Late starts part of the game for UNLV Rebels

Whether it’s concerns with officiating, playing in high altitude or preparing for a late tipoff, basketball coaches don’t like to make much of the circumstance.

They don’t want it getting in the players’ heads, but it doesn’t mean adjustments aren’t made.

Coaches still have to make the right balances for 8 p.m. starts, just as UNLV’s are doing for Wednesday’s game against Boise State at the Thomas & Mack Center. CBS Sports Network will televise the game.

“It’s about getting the guys not to have to worry too much about that stuff,” UNLV coach Marvin Menzies said. “But the staff, we’re in the office, going, ‘Let’s do this, and let’s eat at this time.’ We’re talking about 15 minutes this way or 30 minutes this way. We do all of the mind-bending in the staff meetings, but we don’t like it to be on the kids as much. We’re not asking to have their input on this stuff. We’re telling them what they need to do and making sure we hold them accountable for that.”

The Rebels (8-7, 1-1 Mountain West), who are 3½-point underdogs, hope to build on their 81-75 defeat of Wyoming on Saturday. UNLV opened as a 1-point underdog in that game, which closed as a pick ’em.

Boise State (9-4, 2-0) is first in the conference in rebounding average at plus-4.7 per game and second in allowing a 66.7-point average.

And Menzies knows it will be a challenge inside for his players, especially when it comes to defensive rebounding.

“We’ve been hammering on these guys to block out,” Menzies said. “They’re getting better at being conscientious of the fact that they’ve got to get that guy on their back, but their technique is not very good. We’re not hitting people. We’re not stepping into a guy and touching him and making contact with him.

“We’re settling, in defensive rebounding, with our guys being on the inside of him. Well, then it’s a jumping contest. It’s not high school anymore. You’re not going to outjump everybody.”

For Boise State, from the Mountain time zone, this game will feel like a 9 p.m. start. Such is life for Mountain West teams, which play late games for the sake of appearing on TV.

The Rebels play six 8 p.m. PT games, with the Dec. 28 meeting at Colorado State starting at 9 p.m. Mountain time.

Menzies said the late starts are a factor in preparation but not an overriding one.

“An hour one way or the other is not a big deal,” he said. “It’s when you’ve got to go back east or far west, Hawaii. Those kinds of trips, you do have to factor in some of that stuff.”

UNLV’s longest trip this season was to Portland, Oregon, on Dec. 17 to face the Ducks on a neutral court, but that was in the Pacific time zone. The Rebels’ longest treks eastward are the three to the Front Range to face Air Force, Colorado State and Wyoming, and UNLV plays in only two time zones this season.

So it’s not an especially difficult travel schedule, at least no more than usual.

And for UNLV’s coaches and players, even the ones in their first season in the program (which is nearly all of them), the late starts might be a little bit of an annoyance. But they are a fact of life treated the same as how officials call a game and the rigors of playing in high altitude.

“I don’t think it affects anything,” forward Christian Jones said. “We usually play late nights anyway. It gives us extra time to prepare for games mentally.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.