Columnist Dean Juipe: UNLV loss looked all too typical

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 1999 | 9:35 a.m.

It was just one game, just one (more) loss.

Yet there was something analogous about this particular game with respect to the UNLV basketball team's entire season. It was like a microcosm, a snippet from a campaign with plenty of promise but little to celebrate.

The Rebels lost 76-72 to Texas Christian Monday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in a game that was fed to insomniacs across the country on the ESPN late shift.

Like so many games before it, the Rebels came out looking hungry and fit for the challenge. They were diving for balls and exulting when things went their way.

They were into it.

But, once again, they really weren't effective coming down the stretch and a game they should have won and counted on winning slipped away.

You already know it wasn't Shawn Marion's fault. In a memorable individual performance for the ages, Marion scored 34 points and collected 21 rebounds in 39 minutes of play.

Dickie V. had to be going crazy. Those in the T&M were for sure.

It was a little more obvious than usual, but Marion was carrying the team as he had so many times earlier. Look at his game-by-game scoring totals and only once has he been held to fewer than 11 points. Most nights he checks in with around 18 points and he has 12 games in which he scored between 17 and 20 points.

That's amazing consistency. And if Marion were to come back next season and play his senior year, he would have an excellent chance of joining Larry Johnson, Reggie Theus, Stacey Augmon, Sidney Green and Glen Gondrezick as Rebels with their jerseys retired and their names in block letters on flags in the Mack's rafters.

But he's leaving. He's going pro and that's why there were several NBA scouts in attendance.

They were marveling at his all-around play, which included six steals. If UNLV was doing something constructive, it seemed as if Marion was in the thick of it.

Nonetheless, the Rebels lost for the third time in four games and for the 10th time in 25 dating back to those early season wins where they looked so good and appeared to be on the brink of real stardom. It seems like ancient history now, but everyone in the city was talking not only Top 25 but Sweet 16 around here back in November.

In case you haven't noticed or have been reluctant or unwilling to face reality, those days are gone.

The Rebels are like a good but not great golfer who starts to freeze when he brings a nice round within sight of the clubhouse. Down the stretch, panic sets in. They're not good finishers.

Only Marion can be excluded from any blame, although the real culprits are the team's guards. They're the ones mishandling the ball and failing to convert the do-or-die shots that have led to what the diehard fans would say was a few too many excruciating losses.

It's the guards -- Mark Dickel, Brian Keefe and Greedy Daniels -- who are the biggest reason UNLV has lost five of the eight games it has played that have been decided by five or fewer points. Against TCU, they were a collective 3 for 20 from the floor and they only added to the pandemonium down the stretch as both teams played recklessly with the game on the line.

But, true to form in some respects, it was UNLV that lost a tight one and saw its NCAA hopes ransacked again.

Suddenly the NIT doesn't even look like a sure thing.