UNLV eager to attack Utah’s 7-foot-3 Foster Wednesday night

By Ryan Greene

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 | 2:15 a.m.

Last season, it took the UNLV men's basketball team three times to figure out just how to successfully attack and produce against 7-foot-3 Utah center David Foster.

This year, the Rebels don't have the luxury of a test run.

After a week off from game action, UNLV (16-5 overall, 4-3 Mountain West) hosts Utah (10-11, 3-4) for a 7:30 p.m. tip on Wednesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center. It's the final game in the first half of the league schedule for both teams.

Averaging four blocks per game as a sophomore, Foster was named the Mountain West's Defensive Player of the Year. This season, his numbers are down almost completely across the board after dealing with nagging knee pain earlier on.

But 7-foot-3 is still 7-foot-3, and it's compounded by 7-foot reserve Jason Washburn playing the reserve role.

"We were on good attack in that game, made shots in that game and that's the key," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said of the 73-61 victory over the Utes in the MWC tournament quarterfinals last March. "They're a lot different, they're playing at a more rapid pace."

The more uptempo style for Jim Boylen's struggling club is a result of a massive personnel turnover from a year ago.

Only six of his players were on the roster a year ago, and plenty of playing time was available for him to offer up following a wave of transfers. Most notable among the defections were high-flying junior guard Carlon Brown (now at Colorado) and freshman 3-point gunner Marshall Henderson (at Texas Tech).

The fresh faces forced the fourth-year coach to speed things up.

Utah's two leading scorers are a pair of junior juco transfers — 6-foot-7 wing Will Clyburn and 6-foot point guard Josh Watkins. Clyburn is averaging 18.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game while shooting 42.1 percent from 3-point range, while Watkins, scoring 15 points a contest, is averaging as many assists per game as he is turnovers.

The pace of the game should be nice for UNLV, which played one of its most efficient, fast-paced halves of the conference season last Tuesday night in a 74-65 victory at Wyoming.

After trudging their way to a 31-23 deficit at the break, the Rebels' 51 points in the second stanza were their most scored in one half this season.

It breathed some new life into a team that has dealt with injuries and inability to find consistency within its rotation since league play began.

UNLV will come out on Wednesday featuring its optimal lineup to start the game, with Oscar Bellfield, Tre'Von Willis and Anthony Marshall in the back-court, then Chace Stanback and Quintrell Thomas holding things down up front.

Willis is back in the starting five after a two-game stint as a reserve, while senior Derrick Jasper will play off of the bench for the first time in his two years at UNLV.

Those were the five guys who had arguably the biggest impacts during that blistering 20-minute run in Laramie, Wyo., and UNLV is trying to make that type of production the norm again.

"We want to go out there and fight, and don't want to have that feeling of saying that any team out-fought us," Marshall said. "That's the only way we'll get to (the NCAA tournament) is if we get that attitude and compete on both ends.

"We just can't go down on offense jacking up shots. We have to get into seams and create for each other, get open looks. If we create for each other, we shoot better, instead of taking guarded shots."

If anyone will have confidence in attacking Foster and Washburn, it's Marshall, who started on the wing in Jasper's place during that big win in last year's MWC tourney over the Utes.

He had 13 points, a career-high 12 rebounds and five assists in the victory that solidified an NCAA tournament at-large berth for the Rebels. He put those numbers together by fearlessly attacking the rim on both ends of the floor, and his team followed suit.

Foster, who had a career night with 13 points, six rebounds and six blocks in a win at the Mack two months earlier, had only two swats to go with a modest six points and five boards in the final meeting of 2009-10.

"You can't just go at him and throw up a shot, because he's going to get a hand on it every time," Marshall added. "When you go in there, you have to go in there, attack him and get space to create for somebody else. We just have to play a team basketball game."