Road lapses crippling Rebels

Call it what it was: The Lapse in Laramie.

Dave Rice mentions the goal enough to realize its importance to the UNLV basketball coach and his team. It has been, after all, decades worth of coming up short.

The Rebels last won an outright conference title in 1991-92, and it won't be any uncontested layup to do so in the Mountain West this year, not after their not-so-impressive road efforts finally caught up to them at Wyoming.

UNLV begins the second half of conference play at home Saturday afternoon against San Diego State, the team it and New Mexico trail by a game with seven remaining.

The Rebels will be big favorites to beat the Aztecs, to snap a six-game losing streak in the series, to again get open 3-pointers against San Diego State and this time not react as if just seeing the bloody hand shoot up from the ground in "Carrie."

UNLV should win. It's 12-0 at the Thomas & Mack Center this season and 15-0 in Las Vegas. It's averaging 87 points over three conference home games and has won them by an average of nearly 20 points. It's not beating people at home. It's routing them to no end.

But an outright title has no chance of becoming reality unless UNLV quickly addresses and fixes what issues have led to such average play away from city limits. The Rebels needed overtime to beat the league's two worst teams in Boise State and Air Force and then played with matches one too many times in losing to Wyoming, 68-66.

It was a bad loss, and, for those who think otherwise, know only that the Cowboys' best win before Saturday was against Colorado. Wyoming has a Ratings Percentage Index of 71 and a schedule rating of 140. You can't dress up those numbers.

Don't talk difficult travel for UNLV. San Diego State took nearly 20 hours and had its charter -- which I'm pretty sure was a nonmotorized glider piloted by Orville Wright -- refuel two times before arriving in Laramie. The Aztecs won by 10 and allowed as many points -- 42 -- the entire game as UNLV did in a half.

Wyoming was by far the smarter team Saturday, by far the more disciplined defensive side, and because of it the Rebels limped home with far less margin for error over the next four weeks.

How? They could beat San Diego State by 20 on Saturday and still be only tied with the Aztecs. You can't lose at Wyoming and not have the chance for an outright title slip.

I had no problem with Rice not taking a timeout in the final seconds against the Cowboys. The Rebels had their most athletic player at the rim for an attempted layup and their best player with an open 14-foot jumper for the final two shots. You can't draw up better looks.

They lost the game in the first 20 minutes, allowing a team that averages 62 points per game in league to score 42 in a half during which UNLV shot 64 percent. That's inexcusable.

It's hard winning on the road in college basketball, against anyone and anywhere. Few sports offer a better advantage to those playing at home.

But if the Rebels are to sit atop the conference standings come March, not to mention have any chance of winning important games on neutral floors during that month, they better be more efficient on the road at both ends. They can be great offensively for stretches. They haven't been great defensively and aren't sharing the ball as much.

UNLV is shooting 42 percent from the field and 32 percent on 3s in league road games. It's also the league's worst free-throw shooting team -- 62.8 percent -- over seven games. Bad stuff.

Road games at Texas Christian, New Mexico and Colorado State remain, the latter two being huge tests given how the Rebels have (under)performed on the road and how well the Lobos and Rams have played at home.

I still believe UNLV has the best team this season and New Mexico the most depth and San Diego State the best coaching, still contend the Rebels own a better-than-even chance at breaking that seems-like-forever drought of no outright title.

They should win Saturday, perhaps handily. They should break the San Diego State Curse. But the Mountain West won't be won in the Thomas & Mack for UNLV. If it's meant to be, it will happen in places such as Albuquerque and Fort Collins, but only if the Rebels quit approaching the idea of hotel beds and unfamiliar rims as signs of peril. It will happen if they defend better.

You can survive a Lapse in Laramie and still realize your dreams.

Two lapses could prove one too many.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.