Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Dean Juipe: Loss takes the wind out of UNLV

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.

It's a setback with some immediate ramifications.

As in, forget cracking the top 25 for a while.

And set aside those thoughts of breezing through the Mountain West Conference.

And, yes, there will be tickets available for Monday's late, late game with Utah at the Thomas & Mack Center.

UNLV lost Thursday night to Brigham Young in Provo and the fact the Rebels were outplayed virtually from the start en route to a 85-77 final score only adds to the game's disheartening nature. A contest that looked not only winnable but perfectly timed from UNLV's perspective proved to be anything but.

The Rebels came into the game having won five straight, having handled a decent DePaul team their last time out, and having arrived at the Marriott Center as a 7 1/2-point underdog but as a rival hungry for attention. BYU's nation-leading 43-game winning streak in the building appeared suspect.

But the Cougars are strong at home, if not elsewhere, and they took advantage of their assets in the post and in controlling the pace in grabbing a quick command of the game. They also let the Rebels run an offense that had a bewildering element to it.

For reasons both perplexing and unclear, UNLV elected to take the ball out of Marcus Banks' hands, and, in exchange, told him to roam the baseline in pursuit of an opening and a pass. It was a strategy that not only failed to work and contributed to the loss, but one that led Banks to suffer through an uncustomary cold night from the floor.

Banks, who averages 19 points a game and might be the best player in the league, can spot up and shoot, but he's at his best creating plays and driving to the hoop. Yet, whether by design or chance, it wasn't until the game's closing minutes that he was cleared for takeoff.

By then the Rebels were in serious trouble, although they continued to play hard down the stretch as they cut into what had been a 15-point BYU lead. With Banks more expressive and everyone on the team making their free throws, UNLV trimmed and trimmed the lead until there was legitimate suspense.

But second-half deficits of 15 points are difficult to overcome and, besides, neither of these teams has lost a game this season that it led at halftime. So BYU maintained its composure even as UNLV climbed within five points (at 76-71) and, shortly thereafter, it closed the door on the ill-fated comeback attempt.

Just the first conference game of the season, this one might prove to mean little in the long run. But the outcome did prevent the Rebels from realizing the immediate gratification they would have felt by vaulting to the top of the standings, inching closer to a top-25 berth, and selling out their own arena for an ensuing game with Utah.

From a broader viewpoint, the loss also keeps both UNLV and its fans from getting too gung ho about this team and its potential. Momentum can be fleeting, but had the Rebels knocked off the Cougars everyone associated with the program would have been riding high.

Instead, it's a tough though hardly bitter loss, one the oddsmakers foresaw even if many a Las Vegan didn't.

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