Las Vegas remains a knowledgeable basketball market, so can the up-tempo system of new head coach T.J. Otzelberger’s re-energize the Thomas & Mack Center?
Basketball
Improving as a season goes on is not something the Rebels have done of late. They last made the NCAA Tournament in 2013 and now welcome first-year coach T.J. Otzelberger.
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.
New UNLV basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger arrived by helicopter Thursday and then said all the right things in a manner befitting a person understanding of the unrealistic expectations he inherited.
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.
Mike Miller, the University of Memphis assistant and 18-year NBA player, has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the UNLV coaching job.
Athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois fired men’s basketball coach Marvin Menzies after his third season Friday, bringing an end to a tenure that began with the culmination of one of the darkest points in program history.
Here we are again — what, has it been 10 minutes, a season, three? — and UNLV’s basketball program is apparently at another crossroads with its coaching position.
It’s not happening now because it never was then, the idea that Rick Pitino would be negotiating with UNLV with the goal of the Hall of Fame coach replacing Marvin Menzies.
Fresno State waltzed into a subdued Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, made 15 of 29 3-pointers, limited UNLV to 3 of 15 on 3s and left town with an 83-65 victory.
The calendar flips this time each year and college basketball welcomes conference play, when even teams that endured some forgettable results the previous month can hold onto the idea that failure is simply the opportunity to begin anew.
A forgettable start to his final college season hung in the air before an announced crowd of 5,107 at T-Mobile Arena, but when Noah Robotham’s fallaway 3-pointer fell, the Rebels had a 92-90 overtime victory over Brigham Young.
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.
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.
One of the main problems with UNLV athletics, perhaps the central one, is the fact it either doesn’t realize or accept its place in today’s world of collegiate athletics.
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