Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

UNLV BASKETBALL:

Programs familiar with big-time play meet on smaller stage

UNLV returns to Bluegrass State for second time this season

UNLV Rebels (21-10) at Kentucky Wildcats (20-13)

  • Where: Memorial Coliseum
  • When: 6:30 p.m.
  • Coaches: Lon Kruger is 112-52 in five seasons at UNLV and 430-285 in 23 overall seasons; Billy Gillespie is 38-24 in two seasons at Kentucky and 138-84 in seven overall seasons.
  • Series: Kentucky leads, 3-0
  • Last time: The Wildcats won, 64-61, in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Salt Lake City in 1985
  • TV/Radio: ESPN/ESPN Radio 1100-AM

THE REBELS

  • G Tre’Von Willis (6-4, 195) 11.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3.3 apg
  • G Wink Adams (6-0, 200) 14.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg
  • G Oscar Bellfield (6-2, 175) 6.2 ppg, 3.3 apg
  • F René Rougeau (6-6, 210) 11.1 ppg, 6.8 rpg
  • F Joe Darger (6-7, 225) 9.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg
  • * Bench: C Darris Santee (6-8, 225) 5.4 ppg, 2.7 rpg; G Kendall Wallace (6-4, 190) 4.5 ppg; F Mo Rutledge (6-3, 225) 4.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg; C Brice Massamba (6-10, 255) 2.1 ppg.
  • * What to watch: UNLV has lost six of its past 10 games. Adams scored a season-best 26 points on Thursday in that league tournament quarterfinal loss to San Diego State. The Rebels had a season-low 5 assists against the Aztecs. They are 13-for-57 from 3-point range in their past three games.

THE WILDCATS

  • G Jodie Meeks (6-4, 208) 24.2 ppg, 3.5 rpg
  • G Michael Porter (6-3, 198) 4.1 ppg, 2.6 apg
  • F Patrick Patterson (6-9, 235) 18.2 ppg, 9.4 rpg
  • F Perry Stevenson (6-9, 207) 7.5 ppg, 5.9 rpg
  • F Ramon Harris (6-7, 218) 5.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg
  • Bench: F Darius Miller (6-7, 223) 5.2 ppg, 3.1 rpg; G DeAndre Liggins (6-6, 202) 4.4 ppg, 3 apg, 2.6 rpg; C Josh Harrellson (6-10, 265) 3.8 ppg; F A.J. Stewart (6-7, 218) 2.1 ppg.
  • What to watch: The Wildcats have lost nine of their past 13 games. They are third in the country with 6.8 blocks a game, fifth in free-throw percentage (77.7) and ninth in defensive field-goal percentage (38.7). They turn it over 17.5 times a game, which is 322nd in the nation.

Rebels: NIT Bound

After losing in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament, UNLV is headed to the NIT as a four seed to face fifth-seeded Kentucky Tuesday night.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Not so long ago, a postseason matchup pitting UNLV against Kentucky would have had major implications, possibly even a Final Four berth on the line.

Some electric players would have attracted a significant television audience.

Instead, tonight’s game between the Rebels and Wildcats is relegated to secondary status – in the National Invitation Tournament – because neither squad quite made the NCAA grade.

Appropriately, it will be played in a secondary gym, too, since Rupp Arena has been booked for the state high school tournament. Bluegrass basketball fans have their priorities.

So the 59-year-old Memorial Coliseum, an antiquated barn that seats about 9,000, will be the venue for fifth-seeded UNLV (21-10) and fourth-seeded Kentucky (20-13).

This isn’t exactly the big time.

Then again, ESPN will show the 6:30 p.m. game and both programs could use a victory as a springboard to a likely second-round game at Creighton in Omaha and retain hopes of reaching New York City.

The semifinals and final of the NIT will be played at Madison Square Garden.

That UNLV was forced to travel 1,700 miles for a postseason game also is appropriate, since its success against Kentucky likely will hinge on its ability to hit from long range.

Fittingly, long-distance shooting will be a barometer for both the Rebels and the Wildcats.

Try telling anyone in Las Vegas, too, that NIT selection committee chair C.M. Newton, a former Kentucky athletic director, didn’t have any influence in UNLV being sent to his own backyard.

The Rebels, losers of six of their past 10 games, have stumbled into the postseason. But the Wildcats, who have lost nine of their past 13 games, have been tripping over themselves since losing to Ole Miss at home on Jan. 27.

Four days after UNLV upended Louisville in Freedom Hall on New Year’s Eve, Kentucky lost to the Cardinals on the same court.

A recent ESPN story pointed out that Rick Pitino, who inherited a probation-plagued program, lost seven home games at Rupp during his eight-year run. The Wildcats have lost six at home this season.

The seeds for tonight’s teams easily could have been reversed and the game played in an arena, the Thomas & Mack Center, twice the size of Memorial.

But Bluegrass blood is thicker than the water sprouting from the Bellagio fountains, right C.M.?

Kentucky has long and athletic players, led by 6-foot-4 junior gunner Jodie Meeks and 6-9 sophomore forward Patrick Patterson. Think San Diego State, but better.

Then again, the Aztecs probably wouldn’t fare any worse than, LSU, Georgia, Mississippi State or South Carolina – all of who beat Kentucky on its own court this season – have against the Wildcats.

UNLV, everyone in Memorial and the national cable TV audience will be glued to Meeks, who averages more than 24 points a game.

He has taken more than 35 percent of Kentucky’s shots, which means he’s in a tight fraternity of players at major Division-I programs who look to the rim with impunity.

Iowa State’s Craig Brackins (36.6 percent), Meeks (35.2), Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody (34.8) and DePaul’s Dar Tucker (34.3) are the gunners royale from elite teams who take more than a third of their team’s shots.

In horse-racing parlance, which is so rich around here, that’s known as playing with your blinders on.

The Wildcats don’t take care of the ball very well, as they turn it over on nearly a quarter of their possessions. That’s 325th in the country.

What they do is let Meeks, and sometimes Patterson, shoot to their desires. The other Cats crash the boards.

But the most impressive aspect about Kentucky is its incredibly stingy defense inside the 3-point arc. Foes are only making 40.5 percent of their attempts within 20 feet of the rim, which is fifth in the nation.

For a team like UNLV, which so heavily favors the bombs-away approach, that could mean a school record for 3-point attempts.

The Rebels set that standard with 46 launches from beyond the arc against UNR in December 1990.

Wink Adams, Joe Darger, Tre’Von Willis, Kendall Wallace, Oscar Bellfield and Mo Rutledge must have relished seeing the Wildcats’ 3-point defense of 34.7 percent.

Figure Darger or Rougeau to trail Patterson, and Willis should get the call on Meeks.

Willis will have plenty of help, especially since few other Wildcats are dangerous. But Willis will have to watch his fouls, because UNLV coach Lon Kruger will need Willis’s energy and drive, and defensive tenacity, for as many minutes as possible.

Only Willis and Adams played with passion and desire in that quarterfinal defeat to SDSU in the Mountain West tournament.

Plus, Meeks, at 89.4 percent, is dangerous at the free-throw line.

Last Friday, LSU hounded Meeks, who only tallied eight points. It was the first time he was held to single digits all season. The Tigers switched frequently and often had a taller player shadow the Wildcat’s ace.

Meeks is a catch-and-shoot player or a driver; there isn’t much mid-range to his game. And he can be forced to drive into trouble.

He scores in bunches, but turnovers also come in droves. Meeks had nine against Kansas State in late November at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

He has 57 assists and a team-high 94 turnovers this season.

Willis, the former football player, won’t back down from a physical challenge. It was on that field in high school, in Fresno, Calif., where he had his right shoulder separated as a sophomore.

That’s the shoulder that still stings him today. Twice he has had cortisone injections this season to relieve constant pain, and he will contemplate surgery in the offseason.

“It was in practice, too,” Willis said in one of the few interviews he’s granted in recent weeks. “That’s ironic. I was running a sweep. There was no opening, so I ran out of bounds. One of my teammates just ran from nowhere. I never saw him.

“I was slowing down, coming to a stop, when someone grabbed me, slung me by my jersey and I fell on my shoulder. It separated right there. That whole night, I couldn’t sleep at all. Painful.”

Losses hurt Willis just as much, no matter if it's in a big arena like Rupp or an intimate barn like Memorial Coliseum, on the major stage of the NCAAs or the off-Broadway lights of the NIT.

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