2nd Annual Legends Reunion Celebration presented by RebelSwag

Here is a fun event for those who would like to mingle with your favorite former UNLV athletes and avid fans. I went to last year's and it was a really good time. This Saturday night if you're interested:

Facing the 'good problem to have' - is there room for everybody?

Coach Dave Rice - knows exactly what he's doing

Before the article - shout-out to UNLV's Joel Anthony and the Miami Heat for winning the NBA Championship. That's two Runnin' Rebels winning championships in the last two years (Shawn Marion 2011 with the Mavericks).

Any college coach will tell you, having too much talent is a good problem to have to deal with. The opposite is obviously trying to make up for a lack of talent and figuring out ways to beat your opponent when likely outmatched. The Runnin' Rebels are now as stacked as they were at anytime since their 89-90' and 90-91' teams took college basketball by storm. Let's look at what others are pointing to as a perceived problem.

There are forty minutes in a college basketball game, and with no more than five players on the court for a team at any given time, that means 200 minutes are up for grabs, not including the potential for overtime. What keeps a player on the floor is their ability to make plays, hustle, be consistent, make others better, not turnover the ball and not pick up fouls.

Anyone who knows the game of basketball knows it takes some time for a player to get a feel of the tempo of the game, to feel the offense and read the opponent to work within the defense. Game tape and bench time are very important, but cannot make up for actually planting your sneakers on the court and breaking a sweat. There have been players who have had more minutes than they thought possible, perhaps recently graduated Oscar Bellfield would fit into that category. And there were others who believed they were entitled to more minutes, specifically non-garbage time minutes - perhaps recently transferred Karam Mashour would fit into that category (he is transferring to Morehead St.). There have been coaching decisions that many of us fans would tend to disagree with, specifically the carousel of substitutions at the center spot constantly rotating between Massamba, Lopez, and Thomas - more so with Kruger, but somewhat with Rice.  All in the persuit from a coaching standpoint of figuring out what five guys can get UNLV a W instead of a L. In the end, if the Ls outnumber the Ws, change will come swiftly and paid employees are the ones who may not see the court.

Let's run through scenarios under the believe that what Coach Rice said, he'd like to run 9-10 deep will in fact play out.

Here is how I see this years roster grouping out:

Players who can play point guard:
Anthony Marshall
Katin Reinhardt
Justin Hawkins
Daquan Cook

Players who can play shooting guard:
Bryce Dejean-Jones
All of the previously named point guards

Players who can play small forward:
Anthony Bennett
Mike Moser
Savon Goodman
Roscoe Smith

Players who can play power forward:
Anthony Bennett
Mike Moser
Khem Birch
Carlos Lopez
Quintrell Thomas
Demetris Morant
Savon Goodman

Players who can play center:
Carlos Lopez
Quintrell Thomas
Khem Birch
Anthony Bennett
Demetris Morant

Players who are going to potentially redshirt 2012-13 (based on speculation in the media)
Daquan Cook
Roscoe Smith (may be forced by NCAA)
Khem Birch (fall semester)
Savon Goodman
Demetris Morant

There have been many off-season additions, but the losses that most impact the Runnin' Rebels from a minutes and impact standpoint are clearly Chace Stanback, Oscar Bellfield, and Brice Massamba.

Chace Stanback averaged 27.9 minutes a game at the forward position. Who will fill his shoes? Much has been made of the deepest front-court in all of college basketball, and In the early season, we'll have #6/7th ranked Anthony Bennett to fill his shoes and bring both offense and grit to the position. Clearly, having Anthony Bennett run along side Mike Moser in the 3 and 4 positions is a dream lineup, so why not make it happen? Fortunately we can have any two of our deepest front court on the court at any time. Part of the reason why Coach Rice is thinking of running 9-10 deep is because its going to take a hell of a lot of energy to play his up-tempo offense the way he actually wants to execute it. Along with the offense, the constantly switching defense is likely to be back, and hopefully while we exhaust the opposing teams we keep fresh legs on the court. So, in likelihood Roscoe Smith will not be granted a waiver because the NCAA is not particualry thrilled with all the transfer activity. Let's pretend that Demetris Morant redshirts (could easily be Goodman instead of Morant redshirting), and Quintrell Thomas and Carlos Lopez stick with the 5 spot. Then you really only have Anthony Bennett, Mike Moser, Savon Goodman, and Khem Birch (in the fall). Not as deep as previously presumed. A total of 80 minutes between the small forward and power forward must be split between them. According to how I'm looking at it - plenty of room to be had and make up for Chace Stanback's minutes and production.

Oscar Bellfield averaged 32 minutes a game at the point guard position - that's a hell of a lot of minutes to dish out. All of the candidates outlined above all have the potential to be scoring point guards, and will likely not have to create their own shot or face a double team based upon the amount of respect opponents' defenders will have to pay the rest of the roster. Making up for the consistency of Bellfield will be difficult - remember, Coach Rice really wanted to start Anthony Marshall at PG before the seasons started, and did for a few games - but then changed back to Bellfield at point. I believe Marshall has the ability, but Coach realized that he needed the experience that Bellfield brought to the position.  All four candidates are capable of playing point - but the starter will be the one with the most consistency. The starter will occupy 20-27 minutes a game. Because there are so many minutes to fill, redshirting Daquan Cook should not be an option, provided he is ready to run Coach Rice's system. Had Reggie Smith not transferred, hands down I'd say he was going to redshirt - but this will be a huge test for him. A friend of mine keeps telling me Daquan Cook will be the biggest surprise this year, can't wait to see if he's right. Plenty of room to fill Oscar Bellfield's shoes, and plenty of room to fill the shooting guard position as well. Over-recruited? Nope.

Brice Massamba averaged 20.2 minutes a game at the center position. This is a very interesting quandary because of  the fall ineligibility of Khem Birch. Clearly, he would be in the mix at either the 4 or 5 position if available all year - but what to do about fall? Without Khem, you are left with Carlos Lopez and Quintrell Thomas guarding the center position. Pretty good, but the question is whether to have Demetris Morant use what could otherwise be an extremely productive redshirt year and have tons of freedom in the 2013-14 season. I can't even begin to think about how difficult this decision will be, but likely the outcome will be solely based upon how Morant plays in practice and the exhibition games in Canada, and whether he is comfortable with potentially losing minutes when Birch is introduced into the lineup in late December. I still have a lingering suspicion that the redshirt is probable, but if that's the case I am praying Lopez and Thomas can hold down the center position while awaiting Birch. Over recruited - No. Massamba really owned the center position last year, it will be fun to see who can carry his torch.

So, with as much hype about old roster vs. new, and whether the Runnin' Rebels are too stacked with talent that we all should be concerned - I think Coach Rice & staff knew exactly who they needed, didn't over recruit onto any one position, and have everything perfectly laid out going forward. Perhaps the mentality could be likened to someone going hunting, and always bringing too little ammo. Then, on a subsequent trip the guy finally brings an adequate amount of ammo and thinks - man, is this too much? Naaa... just enough to finally hit all of your targets. My prediction - MWC Champions and at least Elite Eight.

Savon Goodman's commitment caps this season's roster

The newest member of the UNLV Runnin' Rebels - Savon Goodman

Update 6/18/12 - All rosters have been updated for the addition of Goodman.

Late Friday the local media notified the Runnin' Rebel faithful that Coach Rice had yet again stunned the critics, as well as surprised the believers by signing Savon Goodman as the final scholarship on the 2012-13 roster.

Goodman had in recent weeks focused his possible destinations to UNLV and SMU. The 6'6" power forward from Constitution High School in Philadelphia, PA has been described by Coach Rice in a nice article by Ryan Greene of RunRebs.com as able to score at will, good in the transition game, a bit raw on offense, but a fantastic defensive player that can guard four positions.

For the purpose of RebelReign's profile of Savon Goodman, a little research as well as footage should say a lot about what UNLV is getting in Goodman.

Prior Commitment: Savon Goodman was previously committed to Villanova. He withdrew his commitment in the summer of 2011. Two potential reasons have been named, 1) Villanova's academic approach was not in line with what he was thinking, and or 2) After the Boost Mobile Elite game that summer Goodman got a lot more interest nationally, so he wanted to reopen his options and see if he could do better. In seeking a new home many destinations were mentioned, besides UNLV and SMU, NC State, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri, Seton Hall, St. Johns, Temple, West Virgina and UCLA were all named as potential places of interest.

Measurements: He is 6'6", 210 pounds, and has a 6'9" wingspan. He carries a full frame that is solid muscle.

Accolades: Goodman was a Parade Magazine All-American (as was Dantley Walker). He and classmate Daiquan Walker led Constitution to a 23-9 record, the Public League championship, and the program's first state title. Goodman's averages per game last season were 25.8 points, 14.2 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.Savon Goodman was named a top three rebounder/defender at the 2011 Kevin Durant Skills Camp. He is currently ranked as the 72nd best player overall in the 2012 class, and 18th best in his position by Rivals.com. He is currently ranked by ESPN as the 100th best player overall, 28th best in position. Both services rank him as a 4-star recruit. Member of the USA Elite National Team, helped lead USA to victory in France in FIBA competition in 2011.

Take away: From reading articles about Goodman, as well as watching plenty of tape I've come to a few conclusions that may have not already been mentioned out there.

Effort - Savon Goodman is a dunking machine, no doubt. Not the fancy type of dunking that we potentially lost when Reggie Smith transferred out, but blue-collar lunch lets go to work dunks. What hasn't been mentioned but is readily apparent, is he has an extremely quick second jump - and the intuition to properly use it. This is valuable because it leads to a lot of second chance points from his own original miss, or someone else s. With the amount of Runnin' Coach Rice will expect from this finely tuned machine, having fresh hops on the bench (bench for now) is an extremely valuable commodity.  What impresses me about his jumping is not only his dunks, but his ability to get to the open ball and provide the effort necessary to do the little things to win a game. Looking at what he was able to accomplish in High School, he is a legitimate double-double threat, similar to Mike Moser.But unlike Mike, they play entirely different styles of basketball.

Other attributes: Goodman has been noticed as well for two other attributes, passing and getting to the free-throw line. So, we can expect a man who will make smart decisions with the basketball, goat the opponent into foul trouble, and be able to capitalize from the charity stripe. Clearly, these are some things UNLV has been lacking in years past. He is fundamentally sound, physically strong, and mentally tough. Another excellent get by the coaching staff.

When will we see him play: Again, citing back to the article on RunRebs.com, the scenario is that if Roscoe Smith gets the waiver to play (and elects to play this season), then Goodman will redshirt this season. If Roscoe Smith is not granted a waiver (which is a likely scenario considering the love the NCAA has for UNLV and everything generally surrounding Smith's transfer from UCONN), then the picture becomes a bit more unclear. I'm not even going to begin to speculate on this because there are several contingencies that go into the ultimate answer. Just another fun thing to watch coming into the 2012-13 season.

A picture is worth a 1000 words...
So video is infinitely better. Do yourselves a favor and take a look at what Savon Goodman has done. You'll be impressed.

Loss of 'The Mtn' - Good or Bad?

The Mtn is dead, what's next for UNLV  broadcast?

All of the headaches that basketball fans are experiencing right now are as of a result of football's maddening quest for automatic bowl qualifiers and getting a piece of the better part of money inequities from television deals. As a UNLV Basketball fan, two problems - the MWC has decided (or has it) to combine with Conference USA, and the flagship sports network of the MWC, The Mtn, has pulled the plug as of May 31, 2012. The LVRJ has recently written a decent breakdown of what happened, and where we are now. But, this is an important enough issue to at least delve a little further and push things to their logical end. That's the beauty of running a fan-based website - I can do that.

The LVRJ article explained a couple things that I didn't know. First, the demise of  the MWC as we know it has little to do with the demise of The Mtn. Article explains that the network was losing money, and it was a financial decision. Second, although I thought that the MWC commissioners would have had something lined up when the decision to pull the plug was made - not so, they are going to make it up as they go along this season, and work towards a solid TV deal for next season. Third, UNLV will lose $400,000 that would have been paid from The Mtn, but now has the opportunity to sell the rights to individual games, potentially to the highest bidder.

Analysis

When I first heard that they were shutting down The Mtn, I was kind of happy. Provided that the conference or UNLV had something bigger and better lined up (something to rectify the disparity between the MWC and the Pac-12 TV deals) losing the hokey The Mtn, seemed like no big deal, maybe even a good thing. Then, initially after I read the LVRJ article cited above, I was a bit scarred. Without The Mtn, there would be no dedicated network to televise MWC games. But then I got to thinking --- I don't recall very many UNLV basketball games being featured on The Mtn last season anyhow. Let's see if that's in fact true.

The Runnin' Rebels played 35 games last year that counted towards our record, this includes the second round loss in the NCAA tournament. Of those 35 games, the Rebels were televised 26 times (*one time was ESPN3.com). Of those 26 television appearances, here's the breakdown:

CBS Networks: 8
NBC Networks: 3
The Mtn: 9
Other: 4
ESPN Networks: 2

So, even with The Mtn in existence, UNLV Basketball was still only televised 74% of the time. Of those television appearances, The Mtn carried UNLV more than any other media source, but still accounted for only 34% of games televised. Taking the total number of games played into account, The Mtn televised only 25.7% of UNLV basketball games played last season. These are not encouraging statistics, and besides the low production value and sporadic availability of high definition programming, coupled with the major difficulty in obtaining the channel "The Mtn" nationally, I now remember why I hated The Mtn.

So, when it is said that UNLV has to hodgepodge together sales of television rights for certain games this coming season - it looks more like this is par for the course. Most of the time last season, games were hodgepodged out, so much so that the exhaustive list of where one could view a UNLV game included: CBS, CBS Sports, NBS Sports, ESPN, ESPN3, TruTV, Big10 Network, Cox 96, CBS Local Channel 8, and of course, The Mtn. The place where you would watch the Rebels changed so many times, a few times RebelReign.com had the channel wrong as far as advertising the game.

Is this a shift from the previous season? Of the 33 games played during the 2010-11 season, 25 were televised. Of those 25 appearances, here's the breakdown:

Versus (remember them?): 4
ESPN Networks: 4
The Mtn: 11
CBS Networks: 5
TBS: 1

So during that season, The Mtn overwhelmingly covered Runnin' Rebels basketball as compared to other sources. Overall, they covered 44% of televised games, and were responsible for televising 33% of all possible games. Keep in mind though, as far as quality - The Mtn was not in High Definition last year, so watching a game on The Mtn was like watching an old VHS tape (in my opinion).

'You're So Money'

Given, I have no idea what a college can get paid for the rights to the their games - it really depends on ad revenue and the equasion of how much money a station can make off televising a certain game. I do know generally how much a game costs to televise, it was said last year (if I recall correctly) that it was 20k for non-HD broadcast, and 40k for HD. Hypothetically, if UNLV made 400k last year (let's totally write off UNLV football and other sports for the sake of argument) and pretending that The Mtn hosted every televised game, that's UNLV getting paid roughly $15k per televised game. Know, you know that figure is much lower because in actuality many UNLV football games and other NCAA sports are televised, so that sucks. Again speculating, maybe the hodgepodge last season occurred because the Rebels were more-often-than-not nationally ranked, and were a pretty awesome team for most of the season. So maybe, given the choice between broadcasting your games on The Mtn for a pittance, or looking for someone to 'show me the money', UNLV has already been eating at that troth. So it may be good, and they may have it figured out even though I and many fans are not at all comfortable with the fact that they are making it up as they go as far as televising our Runnin' Rebels. Thank God I bought Season Tickets this coming season,.

The short of it is, based upon the fact that this is not really new territory, and they appear to only be finding a home for 9-11 games (hopefully more), I'm not concerned if the athletic administration isn't concerned. Coach Rice is putting a remarkable product on the court this year, likely a preseason top-10 product (or at least close). Our team's games should sell high, provided the team lives up to expectations. So, only time will tell whether this is a good thing or bad, but chances are it is a very good thing.

PS: A word of warning. Over the years there has been a proliferation of internet sites and advertisements claiming to have a streaming feed to every NCAA game, including the one you happen to be looking to watch. Don't buy in - they are scams. They do not have the game you are looking for. If the game you want to watch is online streaming, it will be available in three places 1) your teams website, 2) opponents website, 3) ESPN3.com. Don't waste your money or time chasing windmills.

Khem Birch Interview

Khem Birch spent some time answering some questions that were on my mind, and I'm sure a lot of Runnin' Rebels fans' minds and this interview is the finished result. Would like to sincerely thank Khem Birch, he's a real class-act and a major piece of UNLV's charge to the top of college basketball.

RR = RebelReign
KB = Khem Birch

RR: Since you transferred from Pittsburgh and sat out last half of  the season, this summer, and first half of next – what are you working on basketball skills wise?

KB: Me and Coach Augmon have been working on midrange shots, face up moves, and shooting on the run.

RR: And what would you say, of those areas, have you had the most improvement in so far?

KB: I would say midrange shot.

RR: So how far is your range right now?

KB: I’ve been able to hit threes I haven’t hit before, but I’m more streaky when it comes to the three. My midrange shot is much better.

RR: So you’re pretty good from 16-18 feet out?

KB: Yeah.

RR: Are you a better shooter catch and shoot, or from the dribble?

KB: I would say catching off the pass.

RR: Physically, obviously you’ve been working with Coach Kabo in the weight room?

KB: Yeah.

RR: Is there any particular things he has worked with you on that you weren’t working on at Pittsburgh?

KB: I’ve been able to lift and keep my balance. At Pittsburg I was able to gain weight, but not jump – here I’m able to gain the weight and still jump.

RR: So he’s been focused on your vertical?

KB: Yeah, I’m still getting better, I’ve gained 10 points of muscle.

RR: Is that upper body, or lower body, or evenly spread?

KB: Yeah, even.

RR: Are there any areas physically you need to improve, I know you just said you’ve put on the 10 pounds but are you looking to add more bulk, or are you good where you are at?

KB: Yeah, definitely my lower body, my legs are still skinny. So I’m trying to do more leg stuff.

RR: Obviously, that will help you playing the 4/5 position.

KB: Yeah.

RR: I want to talk a minute about Anthony Bennett, you met him a while back while both in Canada?

KB: I was 17. We were on Team Canada together.

RR: Were you also both on CIA together?

KB: No, I was on the older team.

RR: Throughout his recruitment, you guys being in the same city that must have had a profound effect – any every Rebel fan thanks you. How excited are you to play along side Anthony this coming year?

KB: I am really excited. The last time we played together we did really well. So hopefully we can do more. We can probably get to the final four and win a championship together.

RR: Did you play together at the same time on Team Canada?

KB: Yeah, that worked out really well.

RR: What do you think of the addition of Roscoe Smith?

KB: I feel its great because he knows what it takes to win a national championship. He’s a really good player so, my hopes were up that he would come. I told him I wanted him to come, and I’m very excited.

RR: Were you surprised at all that he did chose UNLV?

KB: Actually I was, because he told me he was going to look at other schools and I was like, dang. He might… once you go to another school you might get another opinion, but that wasn’t the case. But I guess he really liked the visit and I guess we did a good job of showing him around Las Vegas.

RR: Its been well reported that last season’s win over #1 at the time UNC Tarheels put UNLV on your radar as far as transfer destination, but what specifically about UNLV attracted you and players like yourself to UNLV? Is it the opportunity to work with Coach Augmon and develop you as a forward?

KB: It was Coach Rice actually, he lets you play more free form, and run and gun, and that’s the style of play I really wanted. Having Coach Augmon and the other coaches helps as well because they were really nice  when I visited.

RR: So it’s the run and gun style that attracts players?

KB: Yeah.

RR: What do you think of the Mendenhall Center?

KB: I’m in there everyday, working out in there, morning, noon, and nighttime.

RR: Obviously better than the gym you used to play in.

KB: Definitely.

RR: How is it working out and playing against Mike Moser, Carlos Lopez, and everyone?

KB: It helps a lot, especially Mike. He’s really good on defense, he has quick feet. Its tough to get past him. And Carlos is strong. Its really good.

RR: What did you think by the visit and talk by Mike Tyson before the tournament?

KB: I was in shock, I can’t believe I saw Mike Tyson. He’s a really nice guy. I loved when he said even thought you don’t want to practice every day, you just have to. I take what he said to heart, and I go to the gym.

RR: During practice time, who is your favorite player to battle?

KB: I would have to say Brice Massamba. He’s really physical. And Quintrell, he’s really strong and brings physicality to the game. I would say Brice.

RR: How do you see UNLV fitting into your future plans as far as getting drafted and playing in the NBA?

KB: People think that, but I don’t really sweat that. If I was looking to get drafted quicker I probably would have stayed at Pitt and not taken the redshirt year. I’m really trying to graduate, and hopefully make the NBA in a year and a half.

RR: Well that’s a very humble attitude, I guess the ultimate decision is out of your hands. So that’s a good perspective to have.

KB: Yeah, definitely.

RR: How do you like living in Las Vegas versus Pittsburg?

KB: I like it way better, there is a lot of sun – not gloomy. People are real friendly here, lots to do. And the coaching staff is great.

RR: What do you think about 24 hrs supermarkets and fast food, they don’t have that everywhere else?

KB: That’s actually true, yeah. Cause I really get hungry at night.

RR: So you can hit the jack in the box or Taco Bell.

KB: Yeah

RR: What’s your favorite basketball shoe?

KB: Nike Foamposite Penny Hardaway.

RR: Is that because of the way they handle, or how light they are?

KB: No, its because of the way they look.

RR: Favorite NBA team?

KB: I don’t really have one.

RR: Favorite NBA player?

KB: Kobe Bryant

RR: Since Kobe is more of a shooting guard, and you play forward are there any forwards you idolize and like their game?

KB: Serge Ibaka game’s actually.

RR: He’s tough, he’s a good athlete – I get that.

KB: Yeah

RR: Well, thank you for the interview.

KB: No problem, thank you very much.