Rebel Report Card: UNLV at Wichita State

Backcourt: D minus
The only thing keeping this area from an F is freshman Jalen Poyser, whose two first-half 3-pointers didn't allow Wichita State to run away and hide. UNLV starts three guards — Jerome Seagears, Patrick McCaw and Ike Nwamu — that combined for 11 turnovers and 8-of-25 shooting. They were a combined 2-of-12 on 3s. They never did get a handle on guarding Wichita State senior star point guard Fred VanVleet, who scored a game-high-17 and controlled the pace from the opening tip. They couldn't turn the Shockers over near enough. Ron Baker, another senior standout guard for the Shockers, went for 13 points and six rebounds. It was thought beforehand that Wichita State had an edge in the backcourt. In truth, it had a huge one.

Frontcourt: C-minus
Weird. UNLV was actually even on the boards at 36, but allowed 14 offensive rebounds and 10 second-chance points. They were out-hustled by an undersized team that has now won 35 straight home games, which can never happen if you have any chance at pulling an upset. "We weren't as focused as we should have been," UNLV freshman center Stephen Zimmerman Jr. said. "We should have rebounded a whole lot better. We didn't have anyone with double-digit rebounds, which is a big reason for the loss. I don't want to say they wanted it more than us, but that might have been it. They worked really hard. That's a game-changer." Zimmerman led UNLV with 11 points and the Rebels had 26 points in the paint to 28 for the Shockers.

Bench: C
It scored 20 of the team's 50 points and Poyser (eight points in 12 minutes) had one of his best outings as a Rebel. Ben Carter added seven points and seven rebounds and Derrick Jones Jr. was active with five points and five boards. But there was no consistent flow to UNLV and no one stood out as making a major difference.

Coaching: D
Dave Rice said the two areas his staff stressed most before the game were taking care of the ball and hitting the defensive boards. The Rebels failed miserably at both with the 19 turnovers and allowing the 14 offensive rebounds. UNLV couldn't press and trap as much as it hoped because it couldn't make a shot, hitting just 19-of-47. Give the coaches credit for keeping their players mentally in a game that could have gone south several times. The Rebels fought hard enough. They just weren't near good enough, certainly not at a level needed to win in Koch Arena.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on "Seat and Ed" on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney