While it’s always a pleasing sound for basketball coaches when a fax machine signals the impending arrival of a signed letter of intent, welcoming new players to your program in 2017 now comes with a hint of apprehension.
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The opening chapter of how the Rebels went from a team under Lon Kruger that made four NCAA fields his last five years to one that just concluded the worst season in program history begins in 2011, when Nigel Williams-Goss was a sophomore at Findlay Prep.
From the second a ridiculous 62-52 overtime loss to San Diego State ended on Thursday, how UNLV takes the next steps of improvement is squarely on the shoulders of coach Marvin Menzies.
UNLV president Len Jessup is searching for a new athletic director, and it will be the most important hire he makes during his time at the university.
When you are in the first year leading a program and your team is this bad, the rebuilding process can’t begin until the present tense of inferior ability has been addressed.
Simply, the Mountain West needs UNLV and San Diego State to be good, and that’s not the case this season for teams that have the most conference wins since the league was founded in July 1999.
UNLV has never lost 17 games in a season. It’s one defeat from doing so. The collapse of its program is almost sad to watch, but knowing why it collapsed is even worse.
The fair point now is that you can’t change now. Or shouldn’t. Not those who understood from the beginning what this season would mean for UNLV basketball.
This isn’t the UNLV-San Diego State matchup most have come to expect and anticipate but for one significant point: When it comes to winning time, the Aztecs can still frustrate the heck out of the Rebels.
When he was young, Cheickna Dembele would have to walk more than 30 minutes to find a basket at which to shoot, because that’s what everyone did. They walked.