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

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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.

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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. 

Red hot home opener, Rebels win against TCU 101-78

                          BEATS  

Looking quite a bit different than the Rebels who lost a close one in San Diego, UNLV had everything working tonight and everybody involved in the fun.

This scorcher of a game started on a huge run by the Rebels, with UNLV putting 8 points on the board before TCU could score. If the initial unanswered run wasn’t enough, the Rebels then continued to capitalize while being extremely stingy on defense. The score was 18-2  and then TCU finally answered with a basket. The beauty of what the Rebels did, was they put 20 points on the board in the first five minutes, and essentially kept that margin, give or take, for the entire game. For a team that has been known as a ‘second half team’ early fire is just what the doctor ordered.

Everyone was fantastic in this game, Anthony Marshall had a career high 27 points, 3 blocks, 2 steals, and 9 assists. The same Anthony Marshall who emerged in the SDSU game was there, but had even more confidence, swagger, tricks, and all of his teammates to back him up. At some points in the game, I could swear I was watching Kobe Bryant playing for the Rebels – he was that good.

Not far behind Marshall, Mike Moser was sensational as well. The rebound machine had 15 boards and 16 points, as well as 3 assists. Moser was the beastly character we’ve come to know and love, he lead the way with some phi slamma jamma moves, including a nice reverse dunk late in the game. All the more impressive, Moser was able to be Moser even while in foul trouble. He picked up his third with about 5 minutes to go in the first half.

The very same Chace Stanback who all but vanished in San Diego re-emerged in Las Vegas, and had a hell of a night. 21 points on 7-11 shooting, including 5-7 from deep made his hot hand continue into conference play.

In a nice surprise off the bench, Quintrell Thomas got a solid chunk of minutes (15) and made the most of it. He was 4-5 from the field, all dunks or layups, and had 4 boards and 3 blocks.

Oscar Bellfield, who still didn’t have his shot rolling, realized he didn’t need to attempt a lot of shots tonight and settled for being a distributor, and ended up with 6 points,  6 assists, and 2 steals.

The themes to this game were fantastic rebounding, running, and unselfish team play that has been the key all season in big victories. Nearly every shot was assisted, which shows teammates were finding the open man. The Rebels shot nearly 58% for the game – that’s freaking amazing. The biggest mistake TCU made was trying to play an up-tempo game, not that they don’t have the athletes (they do) but that they played right into the hands of UNLV.

The exciting part of the game for the casual fan would have to be all of the blocks, dunks, and three pointers. Surely, newly added Khem Birch was impressed on the end of the Rebels bench – you want fast paced high scoring basketball? Try 101 points in 40 minutes.

The Reign Men were Anthony Marshall, Chace Stanback, and Mike Moser. Anthony “Kobe” Marshall was unstoppable, Chase lit the place up like he was on fire in NBA jam, and Moser is just a beast who hopefully will be seriously considered for the Naismith award. Frankly, everyone on the team, top to bottom deserve the Reign Man award tonight – Congrats!

Below graphics credit to UNLVRebels.com