Last night showed how easy it is to slow down a game against a team that wants to run. Very few teams force tempo, UNLV has to get used to playing with more poise. You can run all over sub 300 teams usually, even when they attempt to slow it down - they don't have the talent, the depth, etc. But when you face real teams, if they want to slow you down, you're going to get slowed down. It's part of why you don't want to play so many scrubs.
I didn't think the road adversely impacted the Rebels much at all, which is a great thing if true. I think the adjustment to tempo was probably what hurt them more than anything, not the travel or venue. Hopefully that's true, because battling on the road, as they did last night, can go a long way.
There's a ton of extremely valuable game film on this one and I'm certain the coaches will cover every specific play where the Rebels blew it. I'm talking about "winning time" when the Rebels played "give it away time" instead. I'm positive this stuff will be hammered home on a team and individual basis. It's up to the guys to absorb it and make the adjustments. Good teaching moments all around. I gotta admit, I was extremely disappointed with the reaction during "winning time". It was as poor of a reaction as you could have had. I didn't expect that from Jordie and I didn't expect it from Jojo. They're too experienced to play like that in tight games.
In spite of the loss, an at large bid was a very remote possiblity given the strength of schedule, so along that line of thinking, this loss is "no big deal". If it pays in dividends with learning, the loss is just fine. This wasn't "losing to Howard" and pissing away post season possibilities, so there's no real harm with the loss.
Being brought down to earth as fans isn't really a bad thing. One crackpot voter out of however many puts us at #24, people sprout wood. It's not a top 25 team, everyone can see that. I think they're pretty good, better than anybody anticipated, but I also feel the gaudy numbers have been built because UNLV severely padded the numbers (and perception) through playing horrific teams. Where being brought down to earth hurts is with home attendance. It'd have been nice to be undefeated and facing AZ because I'd think it would have drawn better. Most people see stats and a record and figure greatness or crapiness based on those numbers alone, not how those numbers were achieved. I still hope we can pack the place with more than 14K fans against AZ, because they're very beatable on our home court. And I think we will beat them.
Our bigs were dominated. McCoy didn't defend well straight up. Granted, there was some early foul trouble and UNI was very crafty, experienced and skilled in the post. And they were extremely physical which may have taken us by surprise since it's the first time anybody has bothered to really body the Rebels in the post. The entire UNI team was physical and scrappy. But our big man wasn't effective defensively and he slowly disappeared on offense. Was this a lack of effort on his part or a lack of recognition by the guards? Something to keep an eye on because a criticism of McCoy has been that he tends to disengage with focus and intensity when things don't go well. It looked like it was more of a guard issue, though.
That last call was terrible. Not only that, it was critical. Can't guarantee a win with the proper last call, but it would have definitely been looking better for the Rebels. Technically, it WAS a foul, but it's one that should never be made. There was definite contact, whether a charge or a block, I don't know because in my mind a play like that is always a no call. If UNLV didn't blow so many opportunities down the stretch, I'd be more upset at the call, but the Rebels put themselves in that vulnerable position by playing too much hero ball down the stretch.
With the liklihood of an at large always being a distant long shot, "bouncebackability" isn't nearly as critical this season. Face it, if the season comes down to the MWCT and some post season tournament, they are single elimination. So more important than being able to immediately bounce back from disappointment is steady improvement over the course of the season. Though UNLV lost their first game of the season last night, it wasn't a "step back". It just exposed some things we needed to see, it showed some weaknesses, areas for improvement, etc. It's only a step back if the loss mentally suffocates a team but that's just not going to happen. So seriously, it needs to be taken with a grain of salt rather than some season defining moment. No loss is fun, but this really isn't that big of a deal.
I think this team can stand up to any team in this conference. The conference isn't strong, but it'll be challenging. I like how the Rebels stack up overall. I think being able to withstand playing a slower tempo, like last night, will be critical to season success. There aren't many teams in conference that will look to stay with the Rebels, a few are too weak to do anything about it though. The more grinders, the more zones the Rebels can face over the next three or four weeks, the better it will be for the Rebels long term.
Jojo was not good last night. He probably had more ill advised shots last night than he did combined all season up until last night. Should he have been benched? Does he need to be reeled in? I think it's not as easy as it all sounds. We need Jojo - he's a good shotmaker and he's one of a two guys on the floor that can bail you out of tough situations. You don't want to just yank the green light and possibily impact his confidence. Yeah, he needs to be corralled a bit, but he's shown he's open to it - he grew alot as a player last season, showing alot of changes and acceptance to coaching. Last night, he busted into his early-UNLV and pre-UNLV mindset. I think that can be fixed to a degree, but you can't just expect him to never put up an ill-advised shot, it's part of his game. They just need to be limited and hopefully extinguished during critical parts of games (though he sometimes makes them at critical parts of games).
Jordie finally had a poor game. He's been the single most impactful player on the floor for the Rebels this season so it's not surprising that the Rebels struggled when Jordie struggled. I think this game is definitely an outlier for him, but again, going back to the level of competition played so far, hopefully this is just a case of one poor game for Johnson. I think that's probably it because it's not like UNI was strong with guard play. But you can bet that going forward, teams are going to look to diffuse Johnson's game as much as possible because if he struggles, the Rebel offense is going to struggle. That's not a criticism because every single team has critical spots that can be weakened and exploited. Jordie is the spot that needs to shine regularly for the Rebels to be successful.
Timeout or no timeout? That's one of those things that works/doesn't work sometimes... I mean, the schools of thought are both valid - call a timeout, draw up a great play that works... but it gives the defense time to regroup and do what they want too. So I can't really fault a coach with whatever they decide. If they call a timeout and win on the play, the coach is a genius. If you call a time out and blow it, the coach is an idiot for letting the defense set up. Don't call a time out and catch the other team on their heels, coaching genius again. Don't call the time out and don't get a quality shot, the coach is an idiot, he should have called a time out. I tend to lean more towards not calling the timeout in those situations but a lot of different factors figure into that decision.
