Struggling Rebels prepare to face San Diego State

“When guys take bad shots, then other guys fall out of it. If they’re not getting enough touches, then guys just don’t want to play.”

— UNLV freshman Patrick McCaw, after the team’s overtime loss Tuesday at Boise State.

SAN DIEGO

News flash: UNLV’s basketball team better start wanting to play, or its season could descend into another canyon of futility.

The Rebels are struggling, having lost four of five games and needing binoculars to see the top of the Mountain West standings, a 1-3 side in conference that suddenly has an effort problem.

As in, some Rebels don’t always expend the maximum amount for 40 minutes.

It is best for UNLV that as it tries to discover the right combinations, the right attitude, the right in-game decisions that might propel it from this funk, San Diego State appears as today’s opponent at Viejas Arena.

No, really.

History tells us the Rebels play their best when matched against teams such as the Aztecs or Arizona earlier this season, teams with similar athleticism and regarded among the best out West, teams for which the rivalry aspect breathes a little harder because of conference affiliation or recruiting wars (or both).

UNLV will have no problem playing hard against San Diego State and should have every chance to upset the Aztecs as an 8-point underdog.

But isn’t that the problem, really?

There has been a lot of talk this season about youth with the Rebels, a lot of notes about UNLV having to replace all five starters from last year, a lot of mentions at news conferences that inexperience would not be used as an excuse, only to be followed by comments about youth and inexperience.

Understanding defensive concepts at this level takes time, especially for those who arrive from the highlight-dominated world of AAU ball, where defense is reduced to the best athletes racking up blocked shots because their teammates can’t guard anyone off the dribble.

You know. Like the Rebels.

But while youth certainly can be used as a reason for why UNLV often flounders at the defensive end, it absolutely can’t and shouldn’t be offered as to why the Rebels don’t offer a consistent effort.

As to why they can look so sluggish for stretches in losing to UNR at home and to Boise State on the road, but appear so active against Arizona and likely today against San Diego State.

Why they are dynamic against some opponents and lazy against others.

“It doesn’t really matter how to explain it,” UNLV coach Dave Rice said. “What matters is that it cannot happen. The bottom line moving forward, I told the guys that I am not married to any particular starting lineup. Guys who start are going to earn their right to start. We need to have a sense of urgency in everything that we do.”

An issue: They’ve been moving forward on this for some time, years, in fact, and yet nothing is consistently done in regards to seriously limiting a kid’s playing time to make the point.

Seriously. Limiting. It.

This isn’t just a problem at UNLV. The pressure on coaches to win is felt across the country and, except for those few with incomparable security based on years of winning and NCAA Tournament success, one’s livelihood is always a suppressed motive for not disciplining the best players with more time on the bench.

I don’t care how many years remain on a contract — most guys, in the back of their minds, are always coaching for their jobs and the comforts their paychecks provide.

That’s everywhere.

But here’s the thing about UNLV: It’s 10-7 today in a dead-flat average conference, and by losing at Boise State dropped out of the top 100 in the Ratings Percentage Index. The Rebels have played, according to KenPom ratings, the easiest Mountain West schedule thus far. They’re still 1-3.

It means that any NCAA Tournament chances probably again hinge on UNLV winning the Mountain West tournament, winning three games in three days at the Thomas & Mack Center. So what is the risk of following through with what has long been the threat of sitting those who don’t play hard? If by doing so you lose a game now but send the correct message, it could pay off in a positive manner in March.

And if you’re not sitting guys because you don’t think the talent level behind them is sufficient or that few Rebels are playing well right now, anyway — a reported feeling of the coaching staff — whose fault is that?

Whose roster is it, anyway?

“We have to be desperate, and I would like us to play desperate all the time,” Rice said. “We have tended to play our best basketball and our most spirited basketball when our backs have been against the wall, so to speak. We should play better, and we are very capable of playing better.

“We’ve got to figure it out, that’s the bottom line, and we are working on that. It was absolutely inexcusable to play how we played in the first half against Boise. We have good kids in our program, and they are just searching for answers. When they lose, they feel like they have let people down.

“We need to get back on the winning track, and everything will be fine. I don’t think we lost at Boise State because of our scheme. We lost the Boise State game because of our lack of sense of urgency in the first half and in overtime.”

That won’t be an issue today. There will be effort and intensity and a sense of desperation, mostly because it’s San Diego State.

But isn’t that the problem, really?

Hasn’t that been the problem for some time?

UNLV needs to stop playing the jersey and, well, just start playing better.

And harder … all the time.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 100.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.