Tom Spousta and Mark Anderson discuss UNLV’s loss to Air Force, Tony Sanchez’s future with the team, and the upcoming UNLV Basketball season.
UNLV Basketball
UNLV point guard Noah Robotham had the chance to accept a scholarship, but turned it down so that it could help with recruiting. He was one of the Rebels’ representatives at Mountain West basketball media day on Tuesday.
UNLV was picked sixth in the Mountain West media basketball poll, announced Tuesday at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. No Rebels were selected to the preseason all-conference team.
Sexual harassment allegations triggered an investigation of Eric Toliver, then-compliance director for UNLV’s athletic department, by an outside law firm earlier this year. Toliver quit Feb. 9 and hasn’t been heard from since.
UNLV’s Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua was one of the first two products of the NBA Global Academy to sign with American colleges. He was discovered while playing in Africa.
The UNLV men’s and women’s basketball teams will take part in a fan event at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 19 outside Sam Boyd Stadium. It will take place before the Rebels’ football game against Air Force at 7 p.m.
UNLV lost its starting backcourt from last season in Jordan Johnson and Jovan Mooring. Now, freshmen Trey Woodbury and Bryce Hamilton are trying to help fill those holes.
UNLV’s Noah Robotham, a Bishop Gorman graduate who sat out last season after transferring from Akron, practiced Friday knowing he would play in games. He is expected to start at point guard for the Rebels.
Dan Ayala was one of the founders of the informal basketball coaches’ breakfast held in conjunction with summertime horse racing meetings in Del Mar, California. The former Lady Rebels coach died Monday at age 82.
UNLV will play 27 games this basketball season on an ESPN channel, CBS Sports Network, AT&T SportsNet or the Big Ten Network.
Dan Ayala, who owns the highest winning percentage among UNLV women’s basketball coaches, died Monday in hospice care at 82. Ayala coached the Lady Rebels from 1975 to 1980, going 109-23 for an 82.7 winning percentage.
New Jersey point guard Josh Pierre-Louis committed to UNLV’s basketball team on Sunday. That could complete the Rebels’ 2018-19 recruiting class.
The Boyd Gaming Corp. has pledged $5 million to UNLV’s athletic department over a multiyear period. It is the largest corporate gift ever for UNLV athletics.
UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois saw a lot of positives in her first year, with five conference championships coming from Olympic sports. But she knows most of the focus is on football and men’s basketball.
Paris Strawther, now a senior, is one of three Las Vegas natives on the roster for the Lady Rebels, who wrapped up summer practice this month.
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