Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Flat Rebels routed in NIT

BOISE, Idaho -- Demetrius Hunter had a feeling this was going to happen. So did just about everyone else in UNLV's traveling party.

"You could kind of feel it," said Hunter, a senior guard from Cheyenne High School. He was referring to UNLV's dismal first half showing en route to a 84-69 loss to Boise State in an opening-round National Invitation Tournament game at The Pavilion here on Wednesday night.

The Rebels (18-13), who had several players make no bones about not wanting to play in the NIT after losing a 73-70 heartbreaker to Utah on Saturday in the championship game of the Mountain West Conference tournament, looked slow, disinterested and unhappy en route to a 52-29 halftime deficit. In fact, fans in Boise State's student section mockingly called UNLV "The Crawlin' Rebels" as Boise State (22-9) repeatedly raced down the floor for layups, dunks and wide-open shots around the basket.

Then something unexpected happen.

The Crawlin' Rebels, aka Team Turmoil, finally showed up to play the second half.

Thanks to the inspired play of freshman guard Michael Umeh (10 points, 2 steals) and junior forward Odartey Blankson (26 points, 7 rebounds in just 30 minutes), UNLV actually closed to within nine points, 73-64, with 5:47 still to go. But that was as close as UNLV could get as the Jay Spoonhour Era came to a disappointing end.

Your serve, Lon Kruger.

"As bad as we played at times, we don't have any quitters," Hunter said. "I can honestly say that. We may go out and get our (butt) kicked by 40 at Missouri but we don't have any quitters. We came out and showed that (in the second half). But we came up short."

Spoonhour, who took over for his ill father, Charlie Spoonhour, on an interim basis exactly a month earlier, said he didn't make any Knute Rockne-like speeches at halftime.

"It lasted less than a minute-and-a-half," he said. "I just said, 'Fellas, this is your team. This is your team next year. And this isn't the way you want it. This isn't the way any of us want it.' ... I think they decided they didn't want to end the season the way that it was going to end."

If only the Rebels had played that way from the start in front of a boisterous crowd of 9,381.

But it was clear from right after the loss on Saturday night in Denver until the start of Wednesday night's game that several players had no desire to really play in the game.

"I didn't want to come to be honest with you," said Blankson, who along with center J.K. Edwards, were held out of the starting lineup for the game after missing the team bus to the airport on Tuesday and also for generally displaying a bad attitude at practice that afternoon. "A couple of other guys didn't want to play either. But once we got down here and the ball went up in the air, you forget about the fact it is the NIT and you just play ball."

Starting point guard Jerel Blassingame, one of the few players who seemed intent to play hard from the start, finished with 12 points but had just one assist and eight turnovers in arguably his worst performance of the year.

Blassingame, who stepped up as the unquestioned team leader the second half of the season, was so shook up afterward that he waved off a reporter afterward as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Sorry, man," he said.

"There were a lot of factors going into this game that you don't know about," Hunter said. "But we came to play and got beat. Simple as that.

"Boise State is a quick team. Were we the team we were last week? I don't think so. But I did like the way we fought back at the end."

Spoonhour, who rallied the team down the stretch under very trying circumstances, was apologetic the season had to end on such a downer.

"I wish we could have done better," he said. "I hate for this to be the way that it ends for the Rebel fans."

Spoonhour, who hopes to be a college head coach again one day and said he would "welcome the opportunity" to work for Kruger, said he would remember two things about his 10-game stint as UNLV head coach.

"I'll remember Nick Jacobson making that 3-pointer (in the MWC title game to win it) because you don't always remember the good things," he said. "And I'll remember the fans at the team hotel (afterward) cheering for us anyway."

That was only four nights earlier. But after the Rebels performance Wednesday here, it seemed like an eternity.

Former NBA coach George Karl, who got a late rush of support for the UNLV head coaching job from some boosters and fans, attended the game and watched his son Coby score 11 points and grab five rebounds in 23 minutes for the Broncos. Karl talked for about 90 minutes with UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick about eight days before Kruger was officially named the new head coach.

"The whole thing is I found out very early in the process that I was a long shot and the basketball world kind of knew that they were going to go on another path," Karl said. "I don't know if I had gotten in earlier if it had been any different. But I'm happy I went down there and I'm happy I spent some time with Rick Majerus and talked to some alumni and learned about the process. I think someday I'll coach in college basketball." ...

Junior guard Romel Beck scored just six points in 15 minutes of action and spent most of the second half on the bench after getting beaten down the floor repeatedly on defense. Beck stormed out of the locker room afterward without speaking with reporters. He also got into a brief skirmish with a Boise State heckler on his way off the court after the game. ...

Forward Aaron Haynes scored 20 points and point guard Bryan Defares had a school-record 13 assists to lead Boise State. The Broncos next face Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Friday night.

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