Columnist Dean Juipe: UNLV neither winning nor rebuilding

Dean Juipe

Monday, Feb. 10, 2003 | 10:03 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.

Encouraging remarks or sentiments are out of the question at a time like this. UNLV lost a basketball game Sunday in which it looked terrible, and it's possible it's a preview of what lies ahead.

The Rebels may have been up by nine points early but they were lousy thereafter, turning the ball over at a record pace and embarrassing themselves in a game against Pac-10 adversary Southern California at the Thomas & Mack Center.

A potentially delightful afternoon was soured as the Rebels regressed to a youth-league skill level en route to a 98-73 defeat before an announced gathering of 13,143 mostly exasperated observers. A betting favorite to win, the Rebels, instead, lost all but the support of their most diehard fans during a self-inflicted disaster of Trojan proportions.

It was the second "no contest" in as many days in Las Vegas, as the previous night's junior middleweight fight between Shane Mosley and Raul Marquez at the Mandalay Bay Events Center was cut short by repeated head butts.

But this "no contest" was even uglier.

And here's where the "preview" portion of it comes into play: UNLV and Southern Cal may yet meet again, as each could land in the National Invitation Tournament; the loss may also foreshadow a few additional setbacks as the Rebels have eight games yet to play in a Mountain West Conference race in which they appear to be a decreasing factor; and, at the risk of looking too far ahead, the inability of team leader Marcus Banks to score stands as a reminder that the Rebels are a different team without him hitting on all cylinders, and that when he and fellow seniors Dalron Johnson, Jermaine Lewis and Lamar Bigby are gone, there's not a single remaining player who's a proven scoring threat.

While the Trojans started five underclassmen and can be said to be building toward a solid future, UNLV starts three seniors in what was perceived as a win-now season. But not only are the wins not coming as expected, no one is being groomed to occupy the scorer's shoes that the team's seniors currently fill in averaging two-thirds of UNLV's points.

In other words, if this team is having trouble scoring now, think of how desperate it may be for points next season. (Which is why head coach Charlie Spoonhour is already beating the junior college bushes, knowing that he has little beyond Demetrius Hunter as even a marginal scorer for 2003-04 and that his incoming freshmen can't be counted on for an offensive lift.)

Banks, whose aggressiveness was thought to be the difference of the USC game on paper, was stymied by the Trojans and further restricted due to foul trouble. He finished with a mere eight points, or 12 beneath his average.

With or without him on the floor, the Rebels rang up an ungodly 34 turnovers and had one first-half sequence in which they went six straight possessions without so much as launching a valid shot.

The experienced team in this matchup collapsed and that's an especially bad omen from UNLV's perspective. The Rebels are neither winning now nor building for a bright future.

If there was anyone languishing on the bench merely because of his youthfulness or age, the fans would be clamoring for Spoonhour to play him. But there's no such ability untapped, no such star waiting in the wings.