Rebels to open MWC play vs. Air Force

Steve Addy

Monday, Jan. 8, 2001 | 10:46 a.m.

The Mountain West tournament begins for the Rebels tonight.

It will last 14 games and take two months to play, but it's all they've got.

UNLV is banned from the real conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center in March, as well as the NCAA Tournament. Barring a successful appeal of that ban, UNLV's only chance to validate its season begins tonight when Air Force (5-8) visits for the MWC opener.

Coach Max Good, whose team has won six straight, hasn't turned the MWC season into a special rallying point. He is holding out hope for the ban to be lifted.

But he and some Rebels acknowledge that retaining the regular-season title they shared with Utah last year could prove that UNLV would've been a worthy defender of its MWC tournament championship.

"If we can play in the postseason, so be it. If not, I think we want to prove the best point we possibly can," Good said. "I'm sure it's on (the players') minds to win the conference and be able to say the best team wasn't there (at the MWC tournament).

"But we've got to fulfill our part of that."

Us vs. Them is among sports' most overworked themes, but this is one case where it might be appropriate. Though the players concede that UNLV deserved punishment for rules violations, the seniors feel the postseason ban is unduly harsh because they weren't involved.

The university will promote that stance in its appeal. In the meantime, the players can only make their point on the court.

"We have to play like it's the tournament already -- every game counts," senior guard Trevor Diggs said.

"Every game, we'll be trying to show the conference we're the defending champs. No matter what the NCAA did, we want to try to show that if we could play in the tournament, we would be the best team. If we don't play well, it will be easy for everybody to say we would not have made the NCAA anyway."

Vince Booker said, "We definitely have something to prove. People around town might think we've given up, that we don't have anything to play for. But we won't put our heads down. We still have our pride, despite the (NCAA's) decision. At heart, we are still the defending champs."

At 9-5, the Rebels aren't where they had hoped to be entering conference play. No one banked on losing to Nevada-Reno or OT losses to middling opponents such as Louisville and Oklahoma State.

But Good has been able to keep UNLV steaming forward despite the upheaval created by the NCAA sanctions and coach Bill Bayno's dismissal after seven games. Saturday night's 106-71 win over Chicago State was the Rebels' highest scoring total since 1993 and their 55-percent shooting was a season high.

"A lot of guys are chipping in," Diggs said. "I think we're ready to start the conference."

Despite UNLV's 11-game winning streak over Air Force since 1981, tonight's game might not be easy for the Rebels. With new coach Joe Scott bringing his precise Princeton system to the Academy, these aren't the same old Falcons. They have won four of their last five games.

"We've gotten better in the last month," said Scott, who replaced longtime coach Reggie Minton. "We have been in every game except Wake Forest (84-44 loss). In the conference, if we play the way we are supposed to, we'll be in all of the games and we'll see how we do."

The Falcons are led in scoring by senior Jarvis Croff (14.6), while freshman swingman Robert Todd averages 12.6 and shoots a team-leading 58 percent. Air Force is making a living at the 3-point arc, with almost as many triples (129) as regular field goals (131).

"They're hard to guard, because they run all that Princeton stuff with the backdoor cuts and screens," Good said. "If you turn your head for a second, they've got a layup. But where they really kill you is the 3s. You're all worried about the backdoor stuff and they're shooting 3s."

UNLV hadn't scored as many as 106 points since a 110-95 victory at Nevada-Reno on Jan. 28, 1993 under coach Rollie Massimino. ...

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