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Tiffany Brown
UNLV’s Tre’Von Willis, right, watches the NCAA selections. The Rebels learned later they will play at Kentucky Tuesday in the National Invitational Tournament.
Rebels: NIT Bound
After losing in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament, UNLV is headed to the NIT as a four seed to face fifth-seeded Kentucky Tuesday night.
UPDATED STORY: NIT-bound Rebels get date on the road with Kentucky
As expected, the 65-team NCAA tournament field was announced Sunday afternoon and UNLV was not a part of the festivities.
The surprise came a few hours later, when the National Invitation Tournament field was announced and the Rebels were seeded fifth against No. 4-seeded Kentucky, in Lexington, on Tuesday night. The game will take place at 6:30 p.m.
Rupp Arena, because of previous booking, won't even be the venue. The game will be played at Memorial Coliseum.
“You never know, of course,” said fifth-year UNLV coach Lon Kruger. “We didn’t have much way of anticipating that one.”
The Rebels (21-10) and Wildcats (20-13) are in the Creighton Regional of the NIT. No. 1 Creighton opens against eighth-seeded Bowling Green.
UNLV is 0-3 against Kentucky, which missed the NCAAs for the first time since 1991 because of probation.
Jodie Meeks, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, leads the Wildcats with a 24.2-point scoring average. Meeks scored 54 at Tennessee and 45 at Arkansas. He also tallied 46, 39 and 37 in other games this season.
Patrick Patterson, a 6-9 sophomore forward, averages 18.2 points for Kentucky.
Although UNLV personnel had not finalized any travel or schedule or meeting plans as of 8 p.m. on Sunday, Kruger had reviewed a couple of tapes of Kentucky.
“They’re very active and athletic,” he said. “Patterson is a big guy in the post, and Meeks is terrific. And the guys around them, they’re very good.”
Memorial Coliseum will offer its own special challenge.
“It’ll be an aggressive environment, very hostile,” Kruger said. “That type of environment, it’s a much smaller gym than Rupp. It’ll be a big challenge. I’m sure our guys are looking forward to it, absolutely.”
Thursday afternoon, UNLV (21-10) was ousted from a quarterfinal of the Mountain West Conference tournament by San Diego State in the Thomas & Mack Center.
The top No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament was Louisville, which won the regular season and tournament titles in the Big East. Oddly enough, UNLV downed the Cards on Dec. 31 at Freedom Hall on national television, 56-55.
The Mountain West only earned two bids into the tournament. They went to tournament champ Utah, who as a No. 5 seed will open up against No. 12 Arizona, and BYU, who drew an 8-seed and begins its postseason quest against No. 9 Texas A&M.
San Diego State was the last MWC team to have its bubble burst. The Aztecs finished the season 23-9 with a pair of wins in the league tournament before falling to Utah in the title game, 52-50, on Saturday.
SDSU and UNLV will more than likely be joined by fellow league program New Mexico in the NIT.
I hope they come out and play some ball... I know its a let down to not make it to the NCAA tourney, but it's better than no post season at all.... 2 days preperation is pretty rough.
Arizona must have dirt on NCAA. Someone help me understand how they got in. No Lute to hook them up and they still pull rank !
that blows my mind as well....
hope this isnt a another huge letdown game. guys dont get amped up for the NIT like maybe they should. hope we dont get embarrassed.
sorry...embar assed came and passed with SDSU.
Once again it is up to Utah to represent the MWC, hope they kick, sugar, and take names later.
What a joke. The 2007 Rebels got a 7 seed in the big dance, Utah this year is half the team that Rebels team was and the Utes got a 5 seed! Better record, better rpi, more impact wins and a stronger strength of schedule translates into:.....not one dang thing that makes sense.
The Utes are imroved and playing well this year but a 5?......really?......I guess the football team made an impression on the east coast.
The NIT is full of crap as well. UNLV a 5 seed? You're telling me that there are at least 16 teams in college basketball, that didn't make the big dance, that are better than the Rebels? I know they ended the season in a tailspin but holy crap. I guess the moronic east coast bias that exists in the media and selection committees reaches the NIT as well.
Screw the NIT officials and the NCAA selection committee for once again scoffing at a conference that, again, deserves more entries and/or better seeding. Same s***, different day.
Whining aside, kick some Kentucky butt Rebs.
UNLV right now are a terrible team. I have no faith in them beating anybody but the bottom rung of teams. Our offense is 229th in the country. That says it all.
Rebel fans have been great this year. They kept coming out despite the frequent hiccups. Patience has worn out with the capitulation to end the season. Next year their better be a vast improvement or the *hit is gonna hit the fan.
Comment removed by staff.
One and done. Boys gave up a few weeks ago.
And Arizona in the tournament is an absolute farce, Selection Committee truly a piece of crap.
lcr, touche. Selection Committee can do what it wants however it wants to do it. No rhyme or reason or consistency. Chopper Jones said it best, about Arizona, letting them in just to continue that streak of theirs. It makes you wonder, every year, about the makeup of the nine-person committee and exactly how they operate to take care of the "elite" leagues at the expense of other, more-deserving squads. Ridiculous, absolutely.
Bobby Knight said it best. Make it a 128-team field. One more game, and the fringes who were left out will get in. In two rounds, pretenders will be weeded out.
It's not only shameful of the committee for passing SDSU by for Arizona (and the Big 10) but foolish as well. Rob, you should do some investigative reporting and be the first one to call that this NCAA tournament may end up having some asterisks* if Arizona makes a deep run and the NCAA ends up finding recruiting violations. In my opinion, if the NCAA could have kept them out, it would have been wise to do so.
Well... The Rebels beat themselves these last few weeks. But all is not lost we can still win the NIT. GO REBELS!!!
with the up and coming roster the rebels have they look good for the next few years...
Go to games, Buy merchandise, watch them on tv.
SUPPORT THE REBS
I am not an Arizona fan, but they did beat San Diego St. head to head by 13 points, so there was no way that San Diego St. was going to get in over Arizona. Also Saint Mary's beat San Diego St. head to head, so there was no way the Aztecs were getting in over Saint Mary's. As inconsistent as Arizona was, there resume looks better than any of the NIT teams...
"As inconsistent as Arizona was, there resume looks better than any of the NIT teams..."
Uh...their record doesn't even look better than OURS!!!!!
Plus, WE beat Arizona by 15 and were up 25 with a few minutes to go....AZ did not deserve this at all!!! SDSU was missing Wade for 9 games to start the season, so they had hiccups early, but they pulled it together at the end of the season.
Right now, on a neutral court, SDSU beats both Arizona and St. Mary's....SDSU was the better team and only got left out because the early hiccups to both both St. Mary's and Arizona...which is a tragedy of a coincidence.
But make no mistake, SDSU deserved a sport over either of those teams. St. Mary's played 5 top 100 RPI teams and went 2-3 against them....sure they won 26 games, but they also LOST 6 games...that means they LOST TO 3 TEAMS outside the top 100 RPI....UNLV only lost to 2 teams outside the top 100 RPI.
St. Mary's didn't deserve squat and neither did Arizona
"As inconsistent as Arizona was, there resume looks better than any of the NIT teams..."
"Uh...their record doesn't even look better than OURS!!!!!"
If you notice unlvrebelx, I said their RESUME looks better, not their record. There is a big difference. If it was based on records, then Creighton and St. Mary's would be in.
When it gets down to the last couple of teams, it's all about who you beat. SDSU's quality wins were- UNLV (3 times, however UNLV didn't qualify for tourny so beating them doesn't mean as much), UTAH (5 seed), and BYU (8 seed). Thats it. They have 2 wins against NCAA tournament teams. They beat nobody in November and December. The selection commitee has said multiple times that they look at a teams entire season, not just the last few weeks. I think that SDSU has looked pretty good the last couple weeks, but unfortunately for them, they didn't beat anyone in their non-conference.
The best thing Arizona has going for them is they beat SDSU head-to-head, St. Mary's, Gonzaga (3 seed), Kansas (3 seed), Washington (4 seed), UCLA (6 seed), USC (10 seed). Don't get me wrong, Arizona has some bad losses, but it comes down to who you beat, and Arizona has more quality wins the SDSU does. And most importantly, they beat them head-to-head.
Football 1999,
@ Louisville (1st overall)
Utah (5 seed)
BYU (8 seed) (twice)
@ UNR (always a quality win)
there is no argument for Arizona getting in. Their RESUME is no better than ours.
I agree that UNLV has a better resume than SDSU and Saint Mary's both. If the Rebels wouldn't have lost back to back to SDSU, then I thought they would have got in over Arizona. Again, I am not a Arizona fan, I'm a Rebel fan.
What I can't believe is that BYU is an 8 seed. Who did they beat??? There best non-conference win was Utah State (11 seed). Thats it!!! They split with Utah and New Mexico, went 2-1 against SDSU and got swept by UNLV. It's like the selection commitee gave them credit for "close" losses to Arizona St. and Wake Forest. If you look at UNLV's and BYU resumes head-to-head, the Rebels' look better than BYU. What do you guys think?
One has to look at Chris Hill the A.D. from Utah. He was on the commitee and was asleep or just a dupe for the big boys. He was on radio today in SLC and played the P.C. B.S. routine. He did no favors for the Mountain West.
we play great against byu; but they play better than us against the rest of the conference--and yes, close losses and big wins both help--we tend to play down to the level of bad teams (VERY few blowout wins for us, and some terrible losses).