Coaches have been free to leave for another job without penalty forever. Now players have the same right. So coaches need to quit complaining and embrace the new reality.
Basketball
A ruling by the Supreme Court this week caused the NCAA to act swiftly by removing its outdated blinders in regard to staging championship competition in states that offer sports gaming.
The Rebels lost another Mountain West home game Wednesday night in which they were a prohibitive favorite, this time falling to a New Mexico side with absolutely no depth and less talent than the Lobos have had in years.
This isn’t the UNLV-San Diego State matchup most have come to expect and anticipate but for one significant point: When it comes to winning time, the Aztecs can still frustrate the heck out of the Rebels.
UNLV lost a basketball game to Air Force on Tuesday night by a final score of 79-74. The problem: For much of it, the Rebels played as if it was 100-64 all over again.
The lead had climbed to 21 with about seven minutes remaining in the first half against Southern Utah, I mean South Dakota, I mean Air Force, I mean one of the worst Air Force sides in recent memory, and the energy in the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday night continued to rise as it has few times this UNLV basketball season.
I suppose the best thing that could have happened for UNLV’s basketball team Wednesday night would have been for no one to discover those AAA batteries and duct tape needed to fix the shot clocks at Thomas & Mack Center because when you spend nearly $50 million on renovations, it must be tough making sure all the lights work.
UNLV has arguably its deepest level of skill since Rice was hired as coach in 2011, and there had been some whispers over the summer that he might consider a platoon system if enough good players emerged from preseason drills.
Jelan Kendrick on Saturday walked in a procession far more important than any half-court set he has been part of, graduating from UNLV with a degree in sociology. His journey to the reality of a cap and gown, more than anything else, is best described as complex.
While UNLV basketball coach Dave Rice has yet to prove March as a month that can define his program as either successful or relevant, he has this recruiting thing going like nobody’s business. He’s no April fool.
UNLV’s basketball team will awake Wednesday, head to the airport and board a flight for New York, where the Rebels will meet Stanford in a Coaches vs. Cancer Classic game Friday night at Barclays Center.
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