Columnist Dean Juipe: Rebels let another one slip away

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2002 | 10:44 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

There's a difference between a close game and a great game.

Close games can be plagued by mental errors, tarnished by physical mistakes and devalued by sloppy play.

Conversely, great games tend to feature admirable decisions, alert participants and enviable execution.

UNLV and New Mexico were involved in a close game Tuesday night in Albuquerque, but only in a moment of unchecked hyperbole could it have been described as anything resembling outstanding or great. Fact is, had either team looked average it may have blown away the other.

The Rebels lost 84-81 in overtime and they're left with no one to blame but themselves -- not that this was the first time a "winnable" game was offered to them on the proverbial silver platter.

They're 3-4 at the turn of the Mountain West Conference season and looking very much as if they have but one ace in the hole. And that, of course, is a schedule that closes with the league tournament being held in Las Vegas.

Want to put a little positive spin on this latest UNLV setback? Well, here it is: It doesn't mean a thing.

With the conference getting but one automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and awarding that bid to the winner of its conference tournament, nothing that happens in the regular season has any lingering impact on the end result. All eight MWC teams will play here March 7-9 and the team that is the hottest at the time will be the one to advance to the NCAA tourney.

The regular-season games have only a fleeting value. Beyond the visceral benefits, they're all but meaningless.

This is a break of sorts for UNLV, which, in theory, could get itself righted, win the conference tournament and turn what has been a mediocre season into a memorable one. Without that dangling carrot that a postseason tournament on their home court provides, the Rebels would be whipped.

Maybe New Mexico already is.

The Lobos have been awful of late and their fans seem determined to run head coach Fran Fraschilla out of town after three years of high but failed expectations. Curiously, they're longing for the Dave Bliss years.

With an almost eerily quiet crowd in the usually raucous Pit, Tuesday's game opened with more than a hint of impending doom. Those in attendance were ready to turn on Fraschilla and the Lobos, had the Rebels only given them the chance.

Instead, UNLV played down to New Mexico's level, tossed aside a three-game winning streak and reminded its fans watching on TV or listening to the radio back in Las Vegas that it is but a middling team in a middling league. Any energy or positive vibes from the consecutive wins vs. Colorado State, San Diego State and DePaul (last Sunday) that the Rebels brought into the game failed to carry over.

But, so what?

At 11-8 overall, UNLV won't be picking up an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament and that factoid means all the Rebels' eggs are in one basket. They can slog through the remainder of the regular season and it won't mean diddly.

It would, however, make things more pleasant if they won the games that other teams were trying to give them.