Adams’ rare technical foul symbolic of UNLV’s night

By Ryan Greene (contact)

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.

Justin M. Bowen

Wink Adams shoots one of 10 3-pointers for the game. He ended up three of 10.

Wink Adams scored 27 points Tuesday night and his team won. All the reason to call home to Houston and tell mom about your first game of your senior year, right?

Well, it would have been had Adams not put one tiny blemish on the performance in the second half of UNLV's 74-56 exhibition triumph over Washburn.

That blemish was the first technical foul Adams has earned in his three-plus seasons in a Rebels uniform.

"It's pretty surprising -- my mother, she's gonna love me for this," he said with a hint of sarcasm. "Everybody's teasing me, saying coach Kruger got his first (technical) in Australia, so I got my first in America."

At the time, though, the technical was no laughing matter.

The 'T' was whistled just seconds after Adams was called for an offensive foul. It's unclear whether the technical was a result of the offensive foul itself or Adams dropping the ball after the whistle, but either way, it was out of character.

"Probably high school, probably junior year ... long time ago," he said, trying to recall his last technical. "That won't happen again, I know that much."

But it was more than just the offensive foul call that had Adams -- and several teammates, for that matter -- frustrated at that point. In a sense, the foul may have spoken for the entire team, given how up and down the night had been up to that point.

When the technical was called, UNLV had a 39-26 lead over Washburn, but was struggling mightily to pull away for good. The call was made just over five minutes into the second half. At that point, Adams had scored 15 points, but that had come on just 5-of-12 shooting and a 1-of-7 showing from beyond the three-point arc.

He wasn't the only one to struggle. At the half, UNLV was just 11-of-32 from the field and 1-of-11 from three-point range.

In the end, the Rebels connected on just five of their 22 three-point attempts against the Ichabods' pressuring man-to-man defense. While Adams was 3-of-10 from deep, Joe Darger went 1-for-4.

"It was frustrating, but it's good to get that game out of the way our first game," Darger said. "It was a tough game on us. First game wasn't a blowout, opened our eyes a little bit, made us realize that the things we work on in practice."

It was even closer when Adams ultimately atoned for the technical foul with the Rebels leading by just two at 53-51 with 6:43 to play. That's when he hit two three-pointers within 47 seconds of each other to give UNLV the final bit of breathing room it needed on the night. After the second one dropped through, he tilted his head up while running down the court, began shaking it wildly and yelling.

Adams' night, really, was symbolic of how the entire game went for the Rebels: Not very pretty, but in the end, everything turned out to be fine.

"I think everybody was just out there rushing things," said Mareceo Rutledge, who chipped in with seven points and three points off the bench. "It's just like me last year, anxious to get the ball out of your hands. When we play San Diego this Saturday, I think everybody will have all the jitters out of their system and ready to play."

And the Rebels were glad that getting the butterflies out of their stomachs at least came in a win, as ugly as it may have been at times. In fact, you could argue that they would rather have it that way.

"Coach can say a team will come in and play man (defense), but you don't expect a team to come in and play man that well. They were denying the wings, they were really active on offense, taking us out of a lot of our sets," Adams said. "As a team, it's good for us, not to blow a team out but actually have a challenging game like that. I think it just tells us what our strengths and weaknesses are going into Saturday."