San Diego State’s basketball team shot 52.4 percent on 3s and flashed its elite defense in taking out UNLV 76-67 on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
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.
egraney@reviewjournal.com … @edgraney on Twitter. 702-383-4618
The Rebels’ first-year basketball coach hasn’t won any games yet at the school, but he’s winning over fans of all ages by promoting the team across the Las Vegas Valley.
Saturday marks just the second time UNLV football will meet Southern California, the first being a 1997 game in which Jon Denton and the Rebels had a chance to take the lead in the fourth quarter before falling.
If faith really means seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness, it also means seeing success in Columbus, Ohio, when everyone else sees a trip to the woodshed.
What those who remained home didn’t see: A team in UNLV that, while hardly perfect at either end, made more winning plays when arriving at the critical juncture of five minutes remaining.
There is first another 12-game schedule to navigate, and UNLV is hardly an easy book in which to predict an ending. The Rebels will be deeper than last season because it’s impossible not to be.
They began filing out of the Thomas & Mack Center with 4:21 remaining, apparently having seen enough of the clinic San Diego State’s basketball team gave to UNLV on Saturday night.
When the number of Mountain West games is 18 and your program hasn’t won a regular-season league championship in forever, any mark on the left side of a win-loss column is cherished inside a locker room.
Tony Sanchez wouldn’t answer the question, which usually means if you give him a few minutes and attack the point in a different manner, he will have something to say.
What you are witnessing is Dave Rice’s prophecy coming true, and within it will be these sorts of close losses to an experienced team. But as the games and weeks and possessions pass, UNLV basketball improves.
UNLV coach Bobby Hauck had high hopes for this season after winning seven games and going to a bowl last year. But the team’s inconsistent play has spoiled his plans. “Doing things well one play and not the next is maddening for everybody,” he said.
An accepted premise: The toughest thing about competing in the Mountain West for basketball is the travel. The second toughest thing: Preparing for such a variety of offenses.
Three hours, 37 minutes. That’s how far it is from the Cotton Bowl to North Shore High in Houston, from where some key UNLV football players will compete in the program’s first bowl game since 2000 on Wednesday to where they played for a prep program led by one of the winningest coaches in Texas history.
Coach Bobby Hauck and those within UNLV athletics hope that recent success on the field can turn what at times has been a contentious relationship with students into a positive one.
Uncle Si of “Duck Dynasty” is 65 and struggles staying on task, so he often takes midday naps and plays with the security equipment around the family business. I officially am nominating him as special teams coach for UNLV’s football team.
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