Good, Rebels just want to have fun as season winds down

Steve Addy

Friday, Feb. 23, 2001 | 11:42 a.m.

SAN DIEGO -- Three weeks ago, Rebels coach Max Good decided he was being too easy on his players, so he reverted to drill-instructor mode to try to shock the team back into focus.

The results have been decidedly mixed, as UNLV has gone 3-2 but fallen out of contention for the Mountain West regular-season title.

Now, with only three games left, no postseason carrot to dangle and almost no chance he'll be back as coach next season, Good has scrapped his tough-guy routine. He has replaced it with a let's-have-fun and do-ourselves-proud outlook.

In preparation for Saturday night's game against San Diego State, Good has put the Rebels (15-11, 6-5 MWC) through practices that have been equal parts fun, sweat and positive reinforcement.

There has been some game planning and teaching, of course; Good is not ignoring his duties. But the Rebels have also run a lot of fast-break drills -- with creative dunking encouraged -- and they're not running as many sprints when somebody screws up.

Good sees it as the only realistic way to encourage a wounded team with nothing to play for, a club that has experienced unhappy twists and turns all season.

"These kids have been through a great deal, they really have," Good said Thursday. "We've got six seniors and they have three games left. Let's face it, we're not going to browbeat them in practice now. We're trying to let them enjoy these last few weeks, not make it drudgery for them.

"A lot of coaches back off at this time of year. When we got to February last year, sometimes we would take two days off in a row."

But this year is different. Last year, the Rebels were in the hunt for the league title, and they knew they'd have the Mountain West tournament on their own floor. Though the MWC winner didn't get an automatic NCAA tournament bid, UNLV knew it would probably get in by winning the MWC tournament, which it did.

But there is no such incentive this season. The Rebels were banned from postseason play by the NCAA on Dec. 12, a decision upheld on appeal last Friday. The team played with admirable grit the next night, winning at Air Force 86-78, but went to pieces in Monday's second half at New Mexico, scoring only 16 points and losing 75-56.

The Rebels appeared to disregard the game plan -- getting the ball inside to Kaspars Kambala -- in favor of 3-pointers that simply weren't falling. New Mexico's 20-0 run in an eight-minute span essentially ended UNLV's season.

Good said he didn't think selfishness took over, but said Thursday, "I can't explain it without knocking our guys, and I'm not going to do that."

But as distasteful as the Rebels may find their spoiler's role for the final three games, it's the only one they've got. Good hopes pride will be sufficient motivation at San Diego State and next week at home against Colorado State and Wyoming.

"It's sort of like playing a consolation game in a tournament," he said. "There's really no payoff for your effort, but you've got to play, so you might as well play hard and win.

"We have to remember that the other teams are essentially playing for an NCAA bid, because they're trying to improve their seedings for the Mountain West tournament. No one is going to take it easy on us, so we've got to show up."

San Diego State (12-12, 2-9) is fighting to avoid the last-place (seventh) seed, and took a step toward doing that Monday by winning at Air Force (2-8).