UNLV’s Ike Nwamu, 0, is congratulated by teammates for a great basket during a dunk contest apart of the Runnin Rebel Madness basketball season tipoff celebration party downtown at the Las Vegas Events Center on Thursday, October 22, 2015.
Saturday, Oct. 31, 2015 | 6:26 p.m.
The Rebel Room
Halloween Madness
Las Vegas Sports Editor Ray Brewer describes his trip down to Runnin' Rebel Madness and sports writers Case Keefer and Taylor Bern chime in with their thoughts on dunking phenom Derrick Jones Jr.'s role this season and how UNLV football will respond after the bye week at home for a Halloween date with Boise State.
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- The Sun's UNLV basketball section
A win isn’t the most important thing to get out of a scrimmage, especially a so-called secret one, but it’s still better than a loss.
UNLV got its first test against outside competition Saturday morning at USC, and the Rebels walked out of the gym feeling good about their performance in a 17-point win during 52 minutes of action. More than the score, coach Dave Rice was pleased with the team’s rebounding and free throws — two emphases entering the trip — and the fact that the players felt fatigue and felt how much further they have to go while playing their pressure defense.
“We did a good job of our initial ball pressure and traps, but it’s not over when the ball goes over your head,” Rice said. “We have to sprint back. It’s a reminder for all of us how hard we still have to work.”
The NCAA doesn’t allow programs to promote these closed-door scrimmages, but coaches are allowed to discuss them in general terms after the fact.
The practice was broken into two 20-minute periods, with an additional 12 minutes after that. The Rebels led by 10 at the first break and they were tied at 84 after the second one before surging ahead for a 113-96 win.
Freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr. posted a double-double and may of the players UNLV will rely on heavily — seniors Ike Nwamu and Jerome Seagears and freshman Derrick Jones Jr. — posted good numbers. Sophomore Goodluck Okonoboh (back spasms) didn’t participate, and an undisclosed injury sidelined former Rebel Katin Reinhardt, who will be a junior at USC this season.
The scrimmage was a foul-fest, as often happens when teams go from practice into a situation with fouls called, but part of it was by design on UNLV’s end. The problem was they gave a lot of those shots back to the Trojans at the other end.
“You’ve got to pressure without putting your hands on guys,” Rice said. “We put our opponent on the free-throw line a lot.”
Anything can be spun into a positive at this stage, but the Rebels seem to be genuinely in a good position. They struggled with the things one would expect them to struggle with, but the overall focus on rebounding throughout the offseason showed up, and so did some of the individual offensive weapons UNLV will be relying on.
The sky wasn’t falling last year because of a double-digit scrimmage loss to UCLA, and it’s not all rainbows because of this one. That said, mark it down as a UNLV victory.
Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.
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