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Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun
UNLV’s Carlos Lopez celebrates with fans after the Rebels beat New Mexico on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011, at the Thomas & Mack Center. UNLV pulled out a 63-62 win.
Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011 | 3:10 p.m.
The Rebel Room
NEW MEXICO POSTGAME: Frantic finish saves Rebels
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Las Vegas Sun reporters Ryan Greene and Ray Brewer discuss the UNLV's last-second victory against New Mexico. It was a thrilling 63-62 win that gives the Rebels much needed momentum moving forward, though they're far from out of the woods in an effort to land a fourth NCAA tournament bid in five years.
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Maybe this is the play that helps turn around the fortunes for the UNLV basketball team. It definitely feels like the game that could potentially do so.
In the first half of the Rebels' 63-62 victory Saturday against visiting New Mexico, red-shirt freshman Carlos Lopez flexed his muscles on the inside in ripping the ball away from the Lobos’ Drew Gordon to start a fast break.
The Rebels raced up the court in transition, working the ball around to wide-open Chase Stanback behind the 3-point line. Cue the fight song.
Stanback, who was lights-out in the first half in scoring 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting, buried the long-range shot to force New Mexico to call a timeout. For a UNLV team desperate for confidence, the aggressive sequence from an unlikely source can’t be under-appreciated.
The reserve Lopez had three steals and a block in six minutes during the first half, coming up with a steal on the next possession after his rip-away from Gordon that led to an easy layup for teammate Tre’Von Willis.
UNLV, which was booed off its home court Wednesday in an upset loss to Colorado State, needed the win to essentially salvage its season. The loss to Colorado State was a humiliating setback by double-digits in which the Rebels’ flaws were again exposed.
There is no questioning the Rebels’ talent — it exists. But against Colorado State, and for part of the New Mexico game, the Rebels appeared to be going through the motions.
Despite playing at home, where promotions during timeouts virtually beg fans to help provide the team with a boost of energy, the Rebels are oftentimes flat during crucial parts of the game.
Then Lopez came to the rescue. His intensity and aggression could not have come at a better time.
It was only one sequence of plays, and the Rebels have to be commended for staying tough to win the back and forth game in the final seconds. But if it weren’t for Lopez providing that early spark, who knows if the Rebels would have been in position to win.
Here are some other observations from Saturday’s game.
1) Momentum-building win: For a team desperately seeking a marquee victory, the Rebels’ gutsy one-point triumph couldn’t have come at a better time. What loss to Colorado State? What NIT berth? I’m a firm believer of not getting too low or too high after a game, but hanging on to beat New Mexico is definitely what the doctor ordered for UNLV. Now, they have to take the momentum gained and continue playing inspired basketball. They need to duplicate the energy from the final three minutes to the rest of the season.
2) A rusty Tre’Von is better than no Tre’Von: Two steals in the final seconds. A pair of clutch free throws. Welcome back, Tre’Von Willis. After a season, and off-season, of conflict and injury, Willis is the Rebels’ savior — again. After missing the last two games with a knee injury, Willis was huge down the stretch in helping the Rebels to erase a late deficit. His steal and two free throws (after being intentionally fouled) with 30 seconds remaining showed how valuable the senior guard is. The pre-season first-team Mountain West Conference selection hasn’t had the role he envisioned this year, but after his heroics Saturday, he showed he’s still a much-needed part of the rotation. Willis was hobbled with the gimpy knee most of the game and needed a few trips up and down the court to shake off the rust. I’m guessing his knee feels a lot better.
3) A fast start is crucial: UNLV scored on its initial three possessions, with Stanback draining a 3-pointer from the corner on what appeared to be a set play to open the game for a 3-0 Rebels lead. On New Mexico’s first two possessions, the Lobos didn’t get a good look and were forced to try contested 3-pointers with less than five seconds on the shot clock. A great start, and ultimately, great win.
4) When Stanback plays well, so does UNLV: Stanback had eight points in the opening five minutes in providing that leadership the Rebels desperately need. In what was essentially a must-win, Stanback finally snapped what seemed to be a two-week personal drought. It’s a pretty basic formula — when Stanback is running well, so are the Rebels.
5) Not out of the woods yet: The win improved UNLV’s record to 15-5 overall and 3-3 in the Mountain West Conference, helping the Rebels stop the bleeding in what was arguably five weeks of rough performances. But, by no means, are they in the clear. They have six road games left and likely need a third place finish to enhance their NCAA Tournament chances. Bottom line, they are going to need to hold serve at home, and be as flawless as possible on the road. That includes returning the favor against Colorado State.
6) Steady Oscar : Oscar Bellfield scored seven straight points in the first half, including making a tough 3-pointer from the corner in front of New Mexico’s bench. He finished with 13 points and five assists in 32 minutes, and was the perfect running mate with Stanback early. Bellfield has consistently been one of the Rebels’ best players and a steady leader from the point guard spot. He’d be my pick to have the ball late in any game, even after only making 1 of 2 foul shots with a chance to ice the game.
The main difference between this and previous games is the Rebels were hitting their shots. Other than that, I just didn't see a lot to be positive about, aside from Carlos Lopez. The team still relies too much on the jump shot on offense, and no longer pressures consistently on defense. And they still give up too many offensive rebounds, as well as stupid turnovers.
New Mexico is just not a very good team. Neither are the Rebels, though somebody had to win, and the Rebels were at home. I try to be positive, but I still see UNLV as an NIT team at this point.
Yep glad we won and Carlos looked very good out there for stretches...but I have to agree that it was not a very impressive win. The most perplexing thing about this team for me is the carelessness with the ball, pretty uncharacteristic for a Kruger coached team. Although the 2nd half was a little better than the first, the TOs in the last minute were just painful to watch, and really should have cost us the game. Luckily we were playing New Mexico, however.
Forget CSU, I'm still trying to get over the SDSU loss. That was our game...in the words of Dennis Green "they were who we thought they were. and we let 'em off the hook"
Stanback is a junior Ray.
No way UNLV goes NIT this year Terry, not with the wins we have, even if we lose a couple more.
While right now I still think UNLV will make the NCAA tournament (especially under the expanded format) I don't know I would be so fast as to completely rule out an NIT appearance Sofaking. Lundardi had UNLV a 7 seed in his last bracket and that is before the CSU loss.
Rebs still have to play CSU, BYU and UNM on the road, play SDSU at home and two games against a Utah team that seems to be playing a bit better and has given Kruger trouble over the years. If they lose most of those games as well as get bounced in the first round of the MWC tourny an NIT appearance will more than likely be the destination with 11 or more losses.
Hey FastCamron: Thanks for looking out. I got that fixed.
Got to agree with Tarkus. UNLV will lose at least 3 more games in conference play. This team is so bad offensively they might drop 4 more. That puts them at best 21-9. Have to win the tourney to get to the NCAA's and the way this group shoots blanks, there is no way they can score enough to win three straight games even at the Thomas and Mack. Sorry sofaking we are headed to the NIT I am sorry to say.
That's true, Wade. If we are on the bubble the wins on our resume should be pretty competitive with the other bubble teams.
Ray, to be honest Tre didn't steal the ball with 30 seconds, the New Mexico player just threw it away. We probably should have lost this game to a team that got beat pretty easily by Utah.
I was wondering if anybody watched BYU beat CSU on the road last night. The game was really never close. What does BYU do that we don't. If you asked me, up and down the line-up, we have more talent and athleticism. After watching the game, I would have say it comes down to coaching. When CSU started beating BYU in their man to man, they switched to a zone. They had 2 big guys in the game at all times. CSU wasn't getting easy offensive rebounds and put-backs.
Coach Kruger is a good coach, but I think one of his weaknesses is his stubbroness. His stubborness to never play a zone. Tark played zones at times with far superior players. His stubborness to play seniors that don't produce. Does Chop Jones or Jasper ring a bell. His stubborness to play small ball no matter what team were playing. I understand we create some turn-overs when we play this line-up, but we also give up alot of wide open shots. We also give up alot of offensive rebounds for easy put-backs for the other team. Jasper got beat 2 times on rebounds after a missed free-throw yesterday which was converted for an easy 2 points each time. One has to look at the risk reward of playing that type of a line-up to see if its really worth it. Sometimes its not.
What wins SOFAKINGBORED???? Our only solid win is Wisconsin.....
UNLV stats are 26th in the nation between Marquette and Michigan St.
What wins you ask?
Wisconsin - best win we have
Murray Sy and VT both probably bubble teams, on neutral court.
Kansas St - yea, they didnt have 2 good players, but it was on a "semi-away" court with 17k kst fans. They are still a deep team.
It's not even exactly about the teams that we have beaten though. Other teams that are probably on the bubble have zero wins against ranked opponents.
Patticus, the difference between UNLV and BYU is Jimmer Fredette. He's gaining national attention as potentially the best player in college basketball this year, and his confidence has spread to the rest of his team this year.
We have a few players with the ability to take over a game in Marshall, Stanback, and Willis (not as much this year) but none of them have been able to maintain the confidence to continually step up in the big moments. There has also been a lack of continuity on the floor with the rotation of 3 players at PG and the constant rotation of 3 big men down low. With Jasper playing rather poorly it really shows the glaring hole we have at the 4 spot as Kruger refuses to play Lopez there with either Massamba or Thomas at the 5 (mainly due to the lack of consistency and foul trouble).
If you want an objective opinion, I think UNLV is not as good as they were playing earlier in the season. At one point we were top 5 in the nation in FG% with very few points in the paint, and that's just not sustainable. Another thing to notice is the lack of effectiveness of our defensive pressure in conference play to this point. The guys are expending a lot of energy on the defensive end and the results are not as good as they were in non-conference. This can really wear on the team mentally.
Overall, I think we'll be okay if we can avoid any other bad losses and steal some wins at CSU and at New Mexico. The team has tons of potential but we may have to wait for Tre and Jasper to move on before they can really blossom.
unlv, I know Jimmer is a great player, but before Jimmer was here, it was the same story with differen't players. I think it is stubborn to continue playing Jasper major minutes when he is nothing but soft and an offensive black hole. Start him for 4 minutes and then send him to the bench.
I disagree about Jasper. He can and has done a lot that does not show up in the stats. Right now I perceive he is lacking confidence. He has been a great slasher and his shooting in the past has been creditable. Jasper's rebounding at times has been exemplary. As I said I believe when his confidence returns he will again make great contributions to the team.
I don't think we have any time left for Jasper to get his confidence back. Jasper does have great rebounding skills but lacks all around play. I'm all for giving the players time to get out of their funk but at what cost.
Jasper is very good defensively, so it's not exactly bad to start him. Kruger likes to try and set the tone/pace at the beginning with tight man to man defense, and Jasper is very good at that. But honestly when Tre is 100%, I think it would be nice to see a starting lineup of Oscar/Tre/Anthony/Chace/Quintrell. I don't believe this lineup has been tried at the beginning of a game yet. Anthony is our best slasher, reminds me of Wink in 07/08, except with more size and athleticism. If Anthony were playing the 3 spot, I think we could set the tone defensively and offensively, and have Jasper come off the bench 4 minutes in.
Comparing Jasper to Chop is like comparing a cantelope to a lemon. The guy is second on the team in rebounds. Do we need more from him offensively? of course! I'd just like to see him dunk more rather than going for the layup and missing.