Rebels’ tour to Canada could be full of surprises

Even the tour guide on the UNLV basketball team’s exhibition trip to Canada is unsure what to expect.

But at least coach Dave Rice has been north of the border, unlike most of his players.

“I’ve never been to Canada. I’ve heard it’s a nice place,” senior guard Justin Hawkins said. “For us to be on the road for six or seven days, it’s going to be amazing.”

Junior forward Mike Moser, who said this will be his first trip out of the country, admitted to knowing “absolutely nothing” about Canada.

“I’ve heard that they speak a few different languages over there, so that will be interesting,” Moser said.

The Rebels were scheduled to board a flight to Montreal before noon today, and from there it’s a 102-mile bus ride to Ottawa.

UNLV’s first two games are in Ottawa — at 4 p.m. (Pacific time) Saturday against Carleton University and at 11 a.m. Sunday against the University of Ottawa.

Rice admitted to knowing little about the Rebels’ opponents, and he’s not putting together any scouting reports.

“I was told one of the teams took Kansas to overtime last summer,” Rice said. “I’m much more concerned about our team than I am about the teams that we’re playing.”

Will many fans be attending the exhibition games?

“I’ve been told that we’ve got a decent number of Runnin’ Rebel fans that are going, but I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if it’s 50, 20 or 100, and I don’t know if there will be local fans going to the games or not,” Rice said.

UNLV, which has 10 scholarship players going on the tour, also plays games in Montreal on Monday and Tuesday.