4 Rebels to be honored on offbeat Senior Night against Wyoming

By Taylor Bern

Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Ike Nwamu had a lot of options when he decided to use the grad transfer rule to leave Mercer for his final season. After averaging 15.1 points per season, he offered the potential for an instant boost to any roster, and Nwamu narrowed his choices to official visits at Pitt, UNR and UNLV.

Now, nearly 10 months after picking the Rebels, Nwamu prepares for his final home game in a career that has not finished like he expected.

“It’s been eventful,” Nwamu said when asked to describe this season. “… It’s not exactly the plan, but that’s a part of basketball. You just have to take whatever comes at you.”

Nwamu is one of four seniors who will be honored today on a somewhat surreal Senior Night considering three of the players (Nwamu, Jerome Seagears and walk-on Alex Perez) have spent a combined four seasons in the program. The fourth, walk-on Barry Cheaney, spent four years in the program before walking away, only to return just before the Maui Invitational this November.

“Things don’t always go as planned,” said Seagears, who hasn’t practiced since re-aggravating a heel injury last week against UNR. An MRI revealed that he has a bone contusion, which goes along with injuries to his shooting hand and lower back.

Still, Seagears was able to play 28 minutes in the loss at Boise State and he’s expected to play tonight when UNLV (16-13, 7-9) takes on Wyoming (13-16, 6-10) at 5 p.m. in the Thomas & Mack Center on ESPN3. Also expected to play is UNLV freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr., who was a full practice participant Thursday and Friday after sitting out since suffering a knee sprain on Feb. 6.

Although the Rebels won’t know for sure that the 7-foot freshman is available until they get through shootaround today, everyone is optimistic about his return. And his addition to the rotation would be huge for a roster that’s used guards as centers and couldn’t keep Boise State off the glass.

“Just to have another big body out there would be huge for us, and obviously Zimm is one of the better defensive rebounders in the country,” said UNLV interim coach Todd Simon. “… He’s very eager to get out and compete.”

UNLV’s other injured forward, sophomore Dwayne Morgan, is out for this game and his return from a separated shoulder is still on an indefinite timetable.

“Hopefully, maybe by conference tournament time we’ll see if that’s something that can happen,” Simon said.

Wyoming is the top 3-point shooting team in the Mountain West while UNLV is in the bottom half. Part of the reason for that is that Nwamu and Seagears have both had the worst 3-point shooting seasons of their careers.

Nwamu, who’s averaging 10.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 23.2 minutes per game, is hitting 35.8 percent beyond the arc after coming in as a career 39 percent 3-point shooter. And Seagears, who’s averaging 9.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in 28.5 minutes per game, was hitting 37.3 percent over three seasons before dropping to 33 percent this year.

Of course, the reasons for UNLV’s struggles go far beyond some disappointing shooting. There’s been a transfer, a firing, a dismissal, two season-ending injuries, two long-term injuries, and that’s just on the personnel side.

“In some ways it’s been a four-year year in these last six months,” Simon said.

It’s challenged the program in a variety of ways, and the players have tried to fight through it by sticking together and focusing only on what they can control.

“Through them all, we always stuck together and never really looked at the bad times,” Seagears said.

That’s the mentality they’ll try to keep heading into the final week of the regular season, one that offers a few days off next before the finale Saturday at San Diego State. And then everything will come down to the conference tournament at the Mack, where UNLV will attempt to be the first Mountain West team to ever cut down the nets with four wins in four days.

That will be the last chance for this team, and for guys who started their careers at Cleveland State (Nwamu) and Rutgers (Seagears), to finish the season on their terms. The good news is they should get some extra help starting tonight, and perhaps there can be a couple more positive events yet to be had this season.

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