Previews and predictions for the NCAA Tournament

Here's several video previews and picks for our game on Thursday, and beyond.



Preview of UNLV - Colorado by CBS Sports



They believe UNLV and Wichita State have the ability to make the kind of run VCU made last year.



Say UNLV should easily beat Colorado

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

Overtime again, the Rebels now share 1st place in the MWC with a 65-63 victory over Air Force

The Falcons were supposed to be an easy and expected win, but the same was true of Boise St. For numerous reasons, the Rebels went to overtime and fortunately pulled out the road win, pushing the record to 20 wins, 3 losses, and tying with SDSU for 1^st place in the MWC. That title became available when the Aztecs lost in a major way to Colorado State today, 77-60. Back to our game.

                 BEATS

This contest started out fine, the Rebels traded buckets with the Falcons until the 16 minute mark, and then broke open a 10 point lead, (20-10). Rebels were able to maintain a lead, however dwindling, till five minutes remained in the half. Air Force then pulled ahead and ended the half winning 34-33.

From early on it was easy to see Mike Moser was still riding high from his performance in Boise this past Wednesday, and was ready to do what was necessary to win the game. Joining him early was Oscar Bellfield, he finished the half with 8 points, 5 assists on 3-4 shooting. Brice Massamba was having luck early in the paint, but foul trouble slowed and shook him a bit. Quintrell Thomas, who was the only other ‘big’ who saw action (Lopez dressed but did not play due to ankle) was not particularly effective in this contest, and saw limited minutes.

In the first half, and really throughout the game, many of the following problems hampered the Rebels.

Free throw shooting was embarrassing. They call it free, because it is easy – yet the Rebels had extremely poor luck at the line tonight. They shot only 20% from the stripe in the first half and ended at 50% 9-18. We certainly could have avoided overtime if we would just have hit some damn free throws. UGH!

Turnovers – The Rebels couldn’t control the ball, were making too many unnecessary passes, and making the Falcons look like defensive specialists – when they really aren’t. The Rebels had 9 first half turnovers, which is why even through the Rebels shot 56% from the field and the Falcons 44%, the Falcons were winning. Rebels had half as many turnovers in the second half, and actually forced some turnovers on the Falcons such that they finished with 17, and we with 15.

Lack of perimeter defense – Anyone who scouted Air Force would tell you they like to shoot the three. UNLV has the athletic advantage, and as one of the premier defensive teams in the league, we should have been able to play Air Force man-to-man and pressure them on the perimeter. For some reason that did not happen, and the Rebels, especially in the first half, sat in a zone and allowed the perimeter to fire away. Air Force took full advantage, and finished with 11 three pointers (42% from 3). Unacceptable, that was 33 points of their 63, more than half!

Throughout the second half Mike Moser was still determined and won us the ball game. When you look at his numbers, an impressive 27 points, 12 boards, 3 steals, and 2 assists. But beyond that, he was the emotional lynchpin that held it together out there. Today, the Rebels were not Runnin’, nor the second half team they’ve been typecast as. The lead bounced back and forth throughout the second, and there was good and bad. Since the bad has already been discussed, the good:

Justin Hawkins – he did some really great things not necessarily reflected in his 6 points and 6 rebounds. He had a really nice steal and circus style layup that fell in, plus the successful foul shot.

Anthony Marshall – was 3-4 from the free throw line, including a trip where he hit his head on the backboard. Its been a physical week for Marshall, hopefully the Mendenhall Center has a basement with bathtubs full of ice.

Mike Moser – took an elbow to the face via Taylor Broekhuis, and didn’t even get the foul call. He did get a bloody nose. Mike got revenge, on a beautiful one handed jam in overtime where the nose gauze fell out too. That would have to be the play of the game.

Oscar Bellfield – continued where he left off in the first half, finished with 15 points, and 7 assists. He was 3-6 from 3 point land, including a big one in overtime– good to see his confidence in his shot coming back.

The overtime period predictably favors the Rebels given their conditioning and experience in overtime games. It was not an easy overtime period, but the Rebels did enough to ensure the Falcons never led (tied once).

The most interesting thing about the end of overtime, was UNLV gave up several opportunities to pull away and make the contest unreachable for Air Force. The dreaded free throw problem reared its head again – Moser was at the line with the Rebs up 2, missed both of them and the ball landed (after a scrum) in Air Force hands with less than 35 seconds. What saved a potentially game tying Air Force second chance basket was Chace Stanback stealing the ball.

This wasn’t the way the Rebels wanted to win it, nor how the fans wanted to watch it. But, it was entertaining and it was still a win. Whether or not these back-to-back close ones makes people think UNLV is vunerable is debatable, but it brings validity to the statement that every conference game in the MWC is going to be tough. While dominance and blowouts makes you feel like you are and should be the top program In the nation, W’s versus L’s is the only real stat that puts your team there.

Reign man – Mike Moser is pushing his way up the list for Naismith player of the year. Thank you for winning us another game, hope the same magic is around come tournament time.

Video:

Target on our backs: UNLV escapes with an overtime win in Boise, 77-72

So this is what it feels like being ranked highly for multiple consecutive weeks. Lower tier teams of the MWC are gunning for the Rebels, and our loss becomes their signature win. The Boise State fans wanted ever so badly to rush the court. DENIED. The Rebels can expect more teams to bring their “A” game in the future. This was a nerve racking victory, but we are certainly glad the Rebels got the W tonight.

The game started out extremely positive for the Rebels. UNLV broke open the game with a 12 – 0 run. The Rebels lost the offensive touch, and maybe relaxed a bit on defense. Boise St. then capitalized slowly and steadily up to the half. Right before halftime, Boise St. captured a lead at 27-26, but quickly gave it back on a Hawkins 3 pointer, pulling the Rebels ahead 29-27.

First half observations included extended play by Kendall Wallace, despite a heavy brace on his right knee and a slight limp. Boise St. was running a lot of drive and kick out plays, and something called the ‘dribble weave’ which is reminiscent of a Harlem Globetrotters drill. Quintrell Thomas got some early minutes, and showed a soft touch on some of the Rebels few inside points. In the limited time Reggie Smith was on the court, he had a nice 3 pointer. From early on, and throughout the game it was apparent Mike Moser was clearly ‘on’ tonight. Chace Stanback didn’t seem to be in the right position to capture rebounds, and didn’t have a ton of defensive energy. As mentioned about the scarcity of points in the paint, the Rebels were not coping well with the zone defense Boise St. played.

In the second half, any Rebel fan would expect that the Rebels would rectify their performance and blow out ‘lowly’ Boise St. WRONG. The Broncos had even more energy and intensity in the second half, perhaps emboldened by the fact that they were only down two with a shooting percentage  in the teens. The Rebels experienced a series of unfortunate events in the second half – bad free throw shooting, an ankle or achilles injury to Carlos Lopez, and Anthony Marshall fouling out on what was clearly not an offensive foul. To the Rebels credit, this game was saved by Mike Moser and Oscar Bellfield. Mike especially, put the team on his back and powered through to a monster performance. Ironically so, because in the Q&A (last article) it was pointed out that Mike really didn’t have to put the team on his back with the depth the Rebels have. Chace Stanback was really good from deep in the second half as well, and his 15 points were equally important to the victory.

This game was tight late – way too tight. With 1 minute left it was tied. The Rebels ran a play that never materized and lead to a steal by the Broncos. Fortunately, the Broncos couldn’t score the ball either with the remaining time, and the game went to overtime. While Boise St. had shown true emotion and grit throughout most of the game – so much so that even I believed they would win the game, you could see it on their faces when the game went to overtime – they weren’t prepared for this, or ran out of energy.

In the overtime, the only buckets of any consequence for Boise St. were free throws. On the contrary, the Rebels had a few good field goals – and that won the day. Big in overtime was Brice Massamba, Mike Moser, and Chace Stanback. The final in this one was 77-72 Rebels.

There will be a lot of teachable moments, and we certainly hope that Lopez isn’t badly injured nor Marshall too dinged up from all the floor time he got. The Rebels are now 2-0 in overtime games, which shows heart and determination. Taking away something good like that and putting it close to their hearts come tournament time should carry them well. While we hope for a blowout, a win is a win. Great job to the Rebels!

Reign men – Mike Moser – 18 points and 21 rebounds, he is the reason the Rebels won tonight.

Chace Stanback – 15 points, again stealthy, the silent killer. He played poorly in the first half but redeemed himself, a good change up.

Oscar Bellfield – Welcome back to the scorers table, Oscar was big for the Rebels with Marshall not firing on all cylinders, 13 points and 6 assists.

Maintaining home court supremacy, UNLV blows out New Mexico 80-63

          V

What a nice win against a legit conference opponent tonight! Coach Rice had said the hungrier team would win the basketball game, and it was the Rebels job to be hungrier than a Lobos team that just gave away a game @ The Pit. Nobody said this would be a cake walk, but the 6 point favorite Rebels were not figured to be blowing out New Mexico, so respect for that (and hopefully in the new rankings Monday).

The game started out slowly for UNLV, and it was obvious that New Mexico had psyched themselves up for this game at least a little bit more than the Rebels. New Mexico hit three pointers early and easily sliced their way to our basket – a sign of lack of defensive intensity for the Rebels, and we had some bad luck with shooting early. That said, it was no where as gloomy as it sounds. The Rebels were neck-and-neck with the Lobos until about 3 minutes remained in the half – that’s when UNLV went on a really nice run to break things open.

Even before the run, there was really good balance among UNLV scorers. At least 6 Rebels were on the board points-wise. The run was inspired by a three pointer by Oscar Bellfield and then a fast break dunk and foul by Carlos Lopez. The Rebels gave back a few points, but left at the break with a four point lead, 39-35.

In the second half, our “second half team” came alive and put the Lobos on their heels throughout most of the half, with the exception of a few minutes. Everyone was involved in this one, and there were plenty of feel good moments. In what must not have felt too good, Brice Massamba, who suffered a concussion several games back, was again elbowed in the head while guarding on the perimeter. He would leave the game briefly, allowing Kendall Wallace to come in and easily drop two free throws. In good news, Brice would return and was effective later in the game. Obviously, we won the game in convincing fashion, 80-63.

As a team, a lot went well but some didn’t

The good:

Balanced scoring – although no one player topped 20 points, many players had in the 13-14 point range. Assists – the team notched 17 assists, unselfish basketball is still happening on the regular.

Steals – 11 team steals is as many as I can remember against a good team, the Rebels were forcing a lot of turnovers and it led to a lot of great fast break opportunities.

Points off turnovers – 32 of the 80 points came from turnovers, that’s fantastic capitalization that came from playing great defense.

Fast break points – 26 fast break points shows the Runnin’ game still has traction. The commentators during the game said that Steve Alford’s Lobos would look to slow things down – I think they missed the mark big-time. Having watched some Lobos games, they clearly are an athletic team that likes to run.

Points in the paint – 38 points inside is a great figure to have against a lineup that includes Drew Gordon. Hats off to our bigs tonight.

The bench: Bench players were huge for the Rebels tonight, Carlos Lopez, and Justin Hawkins got valuable minutes and made the most of them, they were responsible for 24 of the 28 Rebels bench points. By comparison, New Mexico’s bench only provided 9 points.

The bad:

Rebounding – especially in the first half, the Lobos out rebounded and got tons of second chance opportunities. This was odd to see, given that it’s a rare occasion that the Rebels have been out rebounded. The final total was UNLV 33, New Mexico 38. Unlikely that this will be a trend but nonetheless alarming.

Turnovers – UNLV had 14, a little bit more than what may be considered acceptable. Making that figure not too much of a problem was that the Rebels forced the Lobos into 21 turnovers.

Everyone was fantastic in the game, but I have to give the Reign man award to several players:

Carlos Lopez – You impressed everyone including Reggie Miller. Our secret weapon, a 6’11” forward who can dribble and has excellent moves and footwork to boot. His 14 bench points  and 2 blocks were crucial, this type of performance will pay big dividends later on. He also seemed to assume kind of a captain role, corralling the troops after plays to get the next play worked out.

Anthony Marshall – He didn’t top his career high again, but he was still the most athletic person on the court and regularly wowed with his inside-outside game. He had 13 points, 9 assists and 4 steals – great job.

Mike Moser – Mr. Double-Double had another, 14 points and 10 rebounds, including an impressive put back on a Lopez miss. Fantastic work.

Chace Stanback – Stealth fighter. He does his work and nobody seems to notice, Chase established himself early, shot a high percentage, and made 13 points happen. Nicely done. 

Reggie Miller was very impressed, in fact he said "top ten teams, sit up and take notice - the mountain west is coming" Well said!

Friday Morning Video Post

Here are some recently posted videos gathered from across the web, enjoy!

Here's 13 minutes of the UCSB UNLV game:



Fox Sport's Analyist John Crispin's take on the Rebels, and then SDSU (BTW, he's a moron)



Someone posted the entire (starts late due to a football game) UNLV UNC game:

The addition of rosters, Preliminary observations about rosters, Update of Nevada HS records, Excellent video

Update Sunday noon - Added Christian Wood to 2013-14, Changed Bryce Jones' status (wrongly added a year to his eligibility)


This week’s update is more about changes to the website. This year's 'schedule' page has been fully updated and cleaned up, and all four interviews have archived links in the 'interviews' page. As far as the new pages, you’ll notice right above this there are now pages for the current year roster, as well as predicted rosters for 2012-13, and 2013-14. This is a way to keep track of who will be graduating, and the commitments the Rebels have been making for seasons beyond the current. I’ve found it gets tiring keeping all of the new recruits in your head, hence the ease of roster pages! 

The rosters are set up with hyperlinks to either the UNLV basketball website bio for each player, or in the case of a recruit, a link to information about that player.

Now that I’ve put in the work building the rosters, its time to make some preliminary observations.

#1 – If we don't sign a big-man in the 2012-13 class, we get smaller. UNLV loses interior size after this year with 6’10” Brice Massamba leaving due to graduation. Up to this point, UNLV hasn’t had any big men give verbal commitments for the entering class of 2012-13. Its been reported that the two big-man targets that UNLV has set its sights on are Matt Willms (6’10”)  and Robert Upshaw (6’11”). LV Sun  

It will be especially important to land a commitment from at least one true center to give Carlos Lopez some relief in the new running system. He can’t play the full 40 minutes (nobody can), and we don’t want to be without a true-center on the court for very long – teams with size could take advantage in the paint. 

A new big-man recruit who has a year with Thomas and two years with Lopez will learn a lot and improve his skill set, so the sooner the better. Besides the size issue, we’ll lose Oscar Bellfield and Chace Stanback, who are major pieces of the puzzle as well.

#2 – We lose three key pieces after 2012-13. The pieces are Anthony Marshall, Justin Hawkins, and Quintrell Thomas. Three key guys that will likely account for a decent chunk of the offense this and next season. Remember how happy everyone was that despite the coaching change UNLV only lost two primary players (Willis and Jasper)? This is likely to hurt a little more.

#3 – Major turnover after the 2013-14 season. UNLV will graduate 4 seniors after the season: Carlos Lopez, Karam Mashour, Mike Mosher, and Reggie Smith. All of the upcoming three seasons look highly promising, but anyone would have to concede it will be a little harder losing four players all-at-once.

This new ‘rosters’ feature  will continue to be updated, added to, and enhanced as news and information comes in. Any new commitments will be added as well so you can see what our rosters will look like in the future. Enjoy, and as always, if you have any suggestions please let me know or discuss in the forums.

Update on Nevada High School record books

The Nevada State High School Boys Basketball record books have been updated, and UNLV recruit Dantley Walker appears 27 times in the lists, topping many important categories. I'll not spoil the fun of which ones, please click the link, do a 'control-f' (find), and type Dantley Walker. 

NVHS Records

Watch this video – its fantastic!!