Rebel Report Card: UNLV vs New Mexico

BACKCOURT: D

Patrick McCaw is providing the spark the UNLV coaching staff had hoped for when they inserted him in the starting lineup before the San Diego State game. The problem is that spark has failed to ignite a fire and is fizzling out quickly. McCaw had his second consecutive outstanding first half, followed by a mediocre second half. After posting eight points, four rebounds and six assists in the first 20 minutes, the freshman scored five points after halftime, but had just one rebound and didn’t record an assist. He needs to put together 40 minutes at his best if UNLV hopes to start turning the season around. McCaw has become that important.

Rashad Vaughn scored 13 points, but just failed to have much of an impact in key moments of Wednesday night’s 71-69 home loss to New Mexico. Cody Doolin really struggled. He appeared overmatched against what was little more than a token press applied by New Mexico and finished the game with zero points and just three assists.

FRONTCOURT: C

Chris Wood continues to be the most enigmatic Rebel. It was the good version that showed up on Wednesday. Playing without his typical frontcourt mate, the injured Goodluck Okonoboh, Wood picked up the slack with 20 points and nine rebounds. He was active and efficient, making 6 of 10 shots. Wood did turn the ball over three times and miss three 3-pointers, but he did enough good to balance that out. Dwayne Morgan played fine in place of Okonoboh. He had seven points and three rebounds in 24 minutes. Morgan wasn’t the problem, but he didn’t make people forget about Okonoboh either.

BENCH: B+

Because of Okonoboh’s injury, UNLV went into the game with really only two reserves on the bench. Both played pretty well at times on Wednesday night. Jordan Cornish made three 3-pointers to help the Rebels stay in the game. Jelan Kendrick, who played 29 minutes, had seven points, three rebounds and three assists. He did turn the ball over on the final play of the game. That’s not really his fault, though. He should have never had the ball.

COACHING: D-

How on earth, with nearly 10 seconds remaining in the game and UNLV down by two points, does Kendrick end up with the ball? He was, at best, the fourth option on the floor. Those kinds of things just can’t happen. Dave Rice has to make sure everyone’s on the same page. That’s his job. There was just too much time on the clock to get caught in a mad scramble like the Rebels did with 10 seconds remaining. There’s also the question of why Rice even called timeout after New Mexico scored at that point. Most coaches prefer to just get the ball up the floor before the defense can be set up. That has to be a better option than Jelan Kendrick going coast-to-coast.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.