Brick by brick, Rebels building mediocre offense

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005 | 9:46 a.m.

WHO: UNLV vs. Colorado State

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Thomas & Mack Center

TICKETS: Call (702) 739-FANS

Simply put, if the UNLV men's basketball team is going to have any shot at getting back into the Mountain West Conference race, the Rebels are going to have to do a much better job of hitting their shots.

The Rebels (7-7 overall, 0-2 MWC) have been off the mark throughout most of the first half of the 2004-05 season. And the shooting woes for a team picked first in the preseason media poll have been pretty much across the board. Consider:

And you thought Shaquille O'Neal had free throw shooting problems?

"We haven't shot it as well as we thought we might," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "Some of that is confidence. Some of that is shot selection. And some of it is defenses are pointing a little bit harder at them.

"That's an area we need to improve in. That's for sure."

The Rebels rank just sixth in the conference in field goal percentage (44.5 percent) and seventh in 3-point shooting (33.2 percent). UNLV, which shot 50 percent or better in 15 of its 29 games a year ago, has done it just twice in its first 14 games this season.

Don't look for the Rebels to get well in a hurry, either. Saturday night's opponent, Colorado State (9-7, 1-2), leads the MWC in both field goal percentage defense (38.8 percent) and 3-point percentage defense (27.5 percent).

The Rams play a matchup zone defense that at times features three 7-footers clogging the lane. And with long-armed leapers like Michael Morris guarding the perimeter, it isn't easy to even get a good look at the basket from 3-point range.

Just ask Air Force, perennially one of the nation's top outside shooting squads, which was just 3 of 23 from 3-point range against the Rams. Or BYU, which made just 7 of 37 first half shots (18.9 percent) in a 74-67 loss at Colorado State last Saturday.

"It's a big zone," Kruger said. "Regardless of what it is, whether it's a 2-3 or a 1-3-1 matchup, it's big. Basically, they're matching up with that and they do a good job with their length and size, which makes it tough inside."

Not surprisingly, the Rams lead the MWC in blocked shots with an average of 5.6 per game. The Rebels spent part of Wednesday afternoon's practice shooting over a paddle held high in the air by assistant coaches to get used to taking shots over the Rams' zone.

The answer isn't quite as simple for Amundson, who perhaps would be making a run at all-conference honors if not for one very big flaw -- free-throw shooting.

Despite changing his approach at the line and spending extra time after practice to work on his foul shooting, Amundson has gone backward the past month.

Starting with his memorable 22-point, 22-rebound double-double at Auburn on Dec. 12, Amundson has made just 7 of 33 free throws (21.2 percent).

"You try a lot of different things," Kruger said about Amundson's free-throw problems. "You try talking more about it. You try talking less about it. It's just something that, as Louis says himself, he struggles with during the game. If we had an answer for it, we would change it."

Amundson admitted: "It's frustrating, really frustrating. I can shoot them fine by myself. But once I get in the game and I get a little pressure on me, it's a different story."

All balcony tickets for the 7:30 game, which will not be shown on television, are only $5. The first 500 fans in attendance will also receive a UNLV sack pack.