A forgettable start to his final college season hung in the air before an announced crowd of 5,107 at T-Mobile Arena, but when Noah Robotham’s fallaway 3-pointer fell, the Rebels had a 92-90 overtime victory over Brigham Young.
Basketball
In a game they never led and, well, one you really never thought they would win, the Rebels fell to Cincinnati 65-61 before an announced gathering of 9,572 at the Thomas Mack Center.
UNLV’s basketball team continues its seven-game homestand to open the season Wednesday night against Valparaiso, when senior Shakur Juiston will take his usual place in the starting lineup and once again pursue rebounds like a cat might a feather on a bobbing string.
One of the main problems with UNLV athletics, perhaps the central one, is the fact it either doesn’t realize or accept its place in today’s world of collegiate athletics.
UNLV played better than that forgettable loss to Loyola Marymount, walking away a winner on Tuesday night before an announced gathering of 7,327 at Thomas Mack Center.
Such reality wasn’t so secure in the spring, when the Zags more than investigated the idea of jumping to the Mountain West.
The Aces have lost six of their past eight games, and in those defeats, they allowed opponents an average of 103 points while watching them shoot 52 percent from the field and 41 percent on 3s.
DeMar DeRozan is the latest athlete to bring the concept of loyalty into headlines, the NBA star in Las Vegas with USA Basketball after having been traded from Toronto to San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard.
The winning streak that reached four games for Las Vegas was snapped in sound fashion Sunday, when the Aces and rookie standout A’ja Wilson fell to Los Angeles 99-78 at Mandalay Bay Events Center.
The league seems more open to the concept as any, which makes sense given the number of women who play basketball at all levels across the world.
He is the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees and, yes, as much Duke basketball as you can fathom, an athlete folks either love or loathe, cheer or scorn, desperately want on their side or hate when he plays against it.
This is about the journey, and how ridiculously difficult it is, and how hard it has been for UNLV players of late to not only navigate, but reach its summit and stick in the league.
Youth can be a exasperating quality for those who coach professional sports, and yet Laimbeer has in the Las Vegas Aces a team that strikes a similar resemblance to those of his previous WNBA stops.
A ruling by the Supreme Court this week caused the NCAA to act swiftly by removing its outdated blinders in regard to staging championship competition in states that offer sports gaming.
Gonzaga owned the lion’s share when it came to this whole leaving the West Coast Conference for the Mountain West scenario, but that doesn’t mean the league in which UNLV exists shouldn’t have made the effort.
