Freshman point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. could be getting ready for his high school prom. Instead he leads the UNLV men’s basketball team in scoring and assists.
Search results for:
In a game they never led and, well, one you really never thought they would win, the Rebels fell to Cincinnati 65-61 before an announced gathering of 9,572 at the Thomas Mack Center.
While it’s impossible to directly connect Arizona being linked to arguably one of the biggest scandals in NCAA history with what has been surprisingly inconsistent results thus far, it’s hardly a stretch to suggest the two storylines share a common alliance.
We can confirm UNLV has a men’s basketball team this season, as the lights officially were turned on when first-year coach Marvin Menzies was forced to bring the Rebels out of hiding for the first of two exhibitions at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Marvin Menzies is now coaching a program with a far more profound sense of history in a town whose annual expectations for UNLV basketball exist somewhere between unrealistic and foolish.
Consider: Since the 2012 season, Mountain West teams are a combined 304-330. But the telling part, the absolutely eye-opening and ridiculous part, comes against Power 5 schools, in which the conference is 17-81 over that time.
It requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly shaped, interlocking pieces. When the puzzle that is the Rebels of next season is finished, it’s a good bet Cody Doolin will have defined a fairly significant piece.
The obvious question: Was the basketball game lost by Boise State or won by UNLV?
Play hard. Play together. The request might seem overly simplistic for college basketball players owning a wealth of ability, but Dave Rice knows that continuity most often comes before prosperity.
In the swarm of opinion that followed a decision by Katin Reinhardt to transfer out of UNLV’s basketball program this week, an important point was lost: This is why the rule exists.