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twitterRON KANTOWSKI:
Kantowski: Rebels need to start a new season
Monday, March 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Justin M. Bowen
Rene Rougeau argues a call late in the Rebels’ game Saturday night against San Diego State in San Diego. UNLV lost 57-46 to finish fifth in the Mountain West for the regular season with a 9-7 conference record.
Bubble Burst
The UNLV Rebels NCAA Tournament bid took a major hit on Saturday night when the Rebels lost 57 to 46 to San Diego State. UNLV is now the No. 5 seed in the upcoming Mountain West Conference Tournament.
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Ryan Greene and Rob Miech hit the way-back button, discussing UNLV's 57-46 loss to Miech's alma mater -- San Diego State. The guy talk about a trip down Rob's memory lane, then just what went wrong with the Rebels on Saturday night in Cox Arena. Plus, is it too late for the Rebels to right the ship? We'll find out on Thursday, when the two see each other again to start the MWC Tournament.
San Diego — Three teams finished in a tie for the regular-season Mountain West basketball championship, which really didn’t come as a surprise, because the coaches said it would be just that close.
What did come as a surprise is that UNLV wasn’t one of the three.
Not only did the Rebels not finish first, they did not finish second, third or fourth, either.
BYU? OK. Utah? Perhaps you could see that coming, after the Utes beat Gonzaga and LSU. But New Mexico and San Diego State, too? Letting those two finish ahead of you is like Brad Pitt coming home and finding Angelina Jolie playing Guitar Hero with the pool boy.
Well, maybe it’s not that bad, because the Lobos play pretty good defense and the Aztecs play well on both ends of the court, when they feel like it. Which is every now and then.
But they beat the Rebels twice this year, including a 57-46 grinder at rollicking Cox Pavilion on Saturday night that clinched the No. 4 seed for Steve Fisher and company in this week’s Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Lon Kruger and company (21-9, 9-7) will be seeded fifth.
Fifth? Did somebody say fifth? As in one spot above Wyoming?
Oh, how the mighty have fallen with an inconsistent thud.
San Diego State and UNLV will play each other again on Thursday in the MWC tournament quarterfinals. Maybe the rematch, unlike Saturday’s game, will have a little flow to it.
BYU, Utah and New Mexico, which finished in the aforementioned three-way stalemate atop the regular-season standings, will be seeded first, second and third. Wyoming is seeded sixth and TCU seventh. Colorado State is the eighth seed and winless Air Force is No. 9.
The coaches will say this week that it’s anybody’s tournament. The coaches always say that. But considering Air Force almost beat the Rebels and BYU on their home courts within the space of four days last week, maybe it is anybody’s tournament.
But it had better be UNLV’s if the Rebels want to make it back to the NCAA tournament for the third consecutive season.
Once considered a lock for the Big Dance, the Rebels (21-9, 9-7 MWC) most likely will have to win the conference tournament on their home floor just to sneak in.
Maybe there would have been an itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie margin for error had they won at San Diego State.
They led 25-24 at half but were outscored 33-21 in a second half, in which they made only five baskets. They got pulverized on the backboards 39-20 as the Aztecs, with whom they don’t match up very well, snared 16 offensive rebounds.
San Diego State scored on put-backs and three-point shots (8 for 15). UNLV (six offensive boards, 3 for 17 beyond the arc) did not.
It was as simple as that.
The Rebels were looking for something to hang their hopes on heading into the conference tournament but this wasn’t it.
This was like paddling across San Diego Bay without both oars in the water.
This was pretty bad.
Instead of generating momentum, UNLV only compounded frustration.
The Rebels closed the regular season by losing three of their last five games. And they looked awful in one of the two wins, a 46-43 victory at home against woeful Air Force in which the peach baskets fell from the barn walls.
They have scored just 46 points in each of their past two games.
Could this have been the UNLV team that shocked powerful Louisville on New Year’s Eve without Wink Adams, its best player?
Whether Adams is still the Rebels’ best player is debatable. I happen to think he is. The statistics, on the other hand, say something else. Remember last week, when Adams had what everybody was calling his worst game of the year in a defeat at Utah?
Well, against San Diego State, he was 1 for 9 from the field. He scored just three points. Afterward, everybody was reconsidering what was said last week.
Nobody played well at San Diego State. OK, maybe Rene Rougeau (12 points, eight rebounds, six blocks) did all right. Tre’Von Willis, who scored 16 points, was active, as Kruger likes to say. The rest of the Rebels might as well have gone to Sea World.
Although it would be hard to envision them getting everything sorted out in four days — or in the next eon, for that matter — the fact that they are playing on their home court gives them a second chance to make everything that has gone wrong this season to go right again.
“Everybody’s 0-0 again,” said UNLV forward Joe Darger. “We’ve got to put this behind us and not dwell on the past.”
Well, at least not the recent past.
Three days in March. Been there, done that. But never from so far back in the field.
The Rebels need to do a Kyle Busch. They need to battle their way through the pack, passing on the low side and passing on the high side. They need to block out San Diego State on the boards, too, or the next time they start their engine, it’ll be in the NIT.
Discussion: 14 comments so far…
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Wink,
Please think about how it will feel to be owned on your home court by the same team twice in one year. Are Vegas natives White and Wade going to be the kings of the T&M even though they didn't go to UNLV?
Please don't tell me you got all that ink on your arm to go out like this.
Please show up. We need you.
Alright boys, let's get it on. I didn't like hearing Wallace say the regular season means nothing. Of course it means something. No team stumbles into the post season and out of thin air wins a national championship. You have to build confidence, build momentum.
If we can recapture earlier season form we could be a sweet 16 contender. But that's a big "if". And since that time, Kruger has given nothing but token minutes to our bigs.
Let's win this damn tournament. I do not want to lose to San Diego State again and losing to BYU is out of the question. Make the final and we might be good to go.
It seems that SDSU hates us the way we hate BYU.
What a weird team this has been. Couple notes:
- Our preseason expectation proved to be without merit.
- WE need a new strength coach (see Wink)
- Not having an inside presence completely exposes a "live by the 3" kind of team.
- Defensively we don't create as many turnovers that we have in the last few years.
- Our fast-break offense's ineptitude is eclipsed only by our half-court set's.
Notes on the tourney:
- SDSU: it is really hard to beat a team 3 times in one season.
- BYU: ignore that previous comment and stick the last few years of the tourney in it's place. BYU can't win big games (hopefully this constitutes a big game)
- Utah: Nevill will be taking oxygen every timeout by his third game in a row.
--- True: Wink must step it up big time for the Rebels to have a chance. Remember last year's tournament?
--- Lenny: A lot of people think UNLV has a shot if its can make it to the finals. Miech, Ryno and yours truly are probably a little more skeptical. But who really knows at this point? A lot of stuff will shake out at the various "conference calls" this week so it's still pretty hard to say.
--- Oliver: Overhead on press row Saturday night: "Is it just me or does UNLV not have a half-court offense tonight?"
We are not going to win this tournament. The only real question is what place we take in this tournament. Do we at least make the finals or lose in the in the semi-finals. That is the real question to ask. Utah will beat us down. SDSU might actually sweep us with the way we are playing. BYU is looking for revenge on us so we don't have an easy game left.
As of today (3/9), Joe Lunardi still had UNLV in as long as they beat SDS on thurs. Personally I think they are in if they get to the finals. But the way they are playing now, I wouldn't count on them even winning game 1.
Is the Zags and St Mary game a concern for us tonight? Should we be rooting for Gonzaga, so St Mary doesn't take a bubble spot?
I think that now that Mills is back, St. Mary's is probably in no matter what. Of course it never hurts to have Gonzaga win 'cuz you never know what the committee will do.
I know it's not the most important thing right now but who (if anyone) do you all think will provide the inside game next year that we so desperately need?
Shaw? A leaner Massamba? Lopez?
Ryphi, you're crazy to write us off, are you serious? We haven't been playing bad across the board, just on offense. Our defense has been very good. Once those shots start dropping, we're right there. We've been shooting in the 30s (percent) and are still in games. If we knock down 45, maybe even 42, we run the table. GO REBELS!!
Shaw is not a center. He plays further from the basket. Massamba is the best shot we have. Lopez will learn in practice mostly, I suspect.
We could easily end up with no inside game again, which would infuriate Rebels fans. It's starting to become a hallmark of Kruger's teams so far at UNLV. Guard heavy but no front court.
Meanwhile, Utah supposedly have a frosh over 7 feet who has big-time skills.
Yeah I know he's not a center I was just thinking her might turn into our Darger replacement for guarding the Nevills we play. It will be interesting!
And I agree, if they can break the team-wide slump and can shoot 42-45% (by, oh I don't know, making 2 out of every 4 layups instead of 0 out of 4) we will be very competitive this weekend.
Throw it down Rene! No more finger rolls! ;-)
We wont have a true center next year like some other teams, but Utah's new big man will take 3-4 years to become dominant like Nevill is now. I think that overall we will be a much taller team.
Shaw and Stanback are both 6'8", along with Santee. Jasper is a 6'6" guard, and Lopez and Massamba are 6'10". I think Anthony Marshall and Justin Hawkins will be very good too, and compete for significant minutes. I think having some better forwards and a taller guard will help this team a lot.
I just want to see some players start finishing at the basket like they mean it. No more lay ups and finger rolls, lets see some dunks like Corey Bailey used to do for us. Energizing the crowd and the team with some Sportscenter worthy dunks would be a much better shot of confidence for this team than hoping for all the 3 point shots to fall.
Yep, you guys are both right. I love Joe Darger, he's played his heart out. But sometimes, when you take a look at the other team, I get that feeling, oh man here we go again. We're just a whole lot smaller than the opponent.
If we get guys like Jasper, Stanback and maybe even Rudd making some noise, other teams will fear us a lot more even without a true post presence.