Columnist Dean Juipe: Late rally keeps Rebels on upswing

Dean Juipe

Monday, Dec. 31, 2001 | 10:22 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

By the end of the comeback, the score was about where it was expected to be. It's just that it took a circuitous route to get there.

UNLV defeated Old Dominion 84-76 Sunday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, but this was no humdrum waltz in the park. It was an exercise in determination and stick-to-itiveness that speaks highly for a team on the brink of a conference season that may yet prove to be one of note.

The Rebels aren't a great team, that much has been established. But a lesser one wouldn't have mounted a 21-4 run down the stretch to produce a victory that most in the enthusiastic but limited crowd thought would come much easier than it did.

Old Dominion was a 9-point underdog with a 6-4 record that hadn't played an opponent of note aside from Memphis. The bulk of the Monarchs' games had been against such less-than-notable foes as Delaware State, George Washington, Coastal Carolina and Hampton.

In another era, UNLV would have crushed ODU, cleaned off the bench and tried to keep its smirks to a minimum.

But these Rebels don't have the size and sometimes don't have the firepower to consistently slaughter even lesser opposition, as proven by their slow start not only against ODU but in their previous game against an equally overlooked and undermanned Tennessee State.

There may be a natural tendency to categorize the Rebels as schizophrenic or to believe they have a lethargic bone or two. Yet given that they were diving for balls on the court even as they fell behind by 14 in the first half, it's more likely that these recent adventures are more the result of a flawed roster that relies extensively on its shooters' outside touch.

Credit Marcus Banks with saving UNLV a ton of embarrassment, as well as saving coach Charlie Spoonhour from having to provide an excuse or some plausible explanation for a game that didn't seem tough until the opening tip off. With 31 hard-earned points, Banks not only added to his streak of 20-point games -- he's at four and counting -- but negated the impressive inside defense that made ODU a far sterner test that first imagined.

Things were going so poorly for the Rebels that at one time in the first half only Banks was carrying his own weight. For instance, with Old Dominion up 29-18 Banks was the only Rebel on the floor who had scored, as sidekicks Lou Kelly, Chris Richardson, Vince Booker and Louis Amundson were but a silent quartet.

Eventually the malaise that gripped the bulk of the squad dissipated, and UNLV was able to notch its seventh win in 11 pre-Mountain West games.

Now comes the hard part: Wyoming is here Saturday and it's common knowledge that you at least have to beat the Cowboys at home if you want to harbor conference championship notions. And the Mountain West, we remind you again, is apt to send only one team to the NCAA Tournament, if what has been seen and heard thus far is to be believed.

The Rebels have had their shaky moments, yet they're pretty close to what anyone would have forecasted prior to the season. They've won where it was anticipated and lost just as predictably.

But that ODU game, that was a close one.