Menzies doesn’t see UNLV’s early success as cause for celebration

The first three games of the season could not have gone much better for the UNLV men’s basketball team.

Nobody’s booking a party planner.

“It’s way too early to be celebrating about anything,” UNLV coach Marvin Menzies said of his team’s three consecutive comfortable home victories to open the season. “We haven’t done anything yet.”

The Rebels will venture outside the Thomas & Mack Center for the first time when they play Rice (1-2) in the MGM Resorts Main Event on Monday — albeit just down the street at T-Mobile Arena.

It will be a chance for Menzies to find out a bit more about his young team.

“It’s similar to a road game in that it gives us a chance to play away from our home facility and have a little bit of distraction by not going through your normal routine,” he said. “The logistics of the day are different. It doesn’t really create adversity, it just creates a different environment for preparation.”

Playing away from home presents a different challenge, but Monday’s opponent may not be as much of an obstacle as it appeared when the schedule was made.

Rice coach Mike Rhoades left Rice after 23 wins last season to take over at Virginia Commonwealth. Star player Egor Koulechov decided to take his 18.2 points and 8.9 rebounds per game and transfer to Florida, where he is off to a hot start for the highly-ranked Gators.

New coach Scott Pera still has a formidable backcourt, led by Conor Cashaw and his 17.3 points per game through three outings.

The Owls are off to a slow start, having already dropped home games to Eastern Kentucky and Georgia State.

Menzies isn’t taking them lightly.

“They’re versatile at a lot of different positions,” he said. “Their guard play is very good and they’re coached by a guy who has a lot of familiarity with the program even though it’s his first year because he was the associate head coach and just moved up. He’s very experienced. He’s been in the business a long time and knows what he’s doing. They run some things you have to prepare for because of his style.”

That’s where UNLV’s focus has been since beating Eastern Washington with a stifling defense that held the Eagles below 30 percent from the field in the second half.

“At this stage, you just want to win the next game,” Menzies said.

“All of our preparation at this point is designed to be scout-specific for some of the practice and then another portion is team development on the things we want to own going forward, our fast break and our defensive style and things like that. You’re kind of combining the two, so the assessment part is tough because you’re still on the grind to get better.”

Despite the hot start, Menzies knows his team is still a work in progress.

But he’s enjoying the journey to get there.

“The season is like a book and we’ve only seen three chapters,” he said. “So far, they’re pretty good. Now we get to see where it goes.”

Utah and Mississippi will meet in the other heavyweight bracket matchup at 9:30 p.m. The losers of the two games will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, with the championship game to follow at 9:30 p.m.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.