Plenty at stake on UNLV’s brutal road trip

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Feb. 6, 2004 | 10:47 a.m.

Thanks to Monday night's 63-50 upset of Air Force, the UNLV Rebels (12-6, 3-3) suddenly find themselves back in the thick of the Mountain West Conference race.

Now comes the hard part.

The Rebels, who are 3-3 away from the Thomas & Mack Center, travel north this weekend for back-to-back games against conference preseason favorite BYU (12-7, 2-4) on Saturday afternoon, and second-place Utah (16-5, 4-2) on Monday night.

Call it the Road to Nowhere.

Despite its recent struggles, BYU is still a perfect 8-0 at the 22,700-seat Marriott Center this season and has won 13 in a row on that court. Even more remarkable is the fact the Cougars have won 57 of their past 58 games in Provo.

Utah hasn't been any less dominant at the Huntsmen Center. The Utes are 12-0 at home this year and have won 29 of their past 30 games on their home floor.

If those stats aren't depressing enough for Rebels fans, consider this: Road teams are a pitiful 5-19 in the first 24 Mountain West Conference games. And three of those wins were by Air Force.

Yikes!

"Those are tough environments to play in," Rebels center J.K. Edwards said. "But we're going in prepared and trying to win."

"We've got to play them sometime," UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour said with a shrug. "You can't choose your dance partner. It's hard to win anywhere on the road in this league."

UNLV, which has lost four in a row at the Marriott Center, will be facing a BYU squad that has had a week to prepare following a disastrous three-game road swing of its own that saw the Cougars lose at Air Force (74-52), New Mexico (65-63) and Utah (64-56).

"I'm sure we'll get their best effort," Spoonhour said. "But I think we usually get everybody's best effort because of the name on our jersey."

BYU has won its eight home games by an average of 24 points. Its closest final margin was 14 points (78-64) against Wyoming.

Meanwhile, it appears the Rebels won't be seeing Rick Majerus on the Utah bench anytime soon.

A little more than a week after his surprise announcement that he was leaving his head coaching position after reportedly suffering chest pains, Majerus remains in Santa Barbara at his doctor's house according to the Deseret Morning News.

Bob Henderson, who is Majerus' legal counsel, said he believes the chances are slim that Majerus will coach again this year and that he'll likely remain in Santa Barbara for another week. After that, Henderson said Majerus will likely check into a "fat farm" in Arizona.

"He's got to get a handle on his weight," Henderson told the Deseret News while also confirming reports of Majerus' weight being in the 370-pound range. "A lot of people have been encouraging him for a long time now to get a handle on it. He's pretty focused on that. ... He needs to lose at least 100 pounds."