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.
Sports Columns
The quote goes like this: Seize the moment, because some opportunities don’t come twice.
This is a Christmas story that has nothing to do with the one that will be shown on TBS on a continuous loop Friday. This one is about UNLV coaches with soft spots in their hearts, and a Rebels basketball player who is much better beyond the 3-point stripe than he is with a Mexican yo-yo, and sick kids in the hospital, and the local sports radio host who brings them all together each year.
It was following a game at the Maui Invitational in November when UCLA basketball coach Steve Alford, his team having just lost to Wake Forest, spoke about the Bruins being assessed 28 fouls.
It all made sense before Wednesday, how this week might play out for UNLV’s basketball team, how important it could prove in regards to the postseason, how a winnable game against Arizona State would be followed by an extremely difficult one at Arizona.
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.
The story behind why Derrick Jones Jr. wears No. 1 can be found on Page 43 of your trusty UNLV basketball media guide. It’s simple reasoning, not some profound wisdom that has a long and intense and complex story behind it.
The lesson is this: That a week and a month and a few months from now, and perhaps into the madness of March, UNLV’s basketball team can take from a December game in south-central Kansas along the Arkansas River a definite truth about opposing an elite point guard.
College basketball seasons develop in stages, from closed-door scrimmages to exhibitions to home and neutral matchups. To the most important games of all.
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
UNLV forward Ben Carter is the lunch pail and hard hat kid. He’s that guy. He’s the one who doesn’t question orders, a coach’s son who not only can play, but more importantly, knows how to play. There is a big difference.
Part of the message from the time practice began for UNLV this college basketball season was about reaction. How would the Rebels respond to success? How would they deal with adversity?
When the talent continued to sign on the dotted line and the depth became more than UNLV’s basketball team has enjoyed under fifth-year head coach Dave Rice, it wasn’t guaranteed the Rebels would immediately turn a corner back towards the NCAA Tournament.
He knew the matchup before it was announced and not because Dave Rice had some inside source feeding him information. It just made too much sense, is all.
The schedule for UNLV’s basketball team to begin this season allowed the Rebels a cushion for success if they didn’t fall into the trap of playing down to opponents, if they didn’t suffer the sort of lapse in focus that has already caught several heavily favored teams across the country.
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