5 ways to turn UNLV from pretenders to contenders

One game into the Mountain West schedule, UNLV coach Dave Rice is facing a season on the brink. But is his basketball team on the brink of crisis or recovery?

The answer should be obvious by the end of this month. The first indications of which direction the Rebels are headed could be evident this week after road games against Colorado State and Wyoming.

Any positive vibes brought on by a blowout win before Christmas break were shot down Wednesday, when UNLV fell flat in a 69-66 loss to Fresno State at the Thomas & Mack Center. Instead of giving his players New Year's Eve off, as Rice had planned, he held practices three days in a row.

"That was definitely a game that we gave away," said 7-foot freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr., who described the coaches as "pretty mad."

The head coach is feeling the most heat. He's searching for solutions and starting on the practice floor.

"Practices have been good, but it really doesn't matter," Rice said. "What matters is how we perform Wednesday. I can talk about studying for a test, but it's all about how you perform on the final exam."

The Rams provide the next test. It's cliche, but the Rebels (9-5) are in must-win situations Wednesday at Colorado State and Saturday at Wyoming. If they split or lose both games against middle-of-the-pack conference opponents, the probing for problems will intensify.

UNLV has lost three of its past four games, prompting all kinds of questions, from chemistry issues to how the offense is run to what the coaches can do to turn around another talented yet underachieving team.

"Losing does that," junior forward Ben Carter said. "When you lose, everything is magnified and people try to find problems."

What's wrong with the Rebels? Here are ways to fix five problems:

* Send a wake-up call to Patrick McCaw

The sophomore guard is slumping, both in body language and production. In the past four games, McCaw shot 7 of 24 from the field, including 2 of 13 on 3-pointers, and averaged 5.0 points. He was averaging 19.0 points after seven games in November.

"We need to get Pat going," Carter said. "We need him to be a scoring guard for us."

McCaw has lacked aggression. It's his nature to be an offensive facilitator instead of a go-to scorer. If he sleeps through many more games, the Rebels are in for a rude awakening. Someone needs to get in his ear with a motivational message.

"I do think he's an unselfish guy, almost to a fault," Rice said.

* Go to the big men on the offensive end

In the loss to Fresno State, Carter and Zimmerman combined for just 11 of the team's 48 field-goal attempts. Senior guards Ike Nwamu and Jerome Seagears combined to shoot 6 of 18 with 13 attempts from 3-point range.

"That's a big thing the coaches preach every time we go in the huddle, they say to play inside-out," Zimmerman said. "I guess sometimes it doesn't really work out like that."

UNLV needs to run its offense through Carter and Zimmerman and also get more opportunities for forwards Derrick Jones Jr. and Dwayne Morgan.

"We've got to get the ball on the block to Dwayne and Ben and Stephen. There's no doubt about that," Rice said. "But it's also a two-way street because those guys have to do a better job against physical teams of fighting to catch the ball on the block."

* Consider a change at point guard

Seagears is a shooting guard who's trying to learn the point, but he's not passing the test. He shot 3 of 10 and had five of the team's 21 turnovers against Fresno State. All of the Rebels' shortcomings in half-court offensive sets are not because of Seagears. Still, he's averaging 29.2 minutes, and freshman Jalen Poyser has shown he deserves an expanded role.

* Turn up the pressure on defense

UNLV's guards too often play matador defense against dribble penetration, and it's obvious the Rebels are weak in the half court on both ends of the floor. Rice should commit to his preseason plan of full-court pressing and trapping to speed up the pace and play to his team's strengths.

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Zimmerman opened eyes Monday by saying some players are "bringing off-court issues onto the court," a hint at chemistry problems.

"I think we all have to have the right mindset," he said. "I think different people come into the game thinking different things, and everyone has to be on the same page, and I think that will change a lot for us. It might have come up over the past couple weeks. Everybody has different things going on in their life. Once we come in here, it needs to be 100 percent about basketball."

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247