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Rice making use of young, talented Rebels

The main responsibilities of a college basketball coach can be broken down in much the same way as an episode of “Law and Order.”

Most people are familiar with the concept of the television show. The first half of every episode examines the work of the police investigating a crime. The second half deals strictly with the prosecutors and their pursuit of convictions in the courtroom.

A college coach spends much of the offseason identifying and recruiting players. That’s the first half of the episode.

The second half would be running practices and coaching games.

Just like on “Law and Order,” those two distinct aspects of the job can become very interconnected.

Tuesday night’s win by Dave Rice’s UNLV team over No. 3 Arizona would be an example.

Rice has been pigeonholed as a great recruiter who struggles as a game coach, but there weren’t a whole lot of detractors among the fans who rushed on the floor to celebrate Rice’s second win over a top five team in his tenure.

The work he has put in on the recruiting trail had a lot to do with making Rice and his staff look like geniuses in the 71-67 win at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Rice knew his adversary Sean Miller would have his Wildcats well-versed in what UNLV wanted to do offensively.

He also knew what kind of ability his team possessed.

So a good portion of Rice’s game plan on Tuesday night involved just turning some of that talent loose.

Chris Wood, Rashad Vaughn and Patrick McCaw didn’t let Rice down.

Wood had 24 points and 10 rebounds in by far his best overall performance as a Rebel. Vaughn struggled with his shot a bit, but fought through a tough Arizona defense for 21 points by hitting a variety of difficult shots. McCaw provided his typical spark off the bench, finishing with 13 points and seven rebounds.

“I think those are our three best one-on-one players,” Rice said. “When you play a defense as good as Arizona, they make you go make plays. They take you out of your first and second option and make you make a play off the dribble and those are our three best players in doing that.”

Game coaching, the second half of the equation, can be much easier at times when such a good job is done in recruiting.

Now the challenge becomes progressing.

While there was a lot of talk about Tuesday being a “statement win” that proves to the college basketball world just how good this UNLV team is capable of playing, Rice did acknowledge the job is far from complete.

“We’ve got to get a lot better. We know that,” he said. “But this is certainly a major step in the right direction.”

Vaughn said the performance by UNLV is just a sign of things to come for the young team that saw every point on Tuesday night scored by a freshman or sophomore.

“When we’re focused, I don’t think anybody can beat us,” he said. “If we play like that every game, the sky’s the limit.”

Vaughn and his teammates know Tuesday night’s effort needs to be just the start. It’s a long time before the case goes to the college basketball jury in March.

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

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