Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Rebels Basketball:

Bright lights, big city and bigger opponent await UNLV in New York City

More UNLV vs. Sam Houston State

Steve Marcus

UNLV guard Rashad Vaughn (1) goes up for a shot against as the Sam Houston State Bearkats at the Thomas & Mack Center Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014.

The Rebel Room

No Sleep til Brooklyn

Las Vegas Sun sports writers Ray Brewer and Taylor Bern go over UNLV's 2-0 start to the basketball season while looking forward to this week's New York trip, plus what's next for the woeful football team.

This city can catch you off guard even when you know what to expect. It’s the same impact some describe when overlooking the Strip at night. There’s simply no way to appreciate its magnitude until you’re here, and even then it can take your breath away.

That’s exactly what UNLV is trying to avoid this weekend as the Rebels step into a bigger spotlight for two games in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The first game, against Stanford (2-0), tips tonight at 4 p.m. Las Vegas time and will air on truTV. UNLV (2-0) will then play either No. 4 Duke or Temple on Saturday night.

The Rebels don’t want the moment to be bigger than they’re prepared for, so it might help that for one Rebel this city and even this specific stage are familiar. Freshman Rashad Vaughn played here in April for the Jordan Brand Classic, suiting up on the same team as Stanford’s Reid Travis.

Vaughn and Travis played for rival high schools in Minneapolis before Vaughn transferred to Findlay Prep for his senior season. Now they meet again as highly touted freshmen, both of them capable of taking over the game and leading their team to Saturday’s championship game. It’s these types of games that Vaughn has a reputation of excelling in, and it’s these types of games that UNLV coach Dave Rice purposely put on the schedule to showcase the Rebels nationally.

“It’s all part of the process of how we try to build our program,” UNLV coach Dave Rice said.

While the freshman leading scorer is preparing for his second game in the Brooklyn Nets’ home arena, the point guard who’s five years Vaughn’s senior is taking in his first visit to New York. On a team that considers its sophomores veterans this somehow feels appropriate.

“We’re here to win basketball games but it’s been cool. We got to see the skyline,” said senior Cody Doolin.

Both of the players agreed that rebounding on the defensive end was going to be a huge factor in Friday’s game. UNLV hasn’t been very good at that yet, giving up 18 and 20 offensive rebounds, respectively, and the Cardinal are much bigger than either of the Rebels’ first opponents.

“We should be a better rebounding team than we’ve shown so far,” Doolin said.

Click to enlarge photo

UNLV guard Cody Doolin (45) is covered by Sam Houston State forward Marcus Burwell (32) as the Runnin' Rebels take on the Bearkats at the Thomas & Mack Center Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014.

Stanford’s leading scorer, Stefan Nastic (20 ppg, 8 rpg), is an absolute load in the post at 6-foot-11 and 245 pounds, and senior Anthony Brown also grabs eight rebounds per game out of the wing. It will often be on Vaughn, either in man defense or the Rebels’ promising 1-2-2 zone, to keep Brown off the boards.

“Our offense is going to take care of itself,” Vaughn said, “we just need to focus on defense.”

UNLV has held both of its opponents under 31 percent shooting, a streak that’s not likely to last through the weekend even if UNLV plays well. Stanford has a lot of depth, including Bishop Gorman High’s Rosco Allen and Centennial High’s Marcus Allen both getting at least 20 minutes per game, and if the Rebels meet Duke they’ll have to reckon with preseason All-American Jahlil Okafor in the post.

About that Duke game. It’s the matchup pretty much everyone not affiliated with Stanford or Temple would like to see in Saturday’s championship game, but Rice said he hasn’t mentioned anyone other than the Cardinal to his players.

“Our guys know that we only focus on the next game and whatever happens after that happens,” Rice said.

It might seem like not playing Duke would be a disappointment, and to many around the program that’s probably true. But even getting there is going to take a better nonconference victory better than UNLV has had arguably since the North Carolina win in 2011.

Stanford is the first of four Pac-12 opponents for UNLV, not counting the closed scrimmage against UCLA, and the Cardinal figure to be right there with Utah behind No. 2 Arizona at the top. In order to win and possibly set up the game fans want to see UNLV has to play better than it did at home to open the season.

The Rebels know that and that’s where their energy is being focused. The skyline and the rest will have to wait for another trip.

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

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy