UNLV gets what it deserves in loss

This is one of those deserved losses, when UNLV's basketball team was fortunate to be at home. Had its game against Oregon been anywhere but the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday night, it wouldn't have come down to a final possession or two.

The Ducks would have iced things far sooner.

As it is, the No. 18 (a ranking sure to drop Monday) Rebels welcomed Thanksgiving weekend with a feast of mistakes.

And not a whole lot of effort at times, either.

When a November defeat can be good: The Rebels lost their semifinal of the Global Sports Classic 83-79 on a night they shot 8-for-30 on 3-pointers, had 18 turnovers, at times made breaking pressure look more difficult than an honors chemistry class and yet still had a chance to tie in the end.

When such a defeat is bad any time: When you are outcoached, outplayed and outworked by a team playing its first road game of the season before 16,730 and that walked onto the court an 11½-point underdog.

"The first loss of a season is always tough," UNLV guard Anthony Marshall said. "We had some great looks at the end but didn't execute. Oregon did. They made some big-time shots and went to the line and knocked down their free throws against a crowd going crazy. You have to give them credit."

It deserves a ton. Oregon is picked seventh in Pac-12. It's likely better than that, or at least UNLV better hope so. 

Dana Altman is in his third season as coach at Oregon and remains one of his profession's best. The guy won 65 percent of his games at Creighton, so can you imagine what he could eventually build with Oregon's facilities, conference affiliation and current drawing power?

His kids played harder than those from UNLV most of the first half Friday. The Ducks zone pressed the you-know-what out of the Rebels, who looked lost against a defense they supposedly worked on during practice. You wouldn't have known it for a while.

UNLV eventually figured things out against the press but never really grasped the concept of good shot selection. 

Heard that one before?

Face it. This is who the Rebels are. They're going to win a lot of games this season making shots. They're also going to lose ones such as this when continuing to settle for jumpers and not throwing the ball inside.

Sophomore guard Bryce Dejean-Jones shot 3-for-12. 

The first 11 times he touched the ball, a shot went up. 

The first 11 times.

The game has been over for an hour as I'm typing this, but I believe Dejean-Jones just took another 3.

This is UNLV, for better or worse. Shoot itself to victory, or go 8-for-30 on 3s in a loss.

"That's on me, 100 percent," Rebels coach Dave Rice said. "We have to do a better job managing shot selection. I want our guys playing with freedom.  We'll learn from it. We'll grow. We'll do a better job. 

"One of our themes for us to become a very good basketball team is to sustain effort and execution on offense and defense the entire game. We're not quite there yet. We'll get there. We have to stay together and play hard, all part of maturing as a program. This is a difficult loss. There is no way to sugarcoat it. You always want to protect your home court. We need to get better."

The shot selection is what it is - consistently questionable.

But the lack of effort at some points Friday was an entirely different matter. UNLV's bigs did a poor job in the first half stepping up against dribble penetration and didn't improve much late as Oregon freshman Damyean Dotson beat UNLV guard Katin Reinhardt off the dribble for huge shots that sealed the Ducks' win.

Reinhardt looked like a freshman for the first time this season during the first 20 minutes and was exposed defensively down the stretch, but he also scored 18 second-half points to give the Rebels life and a chance. Anthony Bennett (22 points, 10 rebounds) played well against the school that was the other finalist for his college services.

That's it. UNLV's two most productive offensive players after three games are freshmen. They can win a lot of games for the Rebels this season.

This wasn't one of them.

"It sucks to lose any time," Reinhardt said. "We'll watch a lot of film and learn from it, but you have to move on."

That begins tonight in a third-place game against Iowa State.

Oregon plays Cincinnati in the championship.

Deservedly so.

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 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.