Rebels hoping to get jump on foes

Steve Addy

Thursday, Jan. 3, 2002 | 10:12 a.m.

The Rebels have moved beyond whining about their schedule. Now they're working a more constructive angle -- how to make the best of the situation.

When UNLV hosts Wyoming on Saturday in the first Mountain West game of the season, it will undertake a 14-game conference schedule that isn't custom-made for success.

Not only must the Rebels open against the conference preseason favorite, they'll have to play five of their first seven MWC games on the road, where they're 1-3 so far. Only one other MWC team, Colorado State, has to play five road games by the midpoint of the league season.

The Rebels (7-4) are already coming off an unfavorable nonconference schedule in which they had one home game from Nov. 21 to Dec. 19. They will endure a similar stretch in the conference. After Saturday, their only MWC home game until Feb. 9 will be Jan. 21 against Colorado State.

Coach Charlie Spoonhour has crinkled his nose over the schedule more than once, and said he'll work with the Thomas & Mack Center next season to reserve more favorable home dates.

But, for this season, "There is no sense complaining, since we can't do anything about it," he said. "All we can do is try to approach it in a positive manner."

It's a bizarre schedule, no question. Because the Rebels placed two nonconference games in the middle of the MWC season -- against DePaul on Feb. 3 and Florida International on Feb. 13 -- they're beginning conference play a week earlier than most everyone else.

After visiting Air Force on Monday, the Rebels will have played two MWC games before five other teams have opened. Also, the night after New Mexico plays its first conference game Jan. 14, the Rebels will play their fourth. And UNLV closes with three straight at home.

Spoonhour can point to those facts if he wants to view the glass as half-full. Theoretically, there is an opportunity for the Rebels to put some space between themselves and the rest of the league, provided they can muster a couple of unexpected road wins.

"We have a good chance to come out strong and get people chasing us," senior forward Chris Richardson said. "With so many home games in the second half of the season, they would have to beat us at home to pass us."

Spoonhour acknowledges such a scenario, but is leaning closer to realism. He has taken note of recent wins by BYU (over Stanford) and Utah (over Texas) that boosted the Mountain West's profile, along with San Diego State's competitive 92-79 loss at Duke.

"If we get off to a good start and find a way to win some games on the road, then everything's great," he said. "But that's not going to be easy. After starting out kind of abysmal, you could say, the conference is looking pretty doggone salty right now.

"We have to win what we can, and realize that in the second half, teams have to come back to play us. If we can tread water and keep our heads up, we'll be fine."

And if that doesn't yield the desired results, there's always the Mountain West tournament on the Rebels' home court March 7-9. If they win it and qualify for the NCAA tournament, their challenging schedule would be a distant memory.