hard in this one, and got a double double for his effort. 

Overtime finally bites us in the ass: UNLV blows big lead and loses to TCU 102-97

NCAA Basketball Stats

Anger, clear thinking, big picture, anger, clear thinking big picture. These are the emotions I am feeling right now over UNLVs major letdown this evening, giving away what should have been an easy victory over TCU. I am glad I only DVR’d the game (thanks for the early start MWC) and had some wine during this one.

Anger – The Rebels had an 18 point lead with 14:09 left in the second half. The Rebels were stroking the three ball very well, and although runs were a dominant feature in the game, they heavily favored UNLV. Multiple news articles made light of the fact that UNLV was a bad road team, and having beaten SDSU and rematching with lowly TCU was the perfect storm to capitalize on the road. The horror of seeing this year’s Rebel team look like last year’s, with going cold from three occurring more and more frequently . Suddenly, the #11 team is not only the ‘team to beat’ which gets opponents psyched up to play us, but now we are plausibly beatable (because Wyoming and TCU have done it). I hate that we are in this position.

Clear thinking, big picture – The Rebels will still be ranked after this loss, and may still be ranked if we lose in New Mexico. What’s at stake right now is purely seeding. Thankfully the Rebels have done enough to earn a spot in the tournament, and if we can string together 3 wins we are in the sweet 16, and 4 and we are in the elite 8. Some critical players actually played quite well for the Rebels tonight, Oscar Bellfield is still the same reliable player over the last few games, despite the outcome. Chace Stanback was stroking threes like nobody’s business, and shows some much needed aggression with a sweet turnaround jumper. Brice Massamba was still a beast. No matter how great people believe the Rebels are or should be, this is still a team that is running a new offense, with an entirely new coaching staff – there will be growing pains, and there will be upsets.

Why we lost the game:

Hank Thorns Jr. – We all hoped that lessons were learned from the two bad losses we had in the non-conference season, first to Whichita State, and then to Wisconsin. In both games, an opposing player – usually a non-star went absolutely nuts with their jump shot and UNLV did nothing to stop them from fireing away unimpeded. Hank Thorns Jr. had 32 points and had 8 three pointers. Clearly, the defensive assisgnment was mishandled by the Rebels for allowing him to play far better than he is on paper. New Mexico has plenty of guys who can go off, obviously the lesson was unlearned and this man single handedly pushed his team to victory. For a defensive team such as the Rebels with so many athletic players, we should do better.

Rebounding – Runnin’ Rebels basketball starts with defense, but rebounding is what sets up fast break transition basketball. Take a look at this chart, you’ll notice we completely dropped the ball (no pun intended) in the latter part of the game, coincdently right when TCU erased our lead and pushed us to overtime. Look hard at this.

NCAA Basketball Stats

Steals – Steals lead to turnovers, which lead to easy baskets. When the Rebels play Rebel basketball, key players make a lot of steals and we win the game. TCU was the one this game with their hand in the cookie jar. Again, look at the chart – watch how the steals coincide with the Rebels blowing their lead and TCU taking the victory.

College Basketball Stats

Field goals – UNLV shot better than TCU percentage wise. In the SDSU UNLV game this past Saturday, the Rebels shot much worse than the Aztecs. When you have a team shoot worse yet win the game, the only logical conclusion is that they wanted it more. They out hustled, and got second chance looks far more times than their opponent. Look at this graph. Had we wanted it more, we would have won the game.

NCAA Basketball

Runnin’ – I don’t know what to make of it, this is a game where TCU allowed the Rebels to run and play Rebel basketball for quite a long time, hence the 97 points by UNLV. This is the first loss by the Rebels where the opponent didn’t try to slow down the Runnin’ Rebel offense. Point wise, this was one of the better outings of the year. It’s a head scratcher, but without digging too deep we were successful on offense but lazy (or unlucky) on defense.

The clear message is that the Rebels may very well win  the elusive MWC championship because it is our home floor, but being a lousy road team is going to hurt come tournament time and could make us upset prone. If the Rebels win in New Mexico this weekend on national TV, then the bleeding will stop, but fundamental systematic changes need to be made, and I believe that begins with not relying on the lowest percentage shot in basketball to win your games for you – let the two 6’8” guys (Stanback and Moser) attack the rim or develop a short game, it’s the only way to avoid last years pitfalls. 

Nail biter! UNLV wins 65-63 over SDSU

What an entertaining game. 18,500 watched competitive, high level college basketball in the Thomas and Mack Center on a Saturday afternoon, and many times more watched from couches, bars, and sportsbooks – all to see what the Rebels would do after losing the first MWC game to SDSU, and coming off of a loss to Wyoming. The billing lived up to expectations, not only because of the play on the court, but off of the court as well.

After Brice Massamba tipped the ball and it landed in Aztec hands, the game got off to a quick start. It was apparent that the Aztecs came ready to play and were unfazed by the largest crowd they’ve seen all year. The Rebels misfired at first, and the Aztecs jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Massamba redeemed himself and put the first points on the board about a minute into the game on a short jumper. After a couple of missed shots Oscar Bellfield, the ‘rock’ in recent games, dropped in a three pointer, bringing the Rebels within 1. Xavier Thames helped push the Aztecs ahead again, and they held and 11-5 lead at the 14:20 mark.

Some of the problems in the early part of the game for the Rebels were lack of defensive energy, missed shots (including layups), and in my opinion – giving the Aztecs way to much respect early in the game. Mike Moser was aggressive, but his shot was very off early on. Thankfully, he would right that ship. At this point Coach Rice took a time out and talked to his team about defensive intensity – message received.

Justin Hawkins hit a nice three, the aforementioned Mike Moser had steal which led to a jumper and Oscar Bellfield had a layup ( I saw dunk) to give the Rebels their first lead of the game, 12-11 with 12:30 left in the half.  Later in the first half Mike Moser had a sick 1 handed putback dunk, punctuating his total turnaround form his early performance. The game stayed very close until three minutes remained in the half, and that’s when UNLV went on a run to give the Rebels a comfortable lead going into halftime. In that run, Chace Stanback and Mike Moser each had fastbreak threes. Right at the buzzer an Aztec player (can’t find his name right now) took a long three and made it, but it was waiver off because it was after the clock had expired. UNLV’s lead was UNLV 37, SDSU 29.

UNLV outperformed in the first half because the Rebels had very few turnovers and even fewer fouls. The Rebels had about 4 turnovers at the half, and only 2-3 fouls. Great things to have.

Coming into the second half, the man early was Brice Masamba. He scored the first 8 points consecutively, totally validating the article in the LVRJ that ran earlier this week - Link. The Aztecs didn’t roll over, but UNLV had a comfortable 10 point lead with 19 minutes remaining in the game. Over the course of 14 of those minutes, the Rebels held the 10 point lead give or take, by playing Rebel basketball, solid defense, and not being careless with the ball. Then it all fell apart, the Rebels went ice cold, and almost gave away the game.

Before we discuss that, there were many great things to see during the  14 minutes of the second half where the Rebels played well. Besides the dominance of Brice Massamba, Chace Stanback had a really nice block that on Xavier Thames. SDSU racked up several fouls in rapid succession, much more so than the Rebels. Reggie Smith, who got his first minutes of the game in the second half, assisted Oscar Bellfield to a really nice three pointer. Mike Moser’s jumpers were falling, but unfortunately a lot of the Rebels (with the exception of Massamba) couldn’t convert simple layups. Quintrell Thomas also had a nice block that he was able to control inbounds and got to another Rebel. The Rebels stole the ball quite a bit, and for the game, finished with an above average 13 steals. Chace Stanback had a jumper on an in-bounds pass (not sure if it counts as an assist).

OK, as said previously, the wheels started to come off of the Rebel machine in the 6 minute mark. Reasons that contributed, many passes were simply thrown away to the Aztecs. Over a four minute period the Rebels had -0- field goals. At the 1:30 mark Chase Tapley nailed a three pointer to finally put Aztecs ahead of the Rebels, 63-62.

So, in the scariest of scenarios – the SDSU Aztecs had the lead and the ball with less than a minute remaining. Most of us have seen that movie before, and don’t like how it ends, so this was not the best place to be in. Nonetheless, the Rebels gutted this one out. Mike Moser stole the ball on a layup attempt, and then passed it to Anthony Marshall for a fast break layup that just barely made it over the front of the rim, putting the Rebels back ahead by 1 with 37 seconds left. On the next possession, Chace Stanback steals the ball from Jaamal Franklin, the ball ends up with Justin Hawkins, and the Aztecs foul Hawkins. Because it was a non-shooting non-bonus foul, the Rebels passed the ball into Chase Stanback, who was fouled quickly, and would be a 1-and-1 shooting trip. Stanback missed the free throw, but Justin Hawkins rebounded and was fouled. Hawkins hit the first, missed the second, and the the Aztecs got the ball back. The Rebels, now only up by 2 points, desperately needed to get the ball back, or prevent any field goals that could win or push the game to overtime. Near mid court the amazing Justin Hawkins pulled another trademarked steal and easily layed up the ball to seal it. Although I originally thought the final was 67-63, they must have waived off Hawkins layup as late. The Rebels won the contest 65-63.

Besides the win that should put us back in front of SDSU in the national rankings, there were other great things happening inside the Thomas and Mack Center. Someone dumped a lot of money into the Rebellion student section, and paid for full color large heads. My favorite, besides the full body giant Mike Moser, would have to be the Mike Tyson that was reminiscent of Mike Tyson’s Punchout. Another familiar ‘big head’ would have to be the appearance by Flavor Flav in the flesh, hanging out in the student section and playing the cowbell. Only in Vegas. Yeaaaaaaaaaah boy!

Reign men - Many Rebels stepped up their game today and were crucial to UNLV's win. First, the whole team and staff, but second to that I'll single out Mike Moser, Justin Hawkins, Brice Massamba, and Oscar Bellfield. Chace Stanback also is deserving based on the huge steal late in the game. Great job to everyone!

College Basketball Stats

College Basketball Stats

College Basketball

Disapointment in Laramie, the Rebels lose 68-66

So a day has passed since the Rebels traveled to Laramie and lost by 2 to the Cowboys. Clearly, anyone here at this point knows what happened in the game, and has either watched it or has read about it, so there is no point in retelling the entire game. Links to recaps of the game, video will follow at the end of this article. 

But having time to reflect on this loss has been valuable, and here’s a perspective a day removed.

This loss will help in the long run: Everyone knows you learn a lot more from your mistakes than victories. While nobody expected a loss at Wyoming to be a bump in the schedule – fortunately its merely a bump in the schedule. Coach Rice will digest this game and find that his team will learn how to better deal with the following things:

1. How to overcome Players that rely on physical strength over talent
2. Teams who make every effort to prevent the Rebels from Runnin’
3. The importance of maintaining defensive intensity
4. The importance of taking the time out
5. Free throw shooting still needs improvement

How to overcome Players that rely on physical strength over talent

The Cowboys are a team chocked full of what appears to be football team rejects, from behemoth Adam Waddell who looks like a linebacker, to even little JayDee Luster who could be a running back and everyone in between – this is an unassuming team. Couple that with their RPI prior to beating the Rebels, and you have a recipe for underestimation. The Rebels did some things right, such as goating the Cowboys into foul trouble by out quicking them. The things the Rebels did wrong was not being careful and committing silly offensive fouls. Foul trouble affected Chace Stanback, who had three fouls in the first half. Foul trouble was not limited to Stanback, Massamba fouled out shortly after Waddell, and Moser and Lopez each had three as well.

A team as good as the Rebels are cannot rely on friendly whistles from the refs, who may have been reacting to the ridiculously sensitive crowd in Laramie, as much as making bad calls. The Rebels need to move without the ball, pass to the open man, and be confident the ball is going in. That’s how we’ve won games all season and will continue to win games.

Teams who make every effort to prevent the Rebels from Runnin’

Credit to Coach Larry Shyatt to neutralizing what the Rebels do well - rebounding, running, and shooting the three. Well, many of the Rebels three point attempts were open shots that didn’t fall, so only collaterally can Coach Shyatt get credit for that. The most obvious thing he did was make the ultimate change by not lining up his players when the Rebels were shooting free throws, instead opting to keep them in the half court to defend against running. I’m still not quite sure how the Cowboys prevented the Rebels from their normal offensive rebounding success, other than having bulky players who rebound pretty well. One factor in the lack of rebounds is that the Rebels overall shot well from 2 point range (22-37) so rebounds aren’t there when you make them. Three point bucket rebounds, where the Rebels shot only 3-14 bounce out unpredictably taking Moser and others out of the equation. Also, if the Cowboys are playing back a bit to prevent the run, they tend to be in better position to rebound a missed three pointer. I’ve never seen a team not line up their players for free throws, so it’s a gimmick that now has been tried and the coaching staff will have to learn to adjust to all three of these things. Obviously, if the Rebels had just made 1 additional three point basket we would have won this one, but sometimes the ball just doesn’t fall in.

The importance of maintaining defensive intensity

There was only one point in this game where I actually saw the Rebels been dominant on defense, and that was in the first part of the second half. The Rebels have been a second half team, but implicit in that is that the Coaching staff at halftime makes the changes necessary to be effective. Be it from travel, exhausting schedule where the Rebels have played more games than anyone in the conference (any probably anyone in the country) or altitude, our signature defensive intensity reared its head only once during this game – and that cannot be the status quo. Runnin’ comes from defense and rebounding, something that Coach Rice frequently mentions, so without those two we have no Runnin’.

The importance of taking the time out

Obviously, down by two points and with the ball with about 30 seconds to go, the Rebels should have taken a time out to make sure a play was drawn up, the right players were on the court, and everyone was on the same page. Everyone knows this didn’t happen. The commentators on the broadcast explained it away by saying that the Rebels were a veteran team and didn’t necessarily need to take a time out in this situation. Bullsh*t. I’ve watched enough NBA games, chocked full of veterans, the best and brightest players, and its rare that they don’t take a time out in this situation. This fault comes down to Coach Rice. Frankly, I’ve been beginning to think he’s superhuman given his success as a first year head coach, but this was an obvious mistake. Now, even if they took the time out there is no guarantee that they would have made the shot. And even if made, in overtime we may have still lost the game – or we could have won, we’ll never know. Either Coach Rice has a standard play drawn up for this situation – which is nearly impossible to do because there is no way to know what team its going to be needed against, or just call the time out.

Free throw shooting still needs improvement

Close games are won and lost at the free throw line. The Rebels were better than they have been from the line, shooting 72% for the game, but it was two unlikely players who underperformed from the line and could have won us the game. Both Reggie Smith and Anthony Marshall were 2-4 from the charity stripe. Now I’m going to stereotype here, but the shorter guys are supposed to have the highest free throw accuracy (has to do with the arc they’re flat footed shooting at). Both should be embarrassed that they were out shot by Quintrell Thomas, who was 5-6.

Final thoughts

It was another loss, not a great loss, but explainable. We shot horribly from three point land, and that’s why we lost. Hopefully much can be learned from this game, and we utterly destroy Wyoming when they set foot in Las Vegas. There were two bright spots in this game, and they deserve to be Reign men even in the loss. Quintrell Thomas and Oscar Bellfield were big for the Rebels, and its important for these two role players to increase their offensive confidence for the Rebels to go deep into the tournament. Thomas scored a season high 15, and Bellfield 12. With a week off the Rebels have a great shot to regain the 1^st place tie once we beat SDSU. GO REBELS!

http://www.unlvrebels.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/020412aaa.html
http://www.lvrj.com/sports/unlv-travels-to-snowy-wyoming-138712804.html

Good to be home: Rebels handle a capable Colorado State; 82-63

A few of the story lines coming into this game were the passing of former Coach Charlie Spoonhour, which the Rebels are now remembering with black bands on their jerseys; coming home after two tough overtime wins on the road; and playing a team who won the first meeting last year in the Thomas and Mack, as well as beat formidable San Diego State this past Saturday.
     

BEATS                

The Rebels were amped and ready to rock. Both teams got out to a good start, working early were Mike Moser with the first three of the game, then a nice pair of Bellfield jumpers, followed by a Moser dunk. The Rams held their own and the game was tied at 11-11. From that point forward, ‘runs’ were the story of the game. Colorado St went on the first unimpeded run pushing the lead to 19-12. Then it was the Rebels turn, with a Stanback three, Marshall layup, Smith three, and Massamba layup. The score was pushed back in our favor, 24-19. The run didn’t end there, Moser, Marshall, and Thomas pushed it out to 32-21. That margin would essentially prevail through the remainder of the half, and lead 48-37 at the break.

In the second half, it was only really close once. CSU began the half on an 11-0 run and pulled within two points of the Rebels. In a major correction of course, the Rebels then became the Runnin’ Rebels we know and love, and simply turned on the defense, reigned three’s, had tons of transition baskets, and dominated. The biggest lead of the half came late, at 21 points. Newcomer Barry Cheaney scored a nice jumper as the Rebels last points of the game. On a last second shot by the Rams, they finished it down by 19, final score 82-63.

Observations:

Carlos Lopez didn’t play, neither did Kendall Wallace. This put a lot more minutes out there for bench players Quintrell Thomas, Justin Hawkins, and Reggie Smith.

Rebels free throw shooting was terrible as usual, the team shot just 13-19 for 68%. These numbers have to improve to win close games against better opponents, otherwise we are essentially leaving points on the floor. The figure suprises me more given Dave Rice’s BYU teams were so good at free throw shooting.

Reggie Smtih was a lot more confident with his shooting, and attempted a very deep three pointer in rhythm that dropped in – hopefully more of that to be seen in the future.

The Rebels outrebounded CSU 39-28, which made a major difference in the game. Multiple Rebels were beasts on the boards, and the focused effort to rebound the ball was apparent from the jump. Sadly, Mike moser ended two rebounds short of another double double.

Balanced scoring was back – its been awhile since we’ve seen four players (nearly 5) in double digit scoring, Bellfield, Marshal, Moser, and Stanback all had the rock falling tonight.

The full court press made an appearance in this one a few times – a nice change of pace for a team that can clearly press opponents into mistakes.

Fancy is sometimes too much – twice in this game there were behind the back passes which looked awesome, but didn’t put points on the board on the ensuing play. Maybe best to put the showtime trickery back on the shelf. I’m positive Coach Rice will chew out Anthony Marshall for it.

Sharing means wins – the Rebels as the NCAA’s 4th best team in assists continued to share the ball effectively, with 24 assists (above the average of around 18). Besides the two instances of fancy passing, ball movement was largely without turnovers, and the open man was found quite often. Also, there was hardly an instance in the game where I thought ‘man, he shouldn’t have taken that shot’.

Final thoughts: The Rebels clearly won the game by a large margin, but it wasn’t an easy game. This would have been a closer contest if the Rebels weren’t reigning three pointers. UNLV tallied 9 three pointers, mostly from Moser and Bellfield. The better the Rebels are from three, the more teams will respect the Rebels on the perimeter and this will open up the lane for drives from Marshall, Hawkins, Smith, and Moser – as well as our bigs. On a night where the team missed Lopez and Wallace, everyone stepped up and brought effort and intensity to keep the Rebels undefeated at home. Beside fantastic shooting, UNLV’s defense and energy wore out CSU after their run early in the second half, and from then on it was UNLV’s game to lose. Tonight, the Rebels really did look like the #11 team in the nation.

Reign men: Mike Moser, Oscar Bellfield, Chace Stanback, and Anthony Marshall (in that order). This is a really special team that if they stick to the team concept and get everyone involved , they will be unstoppable.

Highlights