Rebels heading to Air Force while trying to overcome Vaughn’s injury

By Taylor Bern

Friday, Feb. 13, 2015 | 2 a.m.

A season littered with setbacks offsetting some of the positives suffered another one on Thursday, and this was more disappointing than any individual loss the Rebels (14-10, 5-6) have had this season.

Freshman Rashad Vaughn, the team’s leading scorer, is out indefinitely and possibly for the remainder of the season after tearing the meniscus in his left knee near the end of UNLV’s 73-61 victory against Fresno State on Tuesday. Surgery is planned for early next week, and once doctors assess the severity Vaughn will be able to begin rehab and see if he’s capable of returning in a month for the Mountain West tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“I know that Rashad works extremely hard and that’s his plan and his goal,” said UNLV coach Dave Rice.

Whether he plays again this season or not, the Rebels know they’ll be without him for the remainder of the regular season. That starts with Saturday’s trip to Air Force (11-13, 4-9), which has added its leading scorer back to the lineup while UNLV has lost the same thing in the two weeks since UNLV won 74-63 at the Mack. Saturday’s game tips off at 11 a.m. Las Vegas time and will stream on ESPN3.

Falcons senior Max Yon, who averages 13.8 points per game, missed six games because of personal reasons. During the stretch, the Falcons’ lone victory came against last-place San Jose State. Since his return Air Force is 2-1, though one of the victories came against a Larry Nance-less Wyoming.

“He brings experience and another shooter,” Rice said of Yon.

The Rebels’ bigger personnel concerns are their own and who, exactly, is going to fill in for Vaughn. The freshman from Minneapolis was averaging 17.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in 32.3 minutes per game and by far led the team in usage.

The immediate impact will probably be more minutes and bigger roles for senior Jelan Kendrick and freshman Jordan Cornish. Rice said he had been looking for ways to get Cornish, who’s averaging 13.7 minutes per game in conference play, into the game more, but “this is not the way I wanted it to happen.”

UNLV’s depth was already nonexistent, with only eight players in the rotation all season, so taking out a guy who was as big a factor as Vaughn is going to probably mean more minutes for every guard on the roster. That will likely include some actual minutes for freshman Dantley Walker or perhaps even spot minutes for walk-on Barry Cheaney.

Whatever the Rebels have to do to try to buoy themselves in Vaughn’s absence, Rice is trying to focus on looking ahead.

“We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves,” Rice said. “This is a devastating blow for Rashad, it’s tough for our team because we all know what a good player he is, but we don’t have time to do anything but be there for Rashad and move forward.”

For Vaughn, who was the frontrunner for Mountain West Freshman of the Year, it’s another knee-related setback. Back in November, Vaughn revealed that the lower-leg injury that kept him off the court much of the offseason was surgery to repair a torn meniscus. UNLV’s coaches said that was his other knee, which is actually better than injuring the same knee again.

The likelihood of returning at all this season depends largely on how significant the tear is, something that won’t be fully known until doctors operate on him. It’s probably more likely that Vaughn has played his final game this season, and depending on what he decides about his future his final game in a UNLV uniform.

Vaughn’s draft stock varied wildly before the injury so it’s only going to be more disparate now. Returning for a sophomore season would probably be the favorite right now but that’s a decision for later.

For now, the Rebels will try to fill Vaughn’s role as best they can.

“We’re going to need everybody,” Rice said.

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