Does Utah suck or....

[RunningRebs]

Are the Rebs. that good?

That was impressive to say the least. I have been reserving judgement but they were dogs in this one and beat the Stuff outta the Utes.

First loss is when?

 

[Vegas007]

Hard to know how they will do but they didn’t suck before they played us, which is one reason they were slight favorites even with the game being in Vegas.

 

[ImmaRebel]

Last few years we went against a good team and always seemed to have an "off" night. At least this time we forced them to be off their game.

 

[Vegas007]

I would expect Utah to do well if they were in our conference this year so that’s encouraging to me.

 

[MonsterJam]

Utah is very good - they were undefeated and had beaten two SEC teams soundly.

We had a great game plan, worked around a down game from Shakur, and prevailed. CMM himself said this isn't the most common outcome of the game if we played 10 times.

Still, enjoy the win!

 

[Rebel1986]

I love how Utah fans are on twitter talking about how they have always dominated UNLV in basketball, and UNLV shouldn't be able to compete with them. Interesting considering over the last decade UNLV is 10-5 verse Utah.

 

[b4ron]

Does everyone feel Shakur had a down game? I felt like he dominated on the defensive end. He had a few steal. A few tipped passes early. He kept his man in check. Drew a lot of double teams on the rebounds. He set the tone on defense.

 

[VegasRebMan]

Utah is a very good team. Not sure if they had a off night, we had a hot night, or just a bad match-up for Utah. UNLV has good talent, good balance, and a good leader at PG. It will be fun to see how this team progresses through the year.

 

[khokhol8]

Does everyone feel Shakur had a down game? I felt like he dominated on the defensive end. He had a few steal. A few tipped passes early. He kept his man in check. Drew a lot of double teams on the rebounds. He set the tone on defense.

He had an off night for stats but he was still very important in the win last night. Utah was so worried about Juice rebounding that McCoy was able to gobble up a bunch of them. I love the “Juuuuuiiiiiiccee” cheer. He is awesome!

 

[BrianGregory]

Does everyone feel Shakur had a down game? I felt like he dominated on the defensive end. He had a few steal. A few tipped passes early. He kept his man in check. Drew a lot of double teams on the rebounds. He set the tone on defense.

I was pretty shocked by the box score in the end cause dude was in the middle of every play. He is an absolute pleasure to watch on the court. Early hype but I'd probably take this team over any of the Dave rice teams. These guys just flat out go after it. Really impressive stuff in my opinion.

 

[TarkisGod]

First loss is when?

Well, the obvious choice is Arizona, but before we get to the Wildcats, we must deal with a good Northern Iowa team in the one true road test on the OOC schedule. The only other non-home or neutral site game is @ Pacific. A team that was 0-3 until Tuesday night, when they managed to defeat the Cadets of Air Force. That should be a “W” unless every single Rebel fails to show up

But we Rebel fans know all about UNI. They broke our hearts in 2010, Lon Kruger’s penultimate appearance as Rebel coach in the tournament. A miracle shot at the buzzer from near-half-court, by an unlikely hero named Ali Farokhmanesh sent the Panthers on to play Kansas, and sent the Rebels packing.

This season UNI appears to be very good. They got beat in their first game of the season. A simple task of trying to beat the Tar Heels at home, before they had a chance to settle in as a team. Since then they have gone undefeated, including their most recent win, over North Carolina State, which had just come from knocking off #2 Arizona. They now go on to face Villanova. So, you can’t say they’ve been un-tested.

On their home-floor, the Panthers will pose a much-greater threat than Utah on a (wink,wink) neutral site. This game scares me to death.

Go Rebels!

 

[rebel lover]

If NC state can beat the wildcats then so can we.

 

[TarkisGod]

I was pretty shocked by the box score in the end cause dude was in the middle of every play. He is an absolute pleasure to watch on the court. Early hype but I'd probably take this team over any of the Dave rice teams. These guys just flat out go after it. Really impressive stuff in my opinion.

I imagine, Shakur being the warrior that he is, that he was probably disappointed in his statistical performance last night. Probably not his lack of scoring, but rather the rebounds, which he normally owns. But even with those relatively sparse numbers, he didn’t fail to contribute in so many ways that may not show in the box score, but are crucial to the overall winning result.

I’ll be replaying that game at least three times. I want to watch it once, focusing entirely on Juiston. Then I’ll do it again for McCoy, and a third time for JJ. They’re all just a joy to watch. These guys are buying into what Coach Menzies is selling, and it’s working.

MM made some comments, during the recruiting process about getting “high-caliber young men”. But more often than not, that just coach-speak. However, in this case, he really meant it. These kids really want to get better, and they were pretty damn good to begin with.

Go Rebels!

 

[UNLV_Reb_808]

If NC state can beat the wildcats then so can we.

Another AZ loss last night to an unranked team. Hopefully they finish out strong because right now they stand to be our best OOC win.

 

[MonsterJam]

If Arizona continues its free fall, we might have already had our best OOC win.

 

[Rebel1986]

NIU is the best OOC team UNLV will play. They have wins over SMU and North Carolina St. with their only loss to North Carolina. They are currently losing by 6 to Villanova late in the game, but they are ranked #5.

 

[TarkisGod]

If Arizona continues its free fall, we might have already had our best OOC win.

Personally, I’m not pleased with Arizona’s free-fall, from #2 to out of the top-25 in the space of 48 hours. Sean Miller is too good of a coach, and he’s got too much talent for me to believe he won’t be able to fix what’s wrong with his team.

You can be sure he will spend the next week working on it. By the time the Rebels square off with the Wildcats, I fully expect them to be running on all cylinders. And given their two losses in the Bahamas, should we fall, it will be considered a deeper hit than it would have been, had they been undefeated, as we all expected. If we beat them, it won’t be considered the upset it would have been before this week’s troubles.

Looking over the (meaningless) rankings, as of today (11/24) the CBS/RPI/NittyGritty report, we currently sit at #34. Utah is #16, which is pretty good. We should become big boosters for the Utes from here on out. They should win the Pac-12…go Utes! If we survive the upcoming @NIU and Arizona week, we ought to crack the Top-25. Again, I’m well-aware that rankings mean very little in December. But it’s what makes being a fan a good time.

Go Rebels!
https://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/rankings/nitty-gritty-report

 

[UNLV_Reb_808]

NIU is the best OOC team UNLV will play. They have wins over SMU and North Carolina St. with their only loss to North Carolina. They are currently losing by 6 to Villanova late in the game, but they are ranked #5.

Agreed. They have done very well in the Bahamas. Also agree Utah for pac-12 champs!

 

[UNLV_Reb_808]

Like what you said Tark about cracking the top 25. Anyone remember last time we were top 25? 2013?

 

[TarkisGod]

If Arizona continues its free fall, we might have already had our best OOC win.

Jesus! Arizona drops another one. Purdue knocks them off 89-64. Now they're not just getting beat, they're getting blown out.The Wildcats must have been hitting the Mai-Tais pretty heavy down in the Bahamas.Three losses in 3 days! I don't know what to make of that. I can't recall a collapse like this, ever.

Go Rebels

 

[Vegas007]

I never thought beating Utah might be a more difficult task than beating Arizona.

 

[Rebel1986]

Utah easily beat Eastern Washington today.

 

[upsrebel]

Be careful about thinking Arizona will be easy. The last thing we want is for them get home, settle down and refocus. I’m glad we’re not their first game after the tournament.

 

[UNLVFansincebirth22]

That 7'1" center, Deondre Ayton, that Arizona has, is a complete man-child.

 

[MonsterJam]

I'm hoping he's more child than man.

 

[TarkisGod]

I never thought beating Utah might be a more difficult task than beating Arizona.

I still don’t believe it. There’s nothing good about what happened in the Bahamas this week. As I previously stated, Miller is too good a coach, and his team has too much talent, for a slide like this to continue. Of course, I would never have predicted the Wildcats dropping 3 games in 3 days, so we can all see which end I’m speaking from…

So now, should we beat Arizona, we get a “Ho hum, we already knew that they weren’t good. You don’t get major credit for that win”. An if we lose, it’s a much bigger hit to our resumé. I’m hating the way this NIU-AZ week is shaping up. Should we survive it with two wins, then we’ll know we really have something special brewing quietly in the desert. But that’s a pretty tall order.

Go Rebels!

 

[upsrebel]

It all depends on how these teams finish. We want Arizona and Utah to finish in the top half of the pac 12. It also wouldn’t hurt for Illinois to have a better than expected season.

 

[ImmaRebel]

Even winning one of those two games would be fine in my opinion.

 

[Vegas007]

Beating both Utah and Arizona (and blowing out Utah) would be making a statement that UNLV can compete with and beat teams in the PAC-12 fwiw. And I think the chances of beating Arizona do look better.

I still thinking beating Arizona will be a bigger challenge than beating Utah. But I’m not sure about that like I used to be.

 

[TarkisGod]

Beating both Utah and Arizona (and blowing out Utah) would be making a statement that UNLV can compete with and beat teams in the PAC-12 fwiw. And I think the chances of beating Arizona do look better.

I still thinking beating Arizona will be a bigger challenge than beating Utah. But I’m not sure about that like I used to be.

I believe that beating NIU in their house would/will be a greater accomplishment than defeating the likes of Utah and Arizona in Las Vegas. Maybe not in the eyes of the NCAA, but these kids have never had to deal with a hostile environment, and the Panthers of Northern Iowa are seriously talented. Their two blemishes are to North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the first game of the season, and to The Wildcats of Villanova in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, the Bahamas. By sometime tomorrow they will be #3 in the nation, as Arizona and Michigan State will drop from the top-5. Only Duke & Kansas will rank higher.

Sandwiched between those two defeats were five straight wins, including neutral site victories at the aforementioned Bahamas tourney, over SMU, which was 4-0 at the time, and North Carolina State which was fresh off of their upset of Arizona, before we knew that those Wildcats were in profound disarray.

We have no idea how our guys will react when they not only don’t have a crowd to spur them on, if things get dicey, like last night. But an arena that will cheer when they miss shots or commit turnovers or make other mistakes to their delight. It will be a very different experience. Not that they all haven’t played enough competitive ball to have experienced hostile environments before, but this is big-time college hoops. Again, we just can’t know, for sure, how they will handle adversity under those conditions.

If we survive this week with our record intact, whatever that means, I’ll breath a huge sigh of relief. If we remain unbeaten I’ll actually believe that we will get through our (admittedly soft) OOC schedule with a perfect record. That would be a major step toward playing meaningful games in March.

Go Rebels!

 

[BrianGregory]

Beating both Utah and Arizona (and blowing out Utah) would be making a statement that UNLV can compete with and beat teams in the PAC-12 fwiw. And I think the chances of beating Arizona do look better.

I still thinking beating Arizona will be a bigger challenge than beating Utah. But I’m not sure about that like I used to be.

Mountain west was trying to run like it was the best conference on the west coast for years but unlv always came up short. Beating Arizona would be huge. Other mwc teams were getting proper wins against PAC 12 and when it was time for the rebels to show up they crapped the bed. Coming off the worst season in unlv history to beat a very good Utah team and a ranked 2 Arizona team would be incredible. I don't even care where northern Iowa is located. Probably to the north but maybe east or west too.

 

[BrianGregory]

Mountain west was trying to run like it was the best conference on the west coast for years but unlv always came up short. Beating Arizona would be huge. Other mwc teams were getting proper wins against PAC 12 and when it was time for the rebels to show up they crapped the bed. Coming off the worst season in unlv history to beat a very good Utah team and a ranked 2 Arizona team would be incredible. I don't even care where northern Iowa is located. Probably to the north but maybe east or west too.

Also, Arizona won't be ranked when we play them so it's a game that doesn't say much if the rebels win and says a lot if they lose. So from a fan perspective, just go undefeated against the PAC 12.