Columnist Dean Juipe: Rebels, Lobos invite playground comparison

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, March 2, 2004 | 9:46 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.

Not atypical for a game between these teams, neither really needed to have its players in uniform. Skins and shirts would have done just fine.

It was playground basketball, a late-season admission that restraints such as structure and discipline had outlived their usefulness. Two teams that did just what they were supposed to do this season -- which is battle for fourth place in the Mountain West Conference -- put a little extra "up" in their uptempo and so what if it came at the expense of competent or heady play?

UNLV, it turns out, is a little better at this free-form styling than New Mexico and it won Monday night's game at the Pit in Albuquerque by a 78-75 count as Odartey Blankson compiled a career-high 28 points.

The Rebels and Lobos habitually butt heads in a playful game of high scores and one-upmanship, inviting comparisons to pick-up scrimmages at Sunset Park. But this was a little more extreme, a little more off the wall than their typical last-man-standing rumble, as the teams combined for a stat-chart-choking 125 shots.

Actually, it wasn't too bad of a game in terms of sustaining interest. And it was a rare one at that, the Rebels not only winning a close game but winning one on the road (for only the fourth time this season).

Yet the game as an art form left a good deal to be desired and served as a reminder that UNLV and New Mexico are middle-of-the-pack teams in a middle-of-the-pack league. Neither did anything to invite comparison to Stanford or Saint Joe's.

As was quickly ascertained, the referees could have easily been excused and the players left to a code of honor that guides any and all games played on asphalt. Fouled? You or the guy who fouled you just calls it out.

Wild, ridiculous passes became prevalent. Lobs, no-looks and behind-the-backs were in and the old bounce pass from Bob Cousy or a like-minded clone was out.

The game had its unusual features, such as New Mexico shooting on a 1-on-4 "fast break" from hell. Or, on several occasions, when players from both teams pulled up and fired from 18, 20 or 25 feet rather than take a clear path to the basket.

The NCAA added the 3-point line to college basketball in 1986, but to have seen this game you might have thought the players were just getting their first look at it. And they must have liked what they saw, as player after player took his turn shooting from as far away from the hoop as he so desired.

Eighteen 3-pointers went down but 25 missed the mark, as hardly any player on the floor could suppress the urge to shoot whenever he felt like it.

Ordinarily, such lack of composure, tact and common sense will get a player pulled from a game by an irate coach, but not this time. Coaches Jay Spoonhour and Ritchie McKay must have agreed beforehand to simply roll out the ball and let their players pretend no one was watching.

If these teams meet again in the first round of the conference tournament, which they might, UNLV needn't worry. The Rebels have shown they can beat the Lobos in Las Vegas with something resembling a regimented attack and that they can beat the Lobos in Albuquerque with no holds barred.

Beating them in Denver shouldn't be all that difficult.

But beating anyone else ... or anyone better, to be more specific ... is another matter. The Rebels, 7-6 in the league and 16-10 overall, have been saying they're enjoying the freedom Spoonhour has given them and against New Mexico they took that concept to another level, even if it resulted in a lack of cohesive, fundamentally sound play.

But it was good fun while it lasted and in a season of short tempers and blown fuses it came in handy.

Now, who's got next?