Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Ray Brewer:

Instant Analysis: Rebels again can’t play with lead, eliminated by SDSU

UNLV

L.E. Baskow

UNLV forward Goodluck Okonoboh (11) and UNLV forward Dwayne Morgan (15) react to the game getting away from them late versus San Diego State during their Mountain West quarterfinal game Thursday, March 12, 2015.

The Rebel Room

Conference Tournament Week

Four men's conference basketball tournaments take over three Las Vegas arenas this week, including the Mountain West tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center. Las Vegas Sun sports writers Ray Brewer and Taylor Bern discuss UNLV's outlook as the No. 7 seed.

UNLV blew another halftime lead. It lost another meaningful game to San Diego State.

Here are some observations from the UNLV basketball team’s 67-64 loss to San Diego State in the Mountain West quarterfinals.

How the game was lost: Today’s loss followed a similar script of past defeats. UNLV played great in the first half to build a six-point halftime lead. Then, within the blink of an eye, San Diego State went on a 12-0 scoring run to open the second half. UNLV deserves credit for erasing a seven-point deficit when it appeared headed for a double-digit defeat, but just like all season, it couldn’t finish. Tournament over. Season over. UNLV’s inability to play with the lead — whether coaching adjustments, young players or a depleted roster is to blame — cost them another game. A season of near misses, whether it was the loss at Boise State or Colorado State, or at home against San Diego State, now includes six consecutive defeats to San Diego State. Effort wasn’t a problem tonight, and it’s rarely been in question all season. Simply put, UNLV just didn’t have the player experience or depth to be a contender this season. They’ll fail to make the NCAA Tournament again, which is downright unacceptable.

A team of seven: San Diego State’s line changes worked. Less than four minutes into the game, San Diego State subbed in four players. Later in the half, it rotated in a fresh set of five players. UNLV, of course, is down to seven scholarship players and the fatigue was clearly a factor. UNLV coach Dave Rice tried multiple player combinations to keep his rotation as fresh as possible, but ultimately it’s impossible to manage — especially with San Diego State in its full-court press. Give San Diego State credit for game-planning against UNLV’s weakness.

Chris Wood’s decision: After taking the ball to the basket for a layup while being fouled, Chris Wood shouted, ‘This is my house’ loud enough for fans a few rows up to hear. Wood would be wise if UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center was his basketball house again next year. Wood, a 6-foot-11 sophomore forward, is entertaining whether to turn professional. As he showed the past two nights, and most of the season, Wood clearly has the skill level to be a player at the next level. But he wouldn’t be a first-round selection in the NBA Draft and needs to spend another year in Las Vegas developing his talents. After scoring 28 points Wednesday on 10 of 13 shooting, Wood was again impressive offensively with 21 points. On one play, he faked a 3-point attempt and aggressively took the ball to the basket for a dunk. Last season, or early this year, that would have been a 50-50 attempt from the outside. Like his teammates, Wood is developing at a rapid pace. Imagine how good he would be as a college player next season. Pretty sick, right?

A look at the stat sheet: UNLV made just 7 of 15 from the free throw line, including missing four straight to open the second half during San Diego State’s 12-0 scoring run. Rebs lost by three. Ouch ... Jelan Kendrick had a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds for UNLV, Cody Doolin had 10 points on 2 of 5 shooting (and two ugly air balls), and Goodluck Okonoboh scored eight points. ... UNLV had just six assists. ... Aqeel Quinn led San Diego State with 21 points and made 5 of 6 on 3-pointers. San Diego State made 7 of 14 of its 3-pointers.

Rice’s future Some feel it’s time for UNLV to find another coach to lead the program. They argue that missing the NCAA Tournament in consecutive seasons and finishing seventh in watered down Mountain West signal the program is heading in the wrong direction. Rice can’t coach, can’t motivate and has had four seasons to figure it out. I disagree. UNLV officials wouldn’t have extended his contract through 2019 last offseason when he flirted with leaving for South Florida if they didn’t have confidence — and patience — in Rice to get the job done. Ten months ago they were desperate to keep him. It would make no sense to part with Rice, and pay him more than $1 million in compensation, to start over again. Rice’s core group of players, those five talented freshman who have each gotten better as the season progressed, have the potential to do something special in upcoming seasons. UNLV would be crazy to break up what should be a preseason top-20 team next season. But if UNLV fails to win 20 games next season and again misses the tournament, I’ll quickly change my tune.

Up next: Rice said two weeks ago he would entertain accepting an invitation to a lower-tier postseason tournament to give his team of young players more court time together. Last year, they elected to end the season after being eliminated in the Mountain West, hitting the program’s reset button and bringing in five blue-chip high school recruits to lead the rebuilding effort. We’ve seen signs of improved play from those underclassmen. I agree with Rice: Another week or two of games would give them momentum for the offseason. “From that standpoint, any experience you can get is positive for this year and certainly for the future,” Rice said Feb. 27. But, then again, the decision could be out of his control.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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