Boise State and Utah State

[lvhiker]

The next two games could give some useful information about how UNLV will do in conference. Boise State is predicted to come in third in the conference. How well the rebels play against them at the TMC will give a good indication of how we stack up against an upper tier MW team.

On the other hand, Utah State is predicted to finish below UNLV. In principle, that ought to be a winnable road game.

Winning two this week would indicate that UNLV is on the way to a major over achieving season. Splitting would not be so bad since ending up .500 in conference would be better than most of us expected. Losing two would destroy any momentum from the Wyoming victor.

This team has been fun to watch and I am looking forward to these next two games.

 

[TarkisGod]

This team has been fun to watch and I am looking forward to these next two games.

That is why Marvin Menzies, despite all of the bumps in the road getting there, was a great hire. They’re “fun to watch”. How many times, over the past 4 years could you honestly say that? Despite the superior talent, they almost never looked like they were having fun. Every game felt like walking in quicksand.

I’ll narrow that to conference games. Obviously, it was thoroughly enjoyable watching The Rebels take down a North Carolina, Arizona, Oregon or Indiana. But those wins just made the MW season all-the-more frustrating.

This team, win or lose, really wants to be better. They go out every game, and bust their butts. And I love watching them…

 

[Rod_the_Rebel]

I think a little of the "enjoyment" of watching this team comes from having far less expectations than last year. We're happy just to see the guys responding to coaching and even winning a few games. This is fine because it is a rebuilding year, but if we were sitting with this record and performances with last seasons team or any team from the last few years we might be less enthused. Enjoy the season and the ups and downs it will bring.

 

[lvhiker]

I think a little of the "enjoyment" of watching this team comes from having far less expectations than last year. We're happy just to see the guys responding to coaching and even winning a few games. This is fine because it is a rebuilding year, but if we were sitting with this record and performances with last seasons team or any team from the last few years we might be less enthused. Enjoy the season and the ups and downs it will bring.

I agree 100%. But that is the situation we find ourselves in for the 2016-2017 season. My expectations for 2017-2018 and beyond are substantially higher. But for this year, I am much less stressed out than I have been for a while

 

[TarkisGod]

Well, there aren’t many times when you can think of Boise St and Duke in the same sentence, but that was a thoroughly humiliating beat-down by a good, but not great team. The Rebels must have been busy celebrating the Wyoming win, and forgot that they had another game last night.

I know they’re not as bad as they looked, but Marvin called a time-out after two possessions, followed by substitutions after another couple of plays, signaling that he knew that they were in deep trouble here. After the game, he apologized for the effort. He added “That was something that I’m not accustomed to and it threw me for a loop. I’m not quite sure why that was the way it was tonight but we will definitely play harder.”

That’s what was so disheartening about this disaster on our home-court no less. The total lack of effort. I’ve been saying how much I enjoy this team because they try so hard. The sooner we forget about this one the better.

Not to take anything away from Boise. They look like a veteran, well-coached (

ugh!) team. But there was absolutely no defense. It looked like a combination of lay-up drills and un-contested jump-shots. No rim protection. On offense, there was a great deal of standing around.

I expect that MM will be pretty hard on them over these next three days, before they head to Utah St on Saturday. I thought, and still cling to the notion, that it’s a winnable road-game. The players can’t be feeling very good about what just happened. Hopefully they can use this feeling as motivation to bring their best every time. They appeared to take the night off.

I can’t really think of any positives to take from this. Let’s just mark it as an “L” and move on. It’s just one loss, whether it be a buzzer-beater or…I’m still here, Rebels.

Leon Rice --->

Go Rebels!

 

[Kruger's brother Fred]

It's tough to win on the road in our conference, or any conference. The goal was to mostly hold serve at home and try to steal a few on the road.

Losing at home to the likely first or second place team is not so bad at this stage. We didn't really expect to compete for the title. It's just that it was so ugly.

So, let's hope we can steal one on the road now. Utah State is down, but they had a tradition of being tough at home before entering the MWC. 2 - 2 would be decent. Go Rebs!

 

[TarkisGod]

The books have posted Utah St as a 7.5-point favorite with a total of 145.5. I think they're responding to the Boise St debacle.

I think what happened last Wednesday was an anomaly. The Rebels won't play like that again. I would take the points here. Hopefully they won't be too intimidated by the environment. I know it's bitter-cold in Logan. But as far as I know they'll be playing the game indoors so...

Go Rebels!

 

[j. spilotro]

The books have posted Utah St as a 7.5-point favorite with a total of 145.5. I think they're responding to the Boise St debacle.

I think what happened last Wednesday was an anomaly. The Rebels won't play like that again. I would take the points here. Hopefully they won't be too intimidated by the environment. I know it's bitter-cold in Logan. But as far as I know they'll be playing the game indoors so...

Go Rebels!

An anomaly means it's something that doesn't happen often. UNLV has played 16 games. Last game wasn't the first no show "anomaly", was it?

 

[TarkisGod]

An anomaly means it's something that doesn't happen often. UNLV has played 16 games. Last game wasn't the first no show "anomaly", was it?

In light of the display @ Logan, it’s hard to dispute what you are saying. But I wrote that prior to the last game, and at that point I thought the term was fair.

The instance that can be cited in opposition would be the South Alabama game. That was really the one time where The Rebels lost a game that they were expected to win. But it was the very first game, and it was a relatively tight affair.

You can’t be referencing the Duke, Kansas or Oregon games. In those contests The Rebels were, not unexpectedly, going against teams that were enormously over their heads.

The Boise St game was in my opinion, the first time that UNLV played a team in their own league, both figuratively and literally, where they just laid down. I had not seen that before, even in the lopsided losses to the Top-10 teams. In those games, and all of their others, I thought that they played as hard as they could, until the final buzzer. Thus my thought that it was an “anomaly”.

My opinion (and my wallet) is currently undergoing some alterations…

 

[j. spilotro]

In light of the display @ Logan, it’s hard to dispute what you are saying. But I wrote that prior to the last game, and at that point I thought the term was fair.

The instance that can be cited in opposition would be the South Alabama game. That was really the one time where The Rebels lost a game that they were expected to win. But it was the very first game, and it was a relatively tight affair.

You can’t be referencing the Duke, Kansas or Oregon games. In those contests The Rebels were, not unexpectedly, going against teams that were enormously over their heads.

The Boise St game was in my opinion, the first time that UNLV played a team in their own league, both figuratively and literally, where they just laid down. I had not seen that before, even in the lopsided losses to the Top-10 teams. In those games, and all of their others, I thought that they played as hard as they could, until the final buzzer. Thus my thought that it was an “anomaly”.

My opinion (and my wallet) is currently undergoing some alterations…

Nah, I didn't expect those to be wins. But 49 points????????? And looking so lost and lethargic? I surely expected to compete more than we did. ASU? 25?

UNLV has lost 7 of last 10 by an average of 23 points. I don't know that the school has ever had such a record of futility and demonstration of not competing.

Today I thought they played "ok" for 30 minutes, though streaky - streaky good and streaky bad. But for some reason, UNLV decided to stay in an ineffective zone and they were torched... while being torched and the game was slipping away, because of hot shooting and no coverage in the zone, UNLV STAYED in the zone and it got worse. Head scratcher that it wasn't switched up until they were behind 15-16 points...

 

[TarkisGod]

Nah, I didn't expect those to be wins. But 49 points????????? And looking so lost and lethargic? I surely expected to compete more than we did. ASU? 25?

UNLV has lost 7 of last 10 by an average of 23 points. I don't know that the school has ever had such a record of futility and demonstration of not competing.

Ok, I surrender..."anomaly" was a poor choice of words. But I repeat, and insist that the Boise St game was the first time I was truly taken aback by the (lack of) effort I was witnessing on the court.

Honestly I expected the Duke debacle to be precisely as bad as it turned out to be. The ASU game was disappointing, but that was because The Rebels looked like they were in it for most of the first half. And Bobby Hurley? Ugh! Not that Duke is a better memory, but I knew we wouldn't be doing any avenging this season. But Bobby Poop-his-Pants Hurley?

Seriously, after the Wyoming game, it appeared that we could compete in the MW. I don't think I was alone in that assessment. Following this week's events, it now seems like we're headed for the cellar. And we very much belong there.

Being a Rebel fan is going to take a different level of commitment than we are accustomed to. I'm sure you'll still be here, as will I. It's going to get mighty lonely around here. But my faith is un-shaken.

Go Rebels!