Part of the message from the time practice began for UNLV this college basketball season was about reaction. How would the Rebels respond to success? How would they deal with adversity?
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When the talent continued to sign on the dotted line and the depth became more than UNLV’s basketball team has enjoyed under fifth-year head coach Dave Rice, it wasn’t guaranteed the Rebels would immediately turn a corner back towards the NCAA Tournament.
He knew the matchup before it was announced and not because Dave Rice had some inside source feeding him information. It just made too much sense, is all.
The schedule for UNLV’s basketball team to begin this season allowed the Rebels a cushion for success if they didn’t fall into the trap of playing down to opponents, if they didn’t suffer the sort of lapse in focus that has already caught several heavily favored teams across the country.
UNLV has concluded both preseason contests and the reviews are more positive than not, a team with definite depth and skill and an ability to put on the floor the sort of combinations that will make preparing for the Rebels a challenge.
We have heard a lot about the D word when it comes to UNLV basketball this season, about how the Rebels have more depth than at any time under fifth-year coach Dave Rice. That’s because Oregon transfer Ben Carter is now eligible and freshman Stephen Zimmerman chose to stay home; size and talent in the front court haven’t been this extensive in some time. There are others, of course.
When it comes to selling the idea that getting to the NBA would be best accomplished at a particular college, UNLV’s coaching staff ranks among the finest nationally in delivering such a message. Dave Rice and his assistants own the most important of factors in such recruiting wars: tangible evidence.
The future is always about three weeks in March, because fair or not, sensible or foolish, right or wrong, college basketball teams and those who coach them are ultimately judged on how they perform once the madness begins.
UNLV basketball coach Dave Rice spoke from a hallway adjacent to the Mendenhall Center’s practice courts, several of his players gathering inside that doorway as the likes of James Harden and Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul competed in drills. They watched every dribble, soaked in every pass.
The level of disappointment for former UNLV star Chris Wood had to have reached epic levels, and yet this is the risk one takes when deciding to forfeit remaining college eligibility and chase a professional dream.