For a Mountain West that has 11 members for basketball and 12 for football, including UNLV, how it reacts to a sudden defection could shape the league for its foreseeable future.
Ed Graney
Ed Graney is a sports columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, covering a variety of topics and the Las Vegas sports scene.
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UCLA — ranked second nationally but not the country’s second-best team right now — had no problem whipping the Rebels 73-51.
As the owner of the Raiders and Aces, Mark Davis has changed the trajectory of Las Vegas sports forever.
Desiree Reed-Francois will introduce the person she has chosen to lead UNLV basketball, T.J. Otzelberger, Thursday, ending a search that began almost two weeks ago when the athletic director fired Marvin Menzies after his third season.
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.
UNLV junior Shakur Juiston was the best player on the floor Saturday night and because of it and other key contributions, UNLV beat San Diego State for the first time since 2013.
They came to paradise, as much for anything, to learn about themselves. What they do well. What they need to improve. What they are today. What they might become tomorrow. UNLV’s basketball team headed home late Wednesday having answered some of those questions a 3-0 start against inferior opponents presented
Sean Miller is arguably the country’s best recruiter not named John Calipari. Miller is also considered an expert coach, having led teams to the Sweet 16 six times and Elite Eight four. But he is also the latest to own this moniker: Best coach not to have reached a Final Four.
I always loved this story about Jerry Tarkanian: It was shortly after UNLV won its national championship in basketball when a group of out-of-town reporters happened to be in the same restaurant as the Rebels coach.
The final nail was pounded into the coffin as most assumed it would be all season. Thirty-six games later, San Diego State couldn’t overcome its offensive woes against an elite opponent.
The Rebels were good enough on Wednesday night, beating a Colorado State team that couldn’t match up in talent but was again coached well enough to make things interesting.
UNLV lost its third basketball game of a young season Tuesday night because in the most critical of moments, it became sloppy defensively. It exhibited poor technique. It was Cal in the NCAA Tournament all over again.
The headline across ESPN.com at 6 p.m. Thursday: “Stunner at No. 1.”
One of the trade rumors circling tonight’s NBA Draft goes like this: Minnesota would send third-year forward Derrick Williams and two first-round picks to move up from the No. 9 position and select Indiana guard Victor Oladipo.
Finished products in the NBA Draft are like college basketball coaches who marry a Maxim swimsuit model, hold a percentage in a company that is sold for $100 million and lead a No. 15 seed into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.