Rebels invited to dance

Steve Addy

Monday, March 13, 2000 | 10:48 a.m.

Gratified but not satisfied, the Rebels are going to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years.

They only hope their stay is a little longer this time.

Capping a thrilling 24 hours in which they routed BYU 79-56 to win the Mountain West tournament before a jubilant home crowd, the hot Rebels (23-7) were rewarded with a 10th seed in the South Regional and a first-round game against seventh-seeded Tulsa (29-4) at noon Friday in Nashville, Tenn.

In the end, all the talk about RPI rankings, strength of schedule and conference reputation was needless blather. The Rebels wound up 51st in the RPI, trailing BYU (46th) and Utah (50th), but made the 64-team field largely because of their strong finish. They have won seven in a row and 14 of 17, and their tournament sweep was enough to outweigh a 1-4 record against top 25 teams.

"Winning eight of our last 10 helped, and how we won the tournament helped," coach Bill Bayno said Sunday as the Rebels celebrated their bid at the Thomas & Mack Center. "I think the (NCAA selection committee) saw our last two games, and they want teams that are playing the best."

After a shaky win over San Diego State in their MWC tournament opener, the Rebels turned on the jets and played two terrific games. They came back in the final minutes to defeat Wyoming 97-92 on Friday, then hammered Brigham Young after taking a 26-2 lead in the first 10 minutes Saturday night.

Consider the Rebels' confidence completely rebuilt from their 44-point loss at Utah on Feb. 21. They haven't lost since, and Saturday's championship was eerily reminiscent of UNLV's WAC title of 1998. The fans overran the court and became active participants in the trophy ceremony. They chanted "MVP! MVP!" for point guard Mark Dickel, the tournament MVP, and reveled in the joy of the moment.

From this point on, however, the Rebels want their 2000 tournament to go differently than 1998, when Princeton backdoored them out of the East Regional in the first round. Though they weren't guaranteed a berth this year, unlike 1998, the Rebels insist they won't let down after the suspenseful high of their invitation.

"It's one-game elimination. We can't be sitting around dwelling on the fact that we're excited to make the tournament. It's time to get back to work," freshman Dalron Johnson said.

Kaspars Kambala said, "You can't just stop because you've won the conference. You've got to go as far as you can. Now is when you play even harder."

"Now that we're in it, we intend to go deep in the tournament," Dickel said. "Not that we're looking past anyone, but if you want to be successful, you need that confidence. The last time, I don't know if we were confident or just happy to be there. But if we're ever going to go into the tournament confident and ready to play, it's now. The whole team is playing well."

Tulsa will prove heady competition, however. The Golden Hurricane of the WAC, the Rebels' old stamping ground, is ranked 14th and has lost to only two different teams, suffering three of its four losses to coach Jerry Tarkanian's Fresno State squad, a fellow at-large invitee. The latest came in Saturday's WAC tournament finale, 75-72, so at least Tulsa is coming off a loss.

The Hurricane features a balanced offensive attack, with no one averaging more than 14 points per game, but six scorers between 13.8 and 9.6. Backup forward David Shelton is the leading scorer, while senior center Brandon Kurtz averages 11.5 points and 6.9 rebounds. At 81.2 points a game, Tulsa averages only one point fewer than UNLV, but has won by an average of 18.4 points.

The Rebels beat Tulsa twice last year when they were still in the WAC, but Bayno is not putting much stock in year-old results against coach Bill Self's team.

"We haven't seen them in a year, and they're a different team now," he said. "We're familiar with them, but the negative is they're familiar with us, too. I don't think you can worry about that or analyze that."

"It helps that we know a little bit about them," Dickel said. "They're like a better version of BYU. They're well-coached and they don't beat themselves. But anybody can beat anybody right now. Everyone's got an even slate, and there have been bigger upsets than UNLV beating Tulsa."