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March 28, 2024

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Dancing with old friends: UNLV’s NCAA draw includes Illinois, storylines galore

For third time in four years, Rebels on 8/9 line across from top-seeded Kansas in first weekend

UNLV

Steve Marcus

Members of the UNLV men’s basketball team celebrate as their name is announced in a tournament selection show being shown at the Cox Pavilion at UNLV Sunday, March 13, 2011. The No. 8-seeded Rebels will play No. 9 Illinois on Friday in Tulsa, Okla.

Ryan Greene talks UNLV basketball

"Sports Night in Las Vegas" talks with Ryan Greene of the Las Vegas Sun about the Rebels in the NCAA Tournament.

UNLV on Selection Sunday

Members of the UNLV men's basketball team celebrate as their name is announced in a NCAA tournament selection show being shown at the Cox Pavilion at UNLV on Sunday, March 13, 2011. The Rebels will play Illinois on Friday in Tulsa, Okla. Launch slideshow »
The Rebel Room

Rebel Room: Selection Sunday Edition

The UNLV basketball team received a No. 8 seed Sunday for the NCAA Tournament and will play Illinois at 6:20 p.m. Friday in Tulsa. The winner will likely play top-seeded Kansas. UNLV has been in Kansas' pod in its last three tournament appearances. Additionally, Rebels' coach Lon Kruger is a former coach at Illinois, leading them to three appearances in the NCAA second round before leaving in 2000 to coach the NBA Atlanta Hawks. His successor? Current Kansas coach Bill Self. Ray Brewer, Ryan Greene and Case Keefer discuss the coaching storyline, the rest of the intriguing angles and offer opinions elsewhere within the field of 68.

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UNLV will be dancing with a few old friends this weekend when it makes its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in five years.

The feeling at the Cox Pavilion among the UNLV players and coaches after it was announced Sunday afternoon that the Rebels drew a No. 8 seed and would face No. 9 Illinois in Tulsa, Okla., on Friday was a bit mixed.

For the most part, they were happy to be included in the field of 68 yet again. But the No. 8 next to their name was puzzling, and so was the face that, for the third time in four years, they'll be lined up across from No. 1 Kansas, who gets the UNLV-Illinois winner on Sunday if it can dispatch of No. 16 Boston University.

The Rebels are scheduled to tip off after KU-BU at about 6:20 p.m. local time, with the games airing on TBS.

Rebels coach Lon Kruger was asked about whether he thought UNLV had done enough down the stretch — winning six straight before falling to seventh-ranked San Diego State by two in the Mountain West Conference tournament semifinals — to play themselves off the often dreaded 8/9 line.

"I'm biased, of course, but I would have thought so," he said. "But it doesn't mean anything, what I think. Everyone's got their opinion. I thought we'd moved off of that a bit with the strong finish and by playing really good basketball late and no real bad losses, when you consider that everyone we lost to is playing in the NCAA Tournament with the exception of Colorado State.

"These guys have done a really good job to regroup and finish the way they have, playing their best basketball right now, and are looking forward to playing even better next week."

UNLV athletic director Jim Livengood, who was a member of the NCAA Tournament selection committee from 1998 until 2003, said he believes that UNLV is better than an 8-seed, but also wasn't shocked or overly disappointed.

He noted that it could always be worse, as the Rebels would rather be where they are than in the shoes of Alabama, Virginia Tech or Colorado, who were the tournament's three biggest snubs.

"It's hard," he said of the seeding process. "I think we could have been anywhere probably from a No. 5 or 6 up to an 8. The committee, they have to move teams up and down due to things such as the number of teams coming in from the Big East and other factors.

"But there's a way to show everyone we're better than an 8-seed, and that's just to go out and win."

Doing so will be no cinch, as UNLV's first-round draw of Illinois provides one of the more intriguing matchups in the entire opening round.

Illinois' path to this point was very similar to UNLV's. The Illini started 11-1 before a shocking loss to Illinois-Chicago on Dec. 18 sent them into a cycle of inconsistency. The rest of the way, they went 8-12, capped by a loss to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals after leading big in the second half.

Still, the team's talent level makes them brutally dangerous, headlined by senior point guard Demetri McCamey and freshman swingman Jereme Richmond, who was a McDonald's All-American last spring.

"They're a very good ball club," UNLV guard Anthony Marshall said. "They've got tough guards, pretty good big men. I got to see them play a lot on TV on ESPN. I got to catch a couple of games."

Many of the Rebels are already familiar with Illini sophomore guard D.J. Richardson, who averages 8.1 points per game.

He played his senior season of high school ball at Findlay Prep in Henderson in 2008-09, teaming up with current UNLV redshirt freshman center Carlos Lopez. He also played pick-up ball during the summer before his senior campaign with several members of the current UNLV team, and he and Lopez were texting back and forth less than a minute after the pairing was announced.

The underlying theme in this game, though, will be the coaching storyline. UNLV's Lon Kruger coached at Illinois from 1996 to 2000 before taking a shot at an NBA job with the Atlanta Hawks.

Oddly enough, Kruger's departure from Champaign opened the door for a young up-and-comer to take his shot with the Illini program.

That man? Current Kansas coach Bill Self.

The Kansas name and logo popping up on the screens following the team's season-ending banquet caused some eyes to roll and sighs to be let out, as this scenario has become old hat.

"I can't speak for the committee, but can speak from having been in that room for five years: It absolutely is a coincidence," Livengood added. "It's just one of those things that happens. I'm sure being the third time, there's a number of people that have a conspiracy theory."

Even more interesting angles pop up if UNLV is able to somehow get by Illinois and Kansas takes care of its opening round business.

UNLV sophomore forward Quintrell Thomas, who has come on late for the Rebels, spent the 2008-09 season at Kansas before leaving in search of more playing time.

He is averaging 6.6 points and 5.2 boards per game for UNLV in 32 games, but 12 points and 7.4 rebounds over the team's last six outings.

"I like it," Thomas said of the draw. "That's definitely a good chance to go against them. I've kind of wanted that since I've been here. I've long moved on. While I was there I was a little upset, but once I was gone, everything was cool.

"I mean, they play primarily two big men, so that's one thing we might have to explore a little bit because they play two true big men at a time. But I think we match up well with them. We have really athletic guards, they have really athletic guards, so we would match up well."

Also, a potential KU-UNLV meeting would pit former valley high school rivals Marshall and Elijah Johnson against one another.

Marshall, a Mojave High standout, is averaging 9.6 points, four rebounds and 3.1 assists for the Rebels while Johnson, who suited up at Cheyenne, has struggled to see consistent playing time for the Jayhawks, but provided some big relief late this season due to injuries and suspensions around him on the depth chart.

"Any time you get to go against an old friend, it's pretty exciting, but right now I'm just looking forward to Illinois," Marshall said. "Of course, in the back of my mind I have thoughts about facing him again, about our high school battles, stuff like that."

Added Kruger: "Certainly, Kansas is very tough, very good. We're not concerned at all about that, we just hope to have that opportunity."

UNLV's main focus against Illinois is avoiding a lackadaisical first half like the one that plagued them against Northern Iowa last season in a 69-66 first-round loss in Oklahoma City.

The Rebels are hoping that, in that regard, experience will pay off some, as the bulk of that team is back in search of NCAA Tournament redemption this time around.

"I wouldn't say (we feel) disrespected — we felt like we played our way to being higher, but we're just blessed to be in the position just to be in the tournament," Marshall said. "We've just got to go in there and work from the beginning, playing hard from the get-go instead of feeling our way through the first half, feeling out those jitters (we had last year) being in the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

"This year, we're a lot more mature than we were last time."

From the other sides …

• Kansas coach Bill Self on the UNLV draw: "I think it'll be a hard game if we advance, regardless if we play Illinois or UNLV. It's amazing: In '08, UNLV is in an 8/9, in 2010, UNLV is an 8/9, and in 2011 UNLV is in an 8/9 in our region. Even though we haven't played them but once, this will be the third time we've prepared for them. It is unique. The last three coaches that coached at Illinois, Lon playing against Illinois, then the winner of that game, if we advance, (they'll be) playing the guy who used to coach at Illinois as well. It could be pretty interesting."

• Self on potentially facing Quintrell Thomas: "He's done well (at UNLV). We like him and the players stay in touch with him. I don't know how much they talk to him, but he's done well. I'd think he would like that a lot to get a chance to play his old school and old teammates. There's absolutely no animosity with Quintrell at all. I thought he made a good decision for playing time moving forward. They've got a tough game Thursday. Whoever we play — Elijah (being from Vegas) and all that stuff, Quintrell or Illinois and the connections that exist there — there'll be some sentimental value for that game I think."

• Illinois coach Bruce Weber on Lon Kruger: "He's a solid person. He's involved with NABC and Coaches vs. Cancer. He has the kind of mild nice guy personality. He loves to play golf. It has ended up being a good situation out there."

• Weber on potentially facing Kruger and then Self: "I think they always look for little shorelines to add to the drama of March Madness."

(Self/Weber quotes provided by the Lawrence Journal-World/KUSports.com and The News-Gazzette/IlliniHQ.com)

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