UNLV quickly turns attention to Boise State

UNLV’s players insist they have put Saturday’s 66-63 victory at then-No. 4 San Diego State behind them and are focused on Boise State, up next at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Thomas &Mack Center.

There’s a good reason for that. The Broncos won the first meeting 73-66 on Jan. 8.

“We need to be motivated,” coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “We’ve got to continue to improve with our team. When we were up there (at Boise State), we were somewhat in the game, but never really in striking distance. We’ve gotten a lot better defensively. That’s going to need to be on display on Wednesday to shut them down.”

UNLV (15-14, 10-6 Mountain West), which has won three consecutive games, has plenty to play for this week as the Rebels wrap up the regular season. After facing Boise State, they play at San Jose State on Saturday.

The Rebels need to finish in the top five of the conference standings to get a bye into the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament, which is next week at the Thomas &Mack. Thanks to the victory over the Aztecs, the Rebels’ destiny is in their hands.

That’s because the tiebreaker after head-to-head is the record against the top team working down through the standings. The Rebels are the only team to beat regular-season conference champion San Diego State, and simply winning out this week will get them off the sixth seed.

Kenpom gives UNLV a 56-percent chance of defeating Boise State and a 76-percent chance of defeating San Jose State.

The worst-case scenario for the Rebels is to lose both games and cede control of their fate.

This final week could play out many different ways. Chances are good that UNLV could finish anywhere from third to fifth. A fourth or fifth seed is essentially the same. Those teams meet in the quarterfinals, with the probability of facing San Diego State in the semifinals.

As important as beating the Aztecs over the weekend was for the Rebels, it would pale in comparison to defeating them next week.

“It’s not the end goal of our program to win against a conference rival on the road,” Otzelberger said. “That’s something we’re going to strive to do throughout the course of our season year in and year out.”

Before thinking about next week, UNLV needs to take care of business against the Broncos.

UNLV started two seniors and a junior at San Diego State, and no freshmen are on the roster. That level of experience should help them to be locked in for Boise State.

“If you have a bunch of freshmen, they would take that win and run with it and celebrate, which is normal because you don’t know better,” said guard Elijah Mitrou-Long, a graduate transfer from Texas. “But we’ve got a lot guys who have been around here before, been at different colleges and probably played and beat ranked teams. It’s good to have veteran guys because it keeps us even keel.”

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.