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Instant Analysis: Trying to figure out how important a victory is against UNR in basketball

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013 | 9 p.m.

Most UNLV supporters despise all things UNR, making the Rebels basketball team’s 66-54 victory Tuesday against the visiting Wolf Pack an obvious good thing. But, how important is beating UNR in basketball? Trust me, home games against New Mexico and San Diego State next month will be more significant — for the players, a good majority of the fans, and most important, in determining the fate of the Rebels’ season. Remember, Reno is one of the Mountain West Conference’s bottom feeders and UNLV (17-4, 4-2) hasn’t lost to its rivals from the North since 2005, an impressive streak supporters of ...

Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or ray.brewer@lasvegassun.com. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.

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Discussion: 2 comments so far…

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By NoCalExPat (Steve Shaul)

Jan. 30, 2013

5:42 p.m.

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Mostly I agree. UNR had several wide open 3 pt shots which they promptly sunk. Our perimeter defense can certainly improve by cutting down on those wide open looks. Also, the MW needs to either have their(our)refs go to more school or pay for a better grade of refs. I am not saying UNLV got the short end of the stick last night it just seems this season that some of the calls come out of fantasyland. One of the photos in your story shows Moser blocking a shot from behind and his hand is all ball. True his arm appears to be on the guys head but the shot was blocked in such a way that the guy was pulled back into Moser. Another instance is when Birch went straight up to block a shot and the shooter ran into him. What happened to the principle of verticality?
By MikeLange (Mike Lange)

Jan. 30, 2013

7:09 p.m.

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The reason UNR had more open looks from 3 than most of the teams we play is because they only have two players who are really any good. Outside of Burton and Story, there team is garbage. Everyone knows it, which is why they are struggling so much this year even though they had a solid year last year and returned most of their players.

UNR shot 25% from 3 last night. We're actually currently ranked 15th in the country in 3pt percentage allowed. That's excellent. UNR only hit 6 three last night, but the game plan was to double Burton and Story and make other players hit shots because if those two aren't scoring in bunches, they will lose.

As far as the officiating, there definitely were some questionable calls. There was another one where they called Bennett for a foul on a rebound when he was clearly in position and was being fouled himself. Then, of course, he refs come down to the other end and have the wrong player shoot the free throws. Lets not even talk about the UNM game. At this point, you just have to sort of expect it. I do think this kind of garbage officiating hurts MWC teams in the tournament when games are actually called by good refs.