Bryce Hamilton evolving into all-around star for UNLV

Bryce Hamilton made one of the best plays of UNLV’s first win against Kansas State on Saturday, and it didn’t even involve him scoring.

The junior guard received the ball with less than 10 seconds left on the shot clock late in the game and the Rebels clinging to a 59-53 lead. Hamilton, from the Wildcats’ logo, drove past his defender and forced two other players to rush to defend him in the paint. As the opposition collapsed around him, Hamilton saw junior guard David Jenkins Jr. wide open in the right corner with his right hand raised.

Hamilton threw a one-handed pass to his teammate, and Jenkins’ subsequent 3 gave UNLV a nine-point lead with 3:38 remaining. It was the knockout blow of the game.

The play also carried larger implications. Hamilton has shown he’s a lethal scorer; he’s averaging 20.8 points in the first five games after scoring 16.0 per game last season. But if he can expand his game in other ways — as his six assists Saturday showed he’s capable of — the Rebels become far more dangerous.

They hope he keeps it up when the team next plays Pepperdine on Monday at the Thomas & Mack Center. UNLV’s home game against Eastern Washington on Wednesday was canceled because of a positive COVID-19 test in the program.

“Bryce Hamilton, he’s one of those guys who is very unselfish,” Jenkins said. “It’s easy for a scorer to just go and try to get his every time he gets the ball, but he ultimately looks for his teammates.”

Everyone knows Hamilton can score. His teammates know it. His coaches know it. Even North Carolina Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams knows it, which is why he was upset that his team allowed Hamilton to score seven points in the first three minutes of the teams’ game last week in the Maui Invitational.

“Bryce got off to a much better start than we wanted him to,” Williams said.

Hamilton, with his bouncy athleticism and long reach, can score just by waking up and tying his shoes, coach T.J. Otzelberger says. That’s why Otzelberger is challenging his first-team All-Mountain West player in new ways this season.

The first goal is for Hamilton to improve as a defender. Taking away shooters. Not being late to closeouts. After a slower start to the season, Otzelberger said Hamilton had his best defensive game against Kansas State.

Next was becoming an elite rebounder. The Rebels typically play small with four guards, and they need to grab as many rebounds as possible to prevent teams from taking advantage of their lack of size.

Hamilton is averaging 6.2 rebounds, up from 5.5 a season ago. Otzelberger thinks Hamilton can get that average to eight — the number he had against Kansas State.

“He’s as good of a guard rebounder as I’ve been around or seen,” Otzelberger said.

Hamilton’s final goals were improving his outside shooting (he’s averaging almost two more 3-point attempts per game this season) and his playmaking. No one else on the team can break down a defense like him. So when he gets by his man and forces help defenders to him, he has to know when to head to the rim and when to look for an open shooter.

He’s getting much better at it. He’s averaging four assists — compared with 1.4 last season — and his passing was key to UNLV’s first win. Three of Jenkins’ seven 3s against the Wildcats came off Hamilton assists.

“Me and David, we’re getting that good chemistry since the summer, since we started playing together,” Hamilton said before the season. “I’m a driver, and he’s a 3-point shooter. It’s going to be hard for defenses to guard us because it’s really good for us to make plays for each other. We look for each other a lot.”

The Rebels hope the Kansas State performance is just the start for Hamilton. He’s already “the best driver in the Mountain West right now,” according to senior Mbacke Diong. If he brings other elements to his game, he will raise the ceiling of the team.

“When Bryce brings that degree of determination to the floor, we have a chance to be a good team,” Otzelberger said. “He’s talented. But when he’s talented with that focus if teams bring help defenders, he’s going to make the kicks to his teammates and he’s going to have that look in his eyes and that determination defensively, I think he’s really going to be special.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.