Rebels Finnished for NCAAs?

Steve Addy

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2000 | 10:48 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY -- With a collapse that was swift and stunning in its completeness, the Rebels' dreams of a Mountain West title and NCAA Tournament berth might have been finished Monday night.

Or is that Finnished?

Then again, the amazing return of Finnish power forward Hanno Mottola from a three-game injury layoff seemed more like overkill by Utah in its 96-52 pounding of UNLV at the Huntsman Center, the Utes' 51st straight home victory.

Coming back from thumb and elbow injuries that threatened to knock him out for the rest of the season, the 6-foot-9 Mottola racked up 20 points in only 19 minutes. He scored 15 in the first half when Utah breezed to a 28-point lead that made the rest of the game a needless exercise.

But UNLV played so poorly in its biggest moment of the season, it still would have been routed even if Mottola hadn't thrived after entering to a standing ovation six minutes in. The Rebels seemed unable to shake their hangover from Saturday's 83-82 loss at Brigham Young.

"Me personally, I didn't come ready to play. None of us did," UNLV guard Trevor Diggs said.

Throwing away their second straight chance to tie the Utes for the conference lead, the Rebels offered practically no resistance before 13,821 fans and fell into a second-place tie with New Mexico at 7-4 with three MWC games to go. At 9-2, Utah is virtually assured the No. 1 seed for the Mountain West tournament, and now UNLV (16-7) must repel New Mexico for the No. 2 spot.

As for the NCAA Tournament, the Rebels will have difficulty disowning Monday's debacle. To get into the tournament, they will likely have to win out in the regular season and MWC tournament March 9-11, with a rematch against Utah almost necessary to impress the NCAA committee.

Monday's ESPN-televised defeat was so embarrassing, the Rebels can only hope committee members fell asleep before things got really unsightly. But that was a brief period, because they were never in the game. UNLV trailed by only five after seven minutes, but the Utes bolted ahead by 10, then 17, 22 and finally 28 with 1:40 left in the half.

The final score was Utah's biggest lead and the 44-point defeat was UNLV's biggest all season, topping its 106-66 clubbing by Cincinnati on Jan. 2.

Afterward, assessments were many, but explanations few.

"They just took it to us. No excuses," said Rebels coach Bill Bayno, whose team must somehow find a compelling reason to play Florida Atlantic (1-24) tonight at the Thomas & Mack.

"But we have four games left, and I don't think that one game makes or breaks your season. We will be evaluated (by the NCAA committee) after the (Mountain West) tournament and we will see what happens."

"It was obvious we didn't play like we are capable," Diggs said. "It's embarrassing for the team, for the program and for the state of Nevada. I don't think Utah is 40 points better than us, but tonight they were."

"They pretty much took us out of what we wanted to do," Mark Dickel said.

"We were horrible, and everything snowballed," Danny Brotherson said.

Though Bayno said, "I felt we played hard defensively," there was no evidence to support his assertion. Utah had its way all night, shooting 54 percent and outrebounding the Rebels 50-26. With Mottola doing his damage inside and Phil Cullen making 5-of-5 3-pointers among 19 points, there was never a sense that the Rebels could stop the Utes (20-5).

As terrific as Utah was offensively, UNLV was equally poor. The Rebels hit only three of their first 16 shots and went 8-of-32 in the first half. They could not generate any inside offense, mainly because center Kaspars Kambala reacted poorly to Utah's double-teams. He committed five turnovers in the first half, four on bad passes out of the post. Meanwhile, the Rebels' outside shooters could not make enough shots to keep Utah honest. After two straight 21-point games, Diggs was 0-of-6 with two airballs in the first half and finished 2-of-11. Dickel hit 2-of-7, leaving him 8-of-37 since Feb. 5, and Dalron Johnson went 2-of-11. UNLV shot only 30 percent for the game (19-of-62).

"They triple-teamed Kambala in the first half and he didn't handle it well, and we didn't hit shots," Bayno said. "They sagged on us and we kept falling apart. The difference was that we didn't make shots. But you have to give (Utah) credit. They came out fired up and just beat us every which way."

Kambala's 10 points led UNLV and Dickel had nine, but both padded their numbers against Utah's third-stringers in the last two minutes. In fact, Bayno reinserted four of his starters at the end, saying he wanted them to "keep playing hard" despite having to play again tonight.

Though Cullen's outside shooting was key and Alex Jensen supplied 11 points and 12 rebounds to the Utes' cause, it was Mottola's night. He hadn't played since Feb. 5 at Las Vegas and hadn't practiced with the team until Sunday, but was pronounced ready Monday morning.

By Monday night he had the Rebels spinning in circles, wondering what happened to their season amid the Wasatch Mountains and whether their fate finally has been cast in stone.