UNLV looks forward to similar scenario with different results

Adam Candee

Monday, March 21, 2005 | 8:59 a.m.

UNLV coach Regina Miller already glanced through the script for next season and found that it looked strangely familiar to the one she read around this time last year.

Four starters returning with the valuable experience of playing in the postseason comprised the core of a team ready to take on the challenge of a tough schedule and step into the national spotlight as an up-and-coming program.

So after watching that idea crumble under so quickly the weight of a major injury and its resulting effects, Miller is not ready to heap the kind of expectations that this year's squad never fulfilled onto next year's Lady Rebels.

"I don't want to speculate at all," Miller said. "I was feeling pretty good this year and we faced every challenge you can possibly face."

The Lady Rebels ended their season Friday night in a 61-48 loss at Arkansas in the first round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament. After a season spent playing mostly against teams determined to slow down its high-speed transition game, UNLV ran into an opponent just similar enough to give it headaches.

Arkansas, one of the national leaders in steals per game, hounded the Lady Rebels and created a number of easy scoring chances to build a 12-point lead that UNLV chipped at, but never overcame. The loss was the Lady Rebels' fifth in their final six games.

"We got stops, but we didn't execute offensively," Miller said. "That's a little disappointing."

That disappointment of doing enough right to compete, but not enough to win, underscored the year for the Lady Rebels, who finished with a 16-15 record (6-8 in conference) that featured wins against poor and mediocre teams and losses against good ones. The Lady Rebels' lone quality win of the season came at home against conference champion New Mexico.

UNLV averaged five more points and five more rebounds per game than its opponents and shot nearly the same percentage from the floor, 3-point arc and free-throw line while grabbing more steals and averaging the same amount of turnovers. Yet still, the Lady Rebels did not perform as well in crucial moments as Miller expected when she built a schedule that included national powers North Carolina, Minnesota and Iowa State.

"We didn't quite get there," Miller said.

The loss of preseason all-conference senior forward Sherry McCracklin to a partially torn Achilles tendon in October changed the entire makeup and philosophy of the team. McCracklin, who averaged 12.9 points and 9.7 rebounds as a junior, gave the Lady Rebels enough size and toughness to battle in the halfcourt set when necessary.

Without McCracklin's presence, Miller was often forced into what amounted to a four-guard lineup, with freshman Sequoia Holmes pressed from her natural wing spot into the power forward position in unexpected starting duty. With no depth in the frontcourt, the team also needed to become one based on pressure defense and speedy transition.

No player felt McCracklin's loss more than senior forward RanDee Henry, a second-team All-Mountain West choice after earning first-team honors a year ago. Though she still managed 14.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, Henry found little room to operate offensively without McCracklin to draw attention in the post. She was also forced to defend opponents' stronger post players and found herself in constant foul trouble as a result, leading UNLV at more than three fouls per game.

Junior guard Sheena Moore transitioned to the point with mixed results, in part because of McCracklin's absence. Moore led the Lady Rebels at 14.6 points per game, but totaled more turnovers (118) than assists (113), and she had to take on more of the scoring burden with Henry as the only other offensive threat.

Miller saw positive emerge from a season of adversity, though, especially in the development of Holmes (8.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, team leader in steals and blocks) and junior guard Brittney Thomas, who surprised as a steady shooter and ballhandler during conference play.

McCracklin redshirted and will return next season, joining Moore, Holmes and junior forward Nikki Hitchens in the starting lineup. Henry, center Amy Loftus and guard Shana Coleman are the only graduating seniors who saw significant playing time.

Miller isn't ready to use McCracklin's return as reason for hope yet.

"Sherry's got a lot of work to do to get herself back to full speed on the court," Miller said.

While McCracklin's absence forced the team into growing pains that frustrated Miller, she is pleased with how her players continued to fight throughout the season.

"It's important as a leader to challenge them, but keep things in perspective," Miller said. "They very easily could have gone in the other direction when all this stuff happened, but they showed a lot of character by responding to adversity."

"I hope that we learned from a lot of lessons we had this year - a lot of lessons. These young ladies, I would think, would be quite hungry."