UNLV quickly bows out with 89-62 loss

Steve Addy

Friday, March 17, 2000 | 5:47 a.m.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Playing like strangers thrown together at the last minute, UNLV was quickly excused from the NCAA Tournament in a blowout that mimicked its worst losses of the season.

Seemingly confirming Dick Vitale's assessment that they should not have made the 64-team field, the Rebels were outclassed by 18th-ranked Tulsa from start to finish Friday in their 89-62 loss in the first round of the NCAA South Regional.

In their biggest moment of the season, the Rebels (23-8) gave a terrible account of themselves, falling behind 44-22 at halftime, then never making a run to get back in the game. Tulsa (30-4) played with poise and precision, successfully collapsing on point guard Mark Dickel defensively and steering UNLV's offense into the ditch.

The 27-point margin of defeat is the biggest of the tournament, matching Michigan State's hammering of Valparaiso, but at least that was a No. 1 seed beating a 16th, not a seventh beating a 10th.

"A lot of people are going to say, 'I told you so,' and we didn't give them a reason not to," UNLV guard Trevor Diggs said. "We weren't ready. Tulsa did whatever they wanted to."

"I think we belonged here," coach Bill Bayno said, "but I think we let the committee down."

"We just did not get it done," said Danny Brotherson, the only Rebel who played worth a darn, with 15 points and seven rebounds in 36 minutes. "I'm disappointed. I thought we were ready to play, but Tulsa took us out of our game plan. They pushed and we didn't push back."

The pratfall by the Rebels was the last in a series of bad losses against top 25 teams, the big reason for Vitale's criticism of their bid. They lost to Cincinnati by 40, North Carolina by 24, Oklahoma State by 14 and Utah by 44, finishing 1-5 against teams in the top 25.

However, in light of their seven-game winning streak to close the season, good for the Mountain West tournament championship, Friday's collapse was shocking. The Rebels played with such savvy in the MWC tournament last week, they seemed confident and ready to at least give Tulsa a game. After all, just last season, they beat the Hurricane twice when UNLV still belonged to the WAC.

Instead, the Rebels' stay in the NCAA Tournament was just as brief as their previous appearance in 1998, when they won the WAC tournament and then lost their NCAA opener to Princeton.

"I'll take the blame," Bayno said. "We weren't ourselves. A few of our guys got caught up in the moment. They had big eyes. We didn't play like we're capable of and I think a lot of it was because it was some guys' first tournament."

Strangely enough, two veterans of the Princeton defeat, Dickel and Kaspars Kambala, played like tournament newcomers Friday, expediting the Rebels' downfall.

In his last game for UNLV, Dickel missed all three of his shots, hit 1-of-4 free throws and had almost as many turnovers (five) as assists (six). His turnovers came in the first half when the Rebels threw it away 15 times, leading to 22 Tulsa points.

From the first play, Tulsa double- and triple-teamed Dickel when he got the ball on top. On the rare occasion when he was able to get rid of the ball without turning it over, the Rebels could not make shots. They hit only 6-of-25 in the half, with Kambala going 1-of-6, Diggs 2-of-8.

The ball pressure on Dickel quickly turned the game in Tulsa's favor.

"They did a good job of slowing me down," Dickel said. "They did pretty much what Cincinnati did to me (on Jan. 2). They shadowed me, and I wasn't able to get into a rhythm. Anytime a play didn't work, we looked like we were unsure of what to do next."

"We were able to keep Dickel out of the middle, so he couldn't dish it off and hurt us," said Tulsa coach Bill Self, whose team will meet Cincinnati on Sunday.

"That's as good a 30 minutes -- the first 30 minutes of the game -- as we've had. We had great balance. This was definitely one of the best games we've had all year."

Tulsa was led by burly backup forward David Shelton, who scored 21. Greg Harrington supplied 16 and Marcus Hill and Tony Heard 14 each. Eric Coley grabbed 14 rebounds.

Kambala finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Rebels, but 19 of his points came after halftime when Tulsa mostly toyed with UNLV. Diggs added 14, but shot only 5-of-19. After a fine MWC tournament, freshman Dalron Johnson had only four points after picking up two early fouls.

UNLV's last lead was 5-4. From there, Tulsa went on a 10-0 run, then methodically stretched the lead to 27-14, 34-20 and 44-22 after ending the half with a 15-2 spurt. The Rebels were held to only two field goals in the final 10:30 of the half.

"When shots didn't fall for us early, and then they took Mark out of the game, our guys lost a little confidence on offense," Bayno said. "Then that took away from our defensive intensity. But you have to give Tulsa credit. They played a great game."

That was a familiar refrain after the Rebels' big games this season. The opponents changed, but the results rarely did. The Rebels made it to "Bracketville," but in the end, it was just one more trip to Blowout City, baby.