Dancin’ Again: UNLV headed to OKC as 8-seed, will face Northern Iowa Thursday

By Ryan Greene

Published Sunday, March 14, 2010 | 3:14 p.m.

Updated Sunday, March 14, 2010 | 10:37 p.m.

Sophomore guard Oscar Bellfield wasn't ashamed to admit that he had butterflies in his stomach Sunday afternoon as CBS's trademark NCAA theme music blaring in the Cox Pavilion kicked off the annual tournament selection show.

Those butterflies flew away quickly, as it took only a few minutes for the Rebels (25-8) to be announced as an 8-seed in the Midwest Region in this year's field of 65.

UNLV, one of a record four Mountain West Conference schools earning bids Sunday, will take on 9-seed Northern Iowa (28-4) at 4:10 p.m. PDT Thursday at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.

The winner of UNLV's tilt with the Panthers, who won both the regular-season and tournament titles in the Missouri Valley Conference, will get the winner between Kansas (32-2) — the tournament's No.1 overall seed — and No. 16 Lehigh (22-10), who won the Patriot League tourney, on Saturday.

The Rebels' first at-large bid since 2000 is the third NCAA tournament appearance in four years for Lon Kruger's club.

"I was real nervous," Bellfield said. "You hear different things, like we're going to be seeded eight, seven, 11... we don't know. It was real quick, though. It came by real quick, and I was very excited for it."

After the nerves calmed, though, there wasn't a ton of time to celebrate.

The team watched the entire selection show on a projection screen immediately following the annual season-ending awards banquet, then after glad-handing with fans and taking care of media obligations, film preparation for Northern Iowa began.

The Panthers didn't play the world's toughest non-conference schedule, which included a 72-54 home victory Dec. 23 over MWC foe Wyoming, but absolutely blitzed through the always-competitive MVC and finished a season with an RPI of 17.

Like UNLV, UNI employs the 3-point shot quite a bit. Eight Panthers have hit at least 10 deep balls this season, led by 6-foot senior Ali Farokhmanesh, who drained 67 of their 211 treys.

UNI also sports a pair of productive big men in seniors Jordan Eglseder (12.0 ppg, 7.3 rpg) and Adam Koch (11.8, 4.9).

One intangible which might be on UNI's side is tournament experience, as all five of their starters were key contributors on last year's squad, which suffered a tough 61-56 first-round loss to Purdue as a 12-seed.

Aside from juniors Kendall Wallace and Matt Shaw, who were around for UNLV's last tournament appearance in 2008, NCAA tournament experience on the Rebels' roster is scarce. Junior guard Derrick Jasper started three tourney games in two seasons at Kentucky, but hasn't returned to game action since partially tearing the medial collateral ligament in his left knee Jan. 26.

The Rebels' two headliners — junior guard Tre'Von Willis and sophomore forward Chace Stanback — both have been deep in the tournament before. As a freshman at Memphis, Willis was on the Tigers' squad that advanced to the Elite Eight in 2007, but never took off his warm-ups in four tournament games. Stanback, as a freshman at UCLA, played mop-up minutes in two games during the Bruins' 2008 Final Four run.

"We know they're a club that generally controls pace a little bit, a real solid man-to-man (defensive) club, very well-coached, big guy in the middle, very, very good shooters on the perimeter," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said of UNI. "Anyone who wins both a regular season and tournament in the Missouri Valley you know is very good."

Meanwhile, no 16-seed has beaten a 1-seed in the NCAA tournament, and Kansas appears highly unlikely to be a upset victim against Lehigh.

Coincidentally enough, in UNLV's last tournament appearance, the Rebels were ousted in the second round by Kansas, 75-56, in Omaha in 2008. That KU team went on to win the national championship.

The only current Rebels who played on that team were Wallace and Shaw. Wallace was 0-for-2 from the floor with two rebounds in 19 minutes, while Shaw scored six points — all on free throws — and was 0-for-6 from the field in 15 minutes.

The unquestioned leader of this year's group, Willis — who has averaged 17.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists this season — was back in Las Vegas, watching from his couch as a redshirt following his transfer from Memphis.

"I think it was frustrating watching us play," Willis said, remembering the 2008 meeting. "It just seemed like we needed that one more guy, or a couple more people. We were a little low on players, we hung around for a long time but you could tell we got worn down as the game progressed.

"But we're looking forward to the opportunity, because this is a whole new team."

Kruger and his staff — most of whom have deep ties to the state of Kansas — were more than excited to face the Jayhawks in 2008 after pummeling Kent State in the first round, 71-58.

But there's a reason that the Rebels are 2-0 in first round NCAA tournament games during Kruger's tenure — they haven't made a habit of looking ahead.

"Right now, we would absolutely want that, because that would have meant that we won the first game," Kruger said of the potential second-round rematch. "So we've got a big challenge prior to that opportunity, but of course everyone's wanting to win that first round game first."

After UNLV learned of its tourney destination, much of the attention in the room turned to where the Mountain West's other NCAA participants would end up.

New Mexico (29-4), who won the league's regular-season title, lost in the MWC tourney semifinals Friday to San Diego State, 72-69. Still, the Lobos got the most favorable draw of any mid-major program in the country, earning a No. 3 seed in the East region.

They'll open up against 14-seed Montana at 6:50 p.m. Thursday in San Jose, Calif. Should they advance, Steve Alford's team would face the winner between No. 6 Marquette and No. 11 Washington.

Also in Oklahoma City with UNLV will be BYU (29-5). The Cougars drew a No. 7 seed in the West region against No. 10 Florida, who entered the day firmly on the tournament bubble. Those two will tip-off at 9:20 a.m. Thursday.

It's the Gators' first trip back to the NCAA tournament since winning their second consecutive national championship in 2007, and the winner between they and the Cougars more than likely will face No. 2 Kansas State, who takes on No. 15 North Texas in the first round.

The most puzzling seed among the four Mountain West teams, though, went to league tournament champion San Diego State (25-8).

The Aztecs won 11 of their last 13 games and finished with an RPI of 18. But as a reward for doing everything the selection committee usually wants teams to do in order to improve seeding, Steve Fisher's team will be sent 3,000 miles away to Providence as an 11-seed in the Midwest Region.

They'll face No. 6 Tennessee at 6:55 p.m. Thursday and, should the Aztecs win, the road doesn't get any easier, as they'd face the winner between No. 3 Georgetown and No. 14 Ohio.

"I don't know their résumé, but it must say something to the résumé from earlier in the year, because they've been playing awfully well lately," Kruger said of SDSU, who knocked his team off, 55-45, Saturday in the MWC title game. "In that sense, very surprised, yeah."

With all four Mountain West teams playing Thursday, it has the potential to be a major day in the league's history should at least two survive their openers.

And while UNLV players and coaches said they want the conference to represent itself well across the board, the focus is pretty narrowed. Surviving their particular pod and advancing to the Sweet Sixteen in St. Louis could involve needing two spectacular performances.

"Right now, it feels good," Willis said. "On a national stage perspective, I can't wait to get out there on the floor and show the world what this team's about."

Willis, Jones honored

During the tail end of Sunday's awards banquet, Willis and senior guard/forward Steve Jones were recognized as the team's most valuable player and most inspirational player, respectively.

The honors were voted on by their teammates.