Dedan Thomas Jr. was spectacular in an overtime loss to San Diego State in the Mountain West tournament, coming oh so close to sending the Rebels to the semifinals.
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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
UNLV is intent on erasing last year’s NCAA Tournament first-round loss when the 11th-seeded Lady Rebels play sixth-seeded Michigan on Friday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
UNLV’s basketball team grinded out an overtime win against Air Force in a Mountain West tournament play-in game and next face Boise State.
The trio of Desi-Rae Young, Justice Ethridge and Essence Booker pushed UNLV past San Diego State in the Mountain West semifinals Tuesday.
Desi-Rae Young was the only DI player in the nation to average 18-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and shoot better than 60 percent. And she wasn’t named conference Player of the Year — a certain mistake.
Kevin Kruger grew tremendously as a head basketball coach off the court as his players did on it during the 2021-22 season.
The Thomas Mack Center felt just like Laramie, minus about 5,000 feet of elevation. Hosting the MW Tournament isn’t any sort of home-court advantage for UNLV. Hasn’t been for some time.
UNLV showed its superior balance, depth and coaching in a victory over Utah State, but the Lady Rebels’ resume isn’t good enough to get an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
Turnover is coming for the UNLV basketball program, and it might not end with the players.
UNLV, which struggled to defend the 3-point line most of the season, held Air Force to 0 of 9 in the first half and 2 of 18 overall on 3s in Wednesday’s blowout.
Sophomore guard Bryce Hamilton is a deserving first-team all-conference pick by media and coaches. He averaged 20.8 points and 6.7 rebounds in Mountain West games.