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Rams look to Rebels for first league win
Kruger hopes to extend streak over Colorado State to 10 games
Justin M. Bowen
The Rebels and Lobos fight over a loose ball Jan. 3 at the Thomas & Mack Center as UNLV took on New Mexico.
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009 | 2:10 a.m.
UNLV guard Wink Adams takes the ball up the court during the second half of their Mountain West Conference opener against New Mexico at the Thomas & Mack Center earlier this month. Adams returned to the lineup after missing the game against Louisville due to an injury.
UNLV Rebels (13-3, 1-1) at Colorado State Rams (5-11, 0-2)
- Where: Moby Arena
- When: 6 p.m.
- Coaches: Lon Kruger is 104-45 in five seasons at UNLV and 422-278 in 23 overall seasons; Tim Miles is 12-36 in two seasons at TCU and 224-168 in 14 overall seasons.
- Series: UNLV leads, 28-7
- Last time: UNLV won, 68-51, on Feb. 9, 2008, at the Thomas & Mack Center
- TV/Radio: None/ESPN Radio 1100-AM
THE REBELS
- G Tre’Von Willis (6-4, 195) 11 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.8 apg
- G Wink Adams (6-0, 200) 12.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 3.3 apg
- F René Rougeau (6-6, 210) 11.4 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 2.2 bpg
- F Joe Darger (6-7, 225) 8.9 ppg, 4 rpg
- C Darris Santee (6-8, 225) 6.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg
- Bench: G Oscar Bellfield (6-2, 175) 7.1 ppg, 3.5 apg, 2.5 rpg; G Kendall Wallace (6-4, 190) 4.9 ppg; F Mo Rutledge (6-3, 225) 3.8 ppg, 2.2 rpg; C Brice Massamba (6-10, 255) 2.7 ppg.
- What to watch: Wallace has averaged 8.5 points in two conference games. UNLV enters a rare game in which it averages more boards (36.4 to 35.9) than its foe. Rougeau is 39th in the nation in blocks.
THE RAMS
- G Willis Gardner (6-1, 182) 9.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg
- G Jesse Carr (6-2, 180) 7.5 ppg, 2.4 apg
- F Andy Ogide (6-9, 245) 10.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg
- F Andre McFarland (6-6, 225) 9.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg
- F Travis Franklin (6-7, 215) 6.5 ppg, 3.8 rpg
- Bench: G Marcus Walker (6-0, 175) 16 ppg, 2.6 rpg; C Dan Vandervieren (6-10, 260) 6.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg; G Josh Simmons (6-4, 185) 5.1 ppg, 3.1 ppg; G Arin Dunn (6-1, 185) 3 ppg; G Harvey Perry (6-5, 205) 2.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg.
- What to watch: McFarland, a Las Vegas native, shoots 3s at a 46.2-percent clip, but he’s only at 14.3 percent in league games. Perry, another Las Vegan, has started five of 11 games and is only shooting 22.2 percent.
Colorado State basketball coach Tim Miles can’t kid himself.
Just the other day, he talked about the reality of taking over a program that claims only one victory in the NCAA tournament in nearly 40 years.
“Guys don’t grow up laying their head on their pillow and dreaming of Colorado State,” he said. “We’ll continue to nurture the program. It doesn’t come quickly.”
The Rams (5-11, 0-2 in the Mountain West Conference) have lost their past 19 league games, stretching over three seasons, heading into tonight’s game against UNLV (13-3, 1-1).
Fifth-year Rebels coach Lon Kruger is 9-0 against Colorado State since arriving in Las Vegas.
The Rams don’t do anything particularly well. They have nobody among the nation’s top 100 in any statistic. Among 343 Division I teams, CSU is 298th in assists, averaging 10.6.
Something’s awry when the worst thing a team does is share the ball.
The best thing the Rams do is shoot 3-pointers. They connect at a 35.4-percent clip.
UNLV shoots 34.1 percent beyond the arc, but it drilled 15 of its 34 long-range attempts Saturday in a seven-point defeat at TCU.
That’s when BYU belted CSU, 86-60. The Rams had five assists.
“A debacle,” Miles said.
Star guard Marcus Walker, a 6-foot senior from Kansas City, Mo., injured an ankle last month and has been relegated to bench duty. Still, he leads CSU with 16 points a game.
“Their go-to guy,” said UNLV assistant coach Greg Grensing, who scouted the Rams. “He’s the guy we have to focus on. We’ll have to limit his shot attempts, pick him up in transition and guard the ball screens.”
Andy Ogide, a 6-9, 245-pound sophomore forward from Marietta, Ga., leads CSU with 7.1 boards a game and a 53 percent shooting touch.
“They get some help from him,” Grensing said. “They like to get out in transition. But if they don’t get something early, they’ll try to make us guard for a while, for 25 or 30 seconds.
“They’ll be hungry. We’ll see a fair amount of zone. We’ll have to attack that with purpose, and not just settle for one or two passes and a contested ‘three.’”
Whether Walker starts against UNLV, or however Miles chooses to shake up his lineup, depends how practice went the past two days.
“It’s undecided,” he said Monday. “We’ll see how practice goes. It actually means something here. We’ll see how we do.”
Practice has been important at UNLV, too, since freshman guard Oscar Bellfield tweaked his right hamstring in the second half against TCU.
Although he stretched and jogged with teammates in pre-practice warm-ups Monday, Bellfield did not take part in any drills.
He said he felt hesitant to go full speed, but he did practice Tuesday and Kruger said he was “pleasantly surprised” by what he saw in his freshman floor general.
Kruger will monitor Bellfield in today’s pre-game shoot-around to determine his role for this evening, but Kruger nodded when asked if it’s likely that Bellfield will play off the bench.
Moreover, Kruger was buoyed by senior guard Wink Adams’s strong practice Tuesday. Kruger said Adams, coming off an abdominal strain, looked stronger than he has all season.
Between last weekend’s game at TCU and last season’s game at Moby, UNLV has enough reasons to play with some renewed energy and enthusiasm against the Rams.
Last season, CSU led by eight points with less than five minutes remaining, then the Rebels rallied for a 65-62 victory.
Cold all night, Adams broke out with two late 3-pointers to swing that game in UNLV’s favor.
“We didn’t exactly overrun them last year,” Grensing said. “I think we’re much more mentally ready than last year when we faced their zone.”
TCU snapped UNLV’s eight-game winning streak, which got the attention of many Rebels.
Grensing said he’d be disappointed if UNLV players weren’t a little irritated by that loss and play with more urgency starting right now.
“Our guys recognize the fact that we have to prepare with the idea of playing our best,” he said. “We have to get a better idea of our identity on defense. In particular, we can’t be outworked for loose balls and rebounds.”
Discussion: 9 comments so far…
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Next Game
Nov. 14, 3:00 p.m. (PST)
- UNLV: Schedule & Stats | Roster
- Air Force: Schedule & Stats | Roster
- Location: Falcon Stadium
- Television: The Mtn., Cox ch. 334
- Line: Air Force by 17.0
- NCAA: Odds | Schedule | Stats
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Why is this game not being televised? That's right, we belong to the pathetic Mormon West Conference. Just exactly why did we leave the WAC?
Not saying the WAC was any better, but it certainly wasn't any worse.
BYU runs this conference obviously, and the garbage television station they created with the camcorder quality cameras they use to shoot games and the idiots they plucked from the crowd to run the commentary, no wonder no one outside this region ever sees any of the teams play.
There must be something better out there for UNLV and Utah than being stooges for the BYU conference.
Can't disagree with you Lenny. It's too bad. We'll try to explore the machinations behind this in the near future. Meantime, we're at Gate C14 at McCarran right now (8 am Wed) leaving for the game, so we're there for you! :-)
Go Rams beat the Rebels for a change from a former Rebel die hard booster
who now sends his money to his Alma mater The real University of Nevada
LOL! this wiliamtomany1 character! Like we care who the "real University of Nevada" is! Sorry guy, but we don't claim to be anything other than UNLV. Good send your money up there, I guarantee its not missed here. You know your still a closet Rebel fan, why else would you be reading the Sun and Review Journal commenting on Rebel articles. Talk about a stalker wannabe Rebel! Or is it a former rebel who claims to be a Reno Alum who now hates the Rebels! Or is it a former Reno Alum who used to like the Rebels but for some reason likes Reno now because the Rebels are better! Or is it....
You sound like a closet Mormon with the way you attack them every other article Lenny. Nonetheless, you're off base on at least one thing though. People from Provo can't even watch all the games and for a while didn't get the Mountain. So I guess the 'Mormons' shot themselves in the foot getting this 10 year contract. You're a moron bigot Lenny who doesn't know his butt from his elbow. Who's next Lenny? Jews? Blacks? Don't get too pissy though, just teasing.....
I've been a Rebel fan my whole life and that includes following them before they joined the MWC and during that time I saw WAAAY less games than I do now. Yeah, the'd be on Big Monday every now and then and channel 8 would pick up some of there games but there were so many games that I'd missed and had to listen to the radio to catch them. As far as the rest of the country seeing us and the quality of the production from the Mountain...that's a different story, unfortunately I'll have to agree with you there. Our lack of exposure hurts recruiting tremendously and the announcers all sound like they're still in a broadcast internship.
BTW, it doesn't quite work to say you're teasing....does it Lenny.
Where's the guy who calls Tomany Toomany beers? LOL
I'm the moron? You're the genius who spells wine with an "h', mormon boy. I knew you'd come running on here whining (not the stuff you drink, the stuff that makes you cry) when you saw the word "mormon" mentioned in a post. You've got a hell of a complex there, son. What did they do to you when you were a kid?
That's it, that's all you've got, I spelled wine with an h? That's the basis of your comeback? If you knew that what you were going to say would offend me then why did you post it? I've tried to be cool with you every time you say something ignorant but you have to push it cuz your an inconsiderate antagonistic fool. "What did they do to you when you were a kid?" More like who was your loser of a father that taught you to think like the racist, fascist, bigot that you are. Come on Lenny, let's hear some more of that hate. The church has endured more than your simple mind in the last 180 years. I'm positive we can take it. Go ahead, I've tried over and over to be civil with you but I guess you can't reason with a beaten and frightened animal.
Is it all spelled right ya lunatic? BTW....just teasing.....