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Published Wednesday, April 7, 2010 | 11:30 p.m.
Updated Thursday, April 8, 2010 | 10:30 p.m.
In the dot-com era, it's never too soon for the national media to start chiming in on preseason Top 25 opinions.
Wednesday, a couple of the national scribes showed UNLV a little love when drawing up some über-premature polls for the 2010-11 season.
By the way, the 2010-11 season won't tip off for more than seven months. Just sayin'.
Gary Parrish from cbssports.com ranked the Rebels 19th on his list, while Jeff Goodman from foxsports.com listed Lon Kruger's club 25th.
The Rebels were 25-9 this season, advanced to the Mountain West Conference tournament title game and earned their third berth in the NCAA tournament in the last four seasons.
What appeared to earn the mention from the likes of Parrish and Goodman is the fact that UNLV returns nine members of its 11-man rotation from this season, with the only losses being reserves Darris Santee and Steve Jones.
OK, now there were some minor flaws. Goodman called Brice Massamba "Bruce," while Parrish tagged Chace Stanback as "Stanbeck." Plus, both referred to UNLV's key newcomer as Henry Buckley, while the 6-foot-11 shot-blocker still is attempting to qualify academically and, if he does so, more than likely will redshirt next season.
Also, both left out mentioning the potential impact that will be made by 6-foot-8 Kansas transfer Quintrell Thomas and 6-foot-11 redshirt freshman Carlos Lopez.
The potential X-factor is the possibility of Cory Joseph or Dwayne Polee committing and filling UNLV's final available scholarship for next season.
But that's just nit-picking.
Point is, they've got UNLV pegged pretty correctly, as expectations will be higher in 2010-11 than they have been entering any season in the previous six seasons under Lon Kruger.
3 out of 4 years in the tourney. Ranked more weeks last season than any season since the early 1990s. And, hopefully, Rebels will be better next season.
Sure a lot of us might be a little timid after what happened Wink's senior year (with high expectations), but this team is so much deeper than that team. And I think that team actually over-achieved the season before and lost two key starters. This team has room to grow.
But we have to remember, the league will be deeper as well.
Can it be November yet? U-N-L-V!!!
New Mexico didn't make either of their lists. I guess they either forgot about them or are assuming that Hobson is leaving early. Is he?
The rumor at Villanova (http://deadspin.com/5511973/villanova-sy...) and the possible departure of Avery Bradley opens up a lot of playing time for Joseph at either of those two schools. The UNLV backcourt is pretty congested next year so it wouldn't make much sense for Joseph to chose UNLV over UT or 'Nova. That said, I'm hopeful we can get Polee and Joseph but even if we don't get either of them I think the team will build on what they did this year.
I'm intrigued by both QT and Lopez and hopeful that Kruger figures out a lineup that gives us more of a rebounding presence. I'm hopeful that QT or Lopez can become dependable scoring threats in the paint. If we can get that or just Gaston Essengue production from those fellas we can be a tough team to beat next year.
Yes the back court is crowded at UNLV right now, but this season showed that Lon will play as many players as are ready to play.
The Rebels stuck with an 11-12 man rotation throughout the season and everybody got the chance to play.
With the talent we have coming in, Kruger will probably play at least 13 players on a regular basis next year.
The minutes will be there for CJ if he becomes a Rebel.
Suffering Succotash - You are NOT credible.
Ryan,
You missed NBC Sports' Mike Miller, who has UNLV ranked No. 13 in his pre-pre-season ranking for next year ...
http://beyondthearc.msnbc.msn.com/archiv...
"might be best on West Coast" and no BYU in sight.
Expectations are getting higher and higher. Hopefully this team can live up to the hype. Go Rebels!
Sufferin-- go find another college team to bash because your comments are getting really old. Especially when everything you say has no ground to it. You act like a two year-old... but if you are a two year-old, then forgive me... you're just naive.
So according to you, Sufferin, a team that was solidly in the tournament this year, spent a half-dozen weeks in the top 25 and returns every significant player from last year (9 players) is "not that good?" I don't think we should be Top 15 in the preseason polls, but anywhere from 18-25 is pretty realistic. And that's before you consider the impact that someone like Dwayne Polee will have if he comes here, in addition to QT and Carlos Lopez. Just stop talking. You're the guy who wants to be the first to say we're bad so that in the event we crash, you can just say that you were the first. It's amazing how you disappear when the team is playing well.
Hey Sufferin, you have officially lost all credibility and everyone now knows your whole goal is to tick people off and make some riled up response to you. Here are the "facts" according to you: The last 4 years we are nothing more than an NIT team, and this past season you even predicted that CSU and TCU would sweep us and finish ahead of us in the MWC standings. The real facts are that we were an NCAA team 3 of the last 4 years, and not only finished ahead of CSU and TCU, but also SMASHED them in both meetings. Knock it off already. It's old. It's not even legit anymore. Your idea of a "basketball" team is a bunch of guys who do 360 and windmill dunks. You fell in love with Polee based off of his Youtube highlights, and all they show is a bunch of dunks. I don't know how good this kid is. Honestly I'm a little skepticle based on his lack of film showing his full range of basketball skills. A guy who jumps out of the gym is nice, but what good is he if he can't do anything else. But don't tell Sufferin that.
Everyone should realize that SufferinSuccotash is just a troll trying to get people upset. Don't even listen to him.
"We are good" , I've corrected his statement.
Had a feeling they would get some pre-season love. The fall can't come soon enough. Should be a hell of a season to come.