Columnist Dean Juipe: Rebels find sorry season slipping away

Dean Juipe

Monday, Feb. 3, 2003 | 9:35 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.

Let's lift our spirits and start off with a cheer.

Give me an N.

Give me an I.

Give me a T.

What's that spell?

NIT.

What's that stand for?

National Invitation Tournament.

What's what mean?

Another disappointing UNLV basketball season.

There, don't you feel better? Well, probably not, but neither do the Rebels now that it has become apparent that the NIT -- and not the far more prestigious NCAA Tournament -- is the best they can hope for if they expect to play beyond the conclusion of the Mountain West Conference season.

Oh sure, they could still win the league tourney and qualify for the NCAA extravaganza, but that's an aspiration that seems increasingly unlikely in view of what has transpired of late. Going into tonight's game at the Thomas & Mack Center with Colorado State and coming off a discouraging loss to Wyoming at the same site, the Rebels are 1-4 in the MWC and doing their best to imitate the tumbleweeds that are blowing around amongst the valley's debris.

They're directionless.

But maybe that's to be expected, given what one person who is very close to the program disclosed a couple of weeks ago. "They're not very cerebral," was the comment, and, lo and behold, that's just about what head coach Charlie Spoonhour said after Saturday's meltdown against Wyoming. "We didn't use our brain," he confessed, his team's pulse barely registering a blip and its collective IQ in question.

But even the greatest UNLV basketball teams of the past weren't known for their genius. They were athletic and hard working, finding ways to score and defend.

These Rebels, conversely, only seem athletic and hard working, and are stymied on the offensive end and standoffish defensively. They're about one more loss -- tonight, perhaps? -- from packing it in, by the looks of things.

The slippage is evident up and down the roster.

Marcus Banks has now had four underwhelming conference games and is taking 20 minutes to get started almost every night.

Dalron Johnson is adequate but has plateaued, and just isn't stocky enough to add to the lane presence of J.K. Edwards, who might well qualify as a bust.

Jermaine Lewis, it can be said now with some assurance, simply isn't a scorer yet is playing a scorer's position.

And Demetrius Hunter and anyone inclined to state his case have but a single leg to stand on.

Add in a bench crew that lacks explosiveness, height and grit, and UNLV fans might well be feeling shortchanged. They saw the preseason press clippings and read the voluminous praise, and rightfully expected the Rebels to be noticeably improved over last season.

But they're not, and last season at least brought the satisfaction of culminating with an NIT bid and splitting a pair of games with Arizona State and South Carolina.

The end of this increasingly frustrating season -- which is still at least five weeks away -- may bring little more than a sigh of relief.

Who knows? By then even the NIT may not be interested in UNLV.

Let's have another cheer before it's too late.