Tuesday, March 1, 2005 | 9:30 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
It may not be possible to take all the positives of the last three weeks, wad them up into one huge negative and lob it in the general vicinity of the trash can. But that didn't stop UNLV from trying Monday night.
Those 11,199 easily deluded fans who hurt themselves while jumping back on the Rebels' bandwagon in the aftermath of a stunning five-game winning streak must be wondering what happened to the team that nobody wanted to play in next week's Mountain West Conference tournament in Iceland -- er, Denver.
If Monday's dreary 77-66 loss to New Mexico at the Thomas & Mack Center is any indication of what lies ahead, the MWC pretenders will be lining up to take a number to play UNLV in Colorado.
It looked like January all over again. As far as regressions go, this one was a dandy.
After seemingly coming together as a team in recent weeks, the Rebels fell apart while playing as individuals against the Lobos. Other than Michael Umeh, who scored 18 points and didn't turn the ball over in 33 minutes -- and even passed it a couple of times -- the Rebels basically reverted to going 1-on-5 when they had the ball.
The attack, if you can call it that, consisted of the usual array of fall-away jump shots by Odartey Blankson while Romel Beck and Jerel Blassingame called for the ball. Literally called for the ball. Sometimes even with both hands in the air.
I kid you not. There was a sequence midway through the first half where Beck and Blassingame were both stationed beyond the 3-point stripe, jumping up and down with both hands waving. Had they been yelling "woo, woo, woo," you would have sworn it was a pickup game at Sunset Park.
When they are on, Blankson, Beck and Blassingame, who would probably be the first three guys picked at Sunset Park, are the Rebels' Pep Boys. When they're not on, it's more like Manny, Moe and Jack it up.
It's no coincidence that the winning streak that put the Rebels back on the road to the NIT began when UNLV coach Lon Kruger benched Blassingame and Beck, or at least began bringing them off the bench. Instead of sulking about their demotions, which many expected, Blassingame and Beck took them in stride. Like Blankson, they too began playing well, albeit as reserves, and suddenly the Rebels' bench was deeper than a Bob Dylan lyric.
That all ended Monday when the Rebels went blowin' in the wind. Blankson made 8-of-18 shots and finished with 20 points, but Beck was just 3-of-10 and Blassingame 1-of-5. And Blassingame also turned the ball over six times in just 24 minutes.
In that the three are seniors and Monday's game was the home finale, it was the last chance for Blankson, Blassingame and Beck to set an off-the-ball screen in front of the home fans. Alas, they kept their streak intact, as UNLV did more standing around than the losers in musical chairs.
"We've done that every game at times," Kruger said about the Rebels' dependence on long jump shots early in the shot clock. "But when you don't win it stands out a little more."
Kruger is on record saying that when the Rebels limit their 3-point attempts to 15 or fewer, they usually play well. On Monday, they chucked up 24 and made eight. And, no surprise, they did not play well.
Even worse is that they let New Mexico's Troy DeVries roam around beyond the arc as if it were a demilitarized zone. Too bad DeVries wasn't honoring the cease fire. He sank 6-of-8 from 3-point land as the Lobos, now 22-6 and eager to climb onto somebody's NCAA bubble, buried 10-of-20 from way out there.
"When you go into the game recognizing that Troy DeVries is a tremendous shooter and talk about giving him no good looks -- and then he gets five or six good looks in the first half -- that's disappointing," Kruger said.
I don't know what you call it when you allow a team like New Mexico, which until this year had gone two entire seasons without winning a conference road game, to come into your building and shoot 74 percent from the field in the second half and 58 percent for the game.
What happened to "we must protect this house," or whatever those hopped-up football players say in that commercial?
Monday's loss was the fourth time UNLV failed to protect its house in conference play. That's way too many home losses for a team that fashions itself a table runner in Denver.
Remember when Rick Majerus thought playing the conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center gave UNLV an unfair advantage?
So instead of taking a full head of steam into Saturday's regular-season finale at BYU and then on to Denver, the Rebels must stop to take on water. The little engine that could still might, but Monday's loss was a big step in the wrong direction.
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