Columnist Dean Juipe: UNLV enjoys a tasty after-Christmas treat

Dean Juipe

Monday, Dec. 29, 2003 | 9:40 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.

It was a feast, a time to fatten up in the spirit of the holidays. And for the UNLV men's basketball team, it was the first of at least three consecutive games at the trough.

The Rebels dominated Bradley and won 73-55 Sunday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in a game that was moderately competitive but never really in doubt. In the midst of a three-game span against lesser opposition, they did what they were supposed to do and padded their record at the expense of a private school with an enrollment of a mere 6,000.

Next up for a good thrashing is Montana on Tuesday, to be followed by Occidental Jan. 7. As was the case against the undermanned Braves of the Missouri Valley Conference, easy wins should follow.

UNLV looked neither sharp nor deficient in upping its record to 7-3 and dropping Bradley -- which is a team, after all, that had lost to Lubbock Christian -- to 7-4. For the 300 or so Bradley fans who made the trip from Peoria and commandeered sections 228 and 229 upstairs at the Mack, it was a grim reminder of the differences between a solid "mid-major" team and one that expects to challenge for the Mountain West title.

The Rebels followed the script, brushed off the rust that had been accumulated during an eight-day rest and held on despite another of their all-too-common second half slumps. What had been a 15-point lead at the half quickly became 20 within the first three minutes of the second half before Bradley pulled back to within 10 and stayed about a dozen behind for most of the latter portion of the game.

A grade for UNLV? How about a B? The Rebels completed the assignment and passed the lightweight test, even if a few mistakes were evident to the smallish crowd.

I'm still not quite sure what to make of these Rebels but former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian took in the game, as usual, and said he was impressed. He thinks they're going to be just fine.

They certainly have moments when their athleticism is impressive, and when they run a few plays and curtail their free-lancing instincts they can be deadly. They have some players with respectable shooting range and they may have just enough height to survive if not excel in a league in which the other acknowledged contenders each has a big man or two of some consequence.

They also handled Bradley's trapping defense, which was the Braves' only real hope for springing an upset that was unlikely from the beginning.

This was Bradley's second trip to Las Vegas this season, having played in the earlier minor-league Las Vegas Tournament at Valley High, and it hasn't seemed to improve. In fact, the more coaching the Braves get, the worse they seem to play.

For instance, on no fewer than four occasions in the first half when the game was being decided, Bradley came out of a time-out huddle with head coach Jim Les and promptly self-destructed. First, the Braves allowed 30 seconds to run off the shot clock before turning the ball over; next, they were called for traveling after playing the ball in; next, they stood aside and let the Rebels' Romel Beck go straight to the basket for a layup; and, finally, they played the ball in only to throw it away within two or three seconds.

The stumbles and bumbles had to leave Les agitated with his team's inability to follow instruction.

But that's what so-so teams from so-so conferences are supposed to do when playing on the road and against a higher level of competition. These games are scheduled for a reason, and from UNLV's perspective this one was scheduled not so much to please the fans but to put a notch in the win column.

In that respect, the game was a complete success. The Rebels put on their bibs and chowed away, a clearly superior team enjoying the first of their Christmas leftovers.