57°F
weather icon Mostly Clear

3 takeaways from UNLV’s loss to TCU on Friday

Three takeaways from the UNLV basketball team’s 63-59 loss to Texas Christian on Friday at the Thomas & Mack Center:

1. This one hurts, but it can’t linger.

If the Rebels had been told beforehand that TCU wouldn’t score a field goal over the final 4:37 of a close game, they probably would have figured it would be a UNLV victory.

Which is what makes this loss so frustrating for the Rebels. They had every chance to win down the stretch, but couldn’t get out of their own way with turnovers and missed shots. UNLV made only one field goal in the final 3:51, and committed 19 turnovers for the game.

“We talk about winning time, and tonight’s winning time was losing time,” UNLV coach Marvin Menzies said. “I thought TCU did a good job of being physical in forcing some of those, but down the stretch, I think that was on us. I think we kind of threw those away, threw it right into their hands.”

UNLV can’t dwell on this defeat, however. The Rebels host Western Kentucky at 5 p.m. Saturday in a consolation game in the Global Sports Classic.

“So they’ve got to go to work,” Menzies said. “Win or lose, we would’ve had to have done that. I’m almost using this as a tournament-type setting in terms of we’ve got to go back to back.”

2. UNLV gained needed experience against the zone.

Until TCU’s move to zone about midway through the first half, the Rebels had burned the Frogs from outside with three 3-pointers in the first three minutes. The Horned Frogs not only went to zone, but extended it to force UNLV to make some tough plays.

They came out in man to open the second half, but switched back to zone down the stretch, and UNLV’s offense never properly adjusted.

Afterward, Menzies was kicking himself for not working more on zone offense in practice. TCU coach Jamie Dixon favors man, and surprised the Rebels with the zone.

“You’ve got to pick and choose when you only have so many hours out of the day and days you’ve got to give off,” Menzies said. “So I guess I chose the wrong things to work on because the zone offense was obviously lacking. I know we’re good at it. We just hadn’t got (repetitions) at it, so I’ll take the hit for that.”

But playing this zone could be learning experience that UNLV can use for later.

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and see what we’ve got to execute and get better at,” Rebels guard Jalen Poyser said. “Then we’ll go on from there.”

3. Lack of depth might not go away soon.

TCU’s bench outscored UNLV’s 34-2, exploiting the Rebels’ thin depth with forwards Christian Jones and Cheickna Dembele out with foot injuries.

Menzies said Jones could be out for “a few weeks,” but that he didn’t have a good read on the status of the injury. Dembele was held out for precautionary reasons, Menzies said, but the freshman wouldn’t play against Western Kentucky, either.

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST