Rice promises less patience for Rebels’ mistakes, starting this weekend

By Taylor Bern

Friday, Dec. 12, 2014 | 2 a.m.

Whether the team responds to it properly or not, UNLV coach Dave Rice is talking like a man who plans to enter the meat of the Rebels’ nonconference schedule with more urgency than the team has shown in its 5-2 start to the season.

“I have a lot less patience with mistakes now,” Rice said. “We need to do better. … It’s time now. We’re seven games into the process. We’re not new anymore.”

The first test for UNLV’s refocused attention to detail comes Saturday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where the Rebels will play a neutral-court game at the Sanford Pentagon, which is located less than an hour from South Dakota’s campus. The game tips at 5 p.m. Las Vegas time and will stream on ESPN3.

The National Finals Rodeo still has control of the Thomas & Mack Center so this is part of the Rebels’ annual rodeo road trip. The Pentagon (3,250 capacity) opened last year and its organizers have been trying to make it a destination for nonconference college games, including Wisconsin-St. John’s last year and Wichita State-Memphis earlier this season.

The Rebels ended up with this matchup thanks largely to assistant coach Ryan Miller, whose family would make up the Mount Rushmore of basketball in the Mount Rushmore State. South Dakota will come to Las Vegas for a game next season.

It was also a chance for Rice to get heralded freshman Rashad Vaughn, who played his senior year at Findlay Prep, close to home for a game. Minneapolis is about a four-hour drive from Sioux Falls, and there will be at least 20 family and friends making the trek by ground or air, Vaughn said.

After missing the St. Katherine victory with a muscle strain in his lower back, Vaughn isn’t concerned about letting those people down.

“It was at first when I got hurt because I knew we were going to have this game,” Vaughn said. Since then, though, he’s been able to quickly get back to practice and doesn’t feel any lingering pains.

“I should be good. Mentally I’m ready,” he said.

Senior forward Jelan Kendrick, who also missed the St. Katherine game with back and groin injuries, is expected to be available as well. UNLV should have its full compliment of nine scholarship players, which the Rebels will need to fend off the Coyotes (3-7).

The record’s not good, sure, but South Dakota is coming off a double-overtime loss at Creighton, where the Bluejays have lost only four times in the past three-plus seasons. South Dakota also lost by 11 at Stanford and by eight in triple-overtime on a neutral court to Sam Houston State, two opponents that UNLV has already seen.

A majority of practice time since a tied game at Arizona State turned into a 22-point loss has been defense, particularly along the three-point line. It has to start with the Rebels finding their assignments much better, but even when they do there has to be a focus on playing to their strength.

UNLV allows a lower shooting percentage on two-point attempts (35.8, fourth in the country) than three-point attempts (36.2, 261st), which is rare. They’ve accomplished this by funneling driving guards into the paint, where Goodluck Okonoboh and Christian Wood await to block their shots. However, that can only happen when the Rebels focus on running guys off the three-point line and forcing them inside.

“When guys are in the right spots it gives you a chance to have success,” Rice said.

The Rebels were able to execute that just fine for the first seven minutes at ASU, but once the shots stopped falling bad shots appeared more frequently and the defensive focus was completely lost. It’s not like Rice has a ton of options on the bench if he wants to take minutes away to prove a point, but that type of reaction and quick trigger to hold his players, no matter their age, accountable is what he’s promising.

“I think the less patience I have,” Rice said, “the quicker we’ll get better.”

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.