Missed most of the game (messed up the time zones) but saw the final five or so. Good job Rebels, the Pit is a tough place to win. Hopefully Coach can improve on this performance. Go Rebels!!!
Solid Win REBELS!
- Thread starter manic water
- Start date
And coach just called them lot up north, "Reno" on the radio ![[thumb2]](https://ct.yimg.com/mr/uploads/891/1684387.png "Thumbs Up 2 [thumb2]")
that's what I'm talking about lol...... sick of the foreigner (import) radio "personalities" calling them Nevada!
that's what I'm talking about lol...... sick of the foreigner (import) radio "personalities" calling them Nevada!
Go figure... Just when you're ready to accept the bottom, our Rebels jump up and bite. At one of the toughest venues in the nation, no less. Great game!
It appeared to me that early in the second half, JoJo Mooring decided to become a point guard, and everything got suddenly better. This team is going to live or die with Mooring. Solid effort from Poyser. Jones and Dembele on the blocks. Crucial offensive boards throughout, but especially down the stretch.
I love this team. They needed this after the last couple of debacles, but at least we know they're capable. Lobos coach must be feeling some heat after blowing a 25-point lead to Reno followed by a loss to the rebuilding Rebels.
A good night...
Go Rebels!
Mooring must like being a starter. Huge game tonight. 19 points, 6 assists, 5 steals. Only 1 turnover.
Maybe - hopefully - he has adjusted permanently to D-1 speed.
Maybe - hopefully - he has adjusted permanently to D-1 speed.
Congrats Rebel fans. Your guys played hard and deserved the win. I think that Menzies may have KO'd Neal's career.
Couple drawn charges too, as good as a steal, really.
Understanding and identifying work ethic in your players is what's gonna grow this program. It's been missing and I'm glad it's back.
“Even though we can get big-time players from the United States to come to UNLV, we’re still going to tap into those international kids like Cheickna, those with high character who can become program kids and great ambassadors for our university,” Menzies said. “He’s getting valuable experience playing this year. I think his ceiling is pretty high. People talk about talent. Talent is overrated. Work ethic is far more valuable, and his work ethic is phenome"
“Even though we can get big-time players from the United States to come to UNLV, we’re still going to tap into those international kids like Cheickna, those with high character who can become program kids and great ambassadors for our university,” Menzies said. “He’s getting valuable experience playing this year. I think his ceiling is pretty high. People talk about talent. Talent is overrated. Work ethic is far more valuable, and his work ethic is phenome"
How about that! One thing about this team is a lot of people contribute in one way or another. I like that.
Just happened to see this on ESPN. Thought I'd share:
RPI RANK BY CONFERENCE:
1-ACC
2-BIG EAST
3-BIG 12
4-BIG TEN
5-SEC
5-PAC 12
7-A10
8-AMERICAN
9-MOUNTAIN WEST.
At least we made the list. Rebels need to learn how to win by March. Three-in-a-row in our one-bid league isn't impossible. Amazing how one good win can re-energize me.
Go Rebels!
RPI RANK BY CONFERENCE:
1-ACC
2-BIG EAST
3-BIG 12
4-BIG TEN
5-SEC
5-PAC 12
7-A10
8-AMERICAN
9-MOUNTAIN WEST.
At least we made the list. Rebels need to learn how to win by March. Three-in-a-row in our one-bid league isn't impossible. Amazing how one good win can re-energize me.
Go Rebels!
Let's just see how Marvalous has these kids playing in March, we might be surprised. If last night was any indication we should be playing our best ball by then.
We have a week off till we play SDSU, hope we show up (and the fans).
We have a week off till we play SDSU, hope we show up (and the fans).
I think that, despite the sad circus that was the UNLV coaching search, we wound up with precisely the right man for the job. It’s possible that had Beard stayed for more than a week, he might have convinced more Rebels to stick around, and maybe he could have made them competitive. I’m pretty certain that, under the handicap that Menzies was handed, he couldn't have pulled together as much talent as Marvin did.
But even if you believe that Beard would have been better, you can’t ignore the fact that he’s a coaching nomad. If it weren’t Texas Tech, he still would have bolted at the first step up he was offered.
Some on this board want to make much of MM’s many years in the business, and his failure to get better offers over that time.As if that, so there logic goes, should tell us that he's a less-than quality coach. I think he wasn’t considered for other jobs because he’s black.
Before the anti-PC proponents completely lose their s^*t on me, you should read the link below. If you’d rather not take the time. I’ll recap: There are currently 25.5% black head coaches in Div. I baskets. Yet 58% of the players are Afro-American (it seems like more than that). Coaches of color are getting dumped/resigning and being replaced by whites. There numbers are steadily dwindling.
Menzies has been successful at every opportunity that he's received. I applaud UNLV for hiring a black coach (even if they needed some arm-twisting to get there), and I believe that, given a couple of years to develop his own team, he will return The Rebels to the elite college basketball community. The differences between Menzes’ bench-coaching during games to his predecessor is stark. He has already proven his ability to recruit nationally (Louisville), and to relay his message to his players (New Mexico St).
Good times lie ahead for The Runnin’ Rebels.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-black-coaches-ncaa-spt-0402-20150401-story.html
Go Rebels!
But even if you believe that Beard would have been better, you can’t ignore the fact that he’s a coaching nomad. If it weren’t Texas Tech, he still would have bolted at the first step up he was offered.
Some on this board want to make much of MM’s many years in the business, and his failure to get better offers over that time.As if that, so there logic goes, should tell us that he's a less-than quality coach. I think he wasn’t considered for other jobs because he’s black.
Before the anti-PC proponents completely lose their s^*t on me, you should read the link below. If you’d rather not take the time. I’ll recap: There are currently 25.5% black head coaches in Div. I baskets. Yet 58% of the players are Afro-American (it seems like more than that). Coaches of color are getting dumped/resigning and being replaced by whites. There numbers are steadily dwindling.
Menzies has been successful at every opportunity that he's received. I applaud UNLV for hiring a black coach (even if they needed some arm-twisting to get there), and I believe that, given a couple of years to develop his own team, he will return The Rebels to the elite college basketball community. The differences between Menzes’ bench-coaching during games to his predecessor is stark. He has already proven his ability to recruit nationally (Louisville), and to relay his message to his players (New Mexico St).
Good times lie ahead for The Runnin’ Rebels.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-black-coaches-ncaa-spt-0402-20150401-story.html
Go Rebels!
This is the wrong place for turning this into a politically correct racial tirade!
I don't see a racial tirade. TarkisGod gave a reasonable argument as to why he thinks Marvin wasn't a sought after coach. Also gave reasons he feels he is a good coach then backed it up with a link to a story.
I think that, despite the sad circus that was the UNLV coaching search, we wound up with precisely the right man for the job. It’s possible that had Beard stayed for more than a week, he might have convinced more Rebels to stick around, and maybe he could have made them competitive. I’m pretty certain that, under the handicap that Menzies was handed, he couldn't have pulled together as much talent as Marvin did.
But even if you believe that Beard would have been better, you can’t ignore the fact that he’s a coaching nomad. If it weren’t Texas Tech, he still would have bolted at the first step up he was offered.
Some on this board want to make much of MM’s many years in the business, and his failure to get better offers over that time.As if that, so there logic goes, should tell us that he's a less-than quality coach. I think he wasn’t considered for other jobs because he’s black.
Before the anti-PC proponents completely lose their s^*t on me, you should read the link below. If you’d rather not take the time. I’ll recap: There are currently 25.5% black head coaches in Div. I baskets. Yet 58% of the players are Afro-American (it seems like more than that). Coaches of color are getting dumped/resigning and being replaced by whites. There numbers are steadily dwindling.
Menzies has been successful at every opportunity that he's received. I applaud UNLV for hiring a black coach (even if they needed some arm-twisting to get there), and I believe that, given a couple of years to develop his own team, he will return The Rebels to the elite college basketball community. The differences between Menzes’ bench-coaching during games to his predecessor is stark. He has already proven his ability to recruit nationally (Louisville), and to relay his message to his players (New Mexico St).
Good times lie ahead for The Runnin’ Rebels.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-black-coaches-ncaa-spt-0402-20150401-story.html
Go Rebels!
I don't disagree with the thrust of this post. But feel it over looks the point that Menzies should have been a serious candidate for the UNLV job from the beginning based not his status as a African American head coach, but what he accomplished at as a head coach at NMSU. Although never discussed, Theus left NMSU with serious APR issues that Menzies cleaned up. Also, never discussed was that some of the players Theus recruited to NMSU had some very serious criminal problems such as robbing pizza delivery drivers and the like. The program was a mess when he took over and he cleaned all of that up! But you did point out the following unfounded narrative regarding Marvin Menzies, "Some on this board want to make much of MM’s many years in the business, and his failure to get better offers over that time." People can have their own opinions, but not their own facts and the narrative you pointed out is wrong. NMSU did improve under Menzies and went to the NCAA tourney 4 out of the last 5 years he was the head coach and he went back to back 13-1 and won the WAC two years in a row his last 2 years. That's improvement! In addition, he left NMSU in great shape and potentially one of their better teams over the last 20 years....they are now 15-2!
What I see as a little of irony in all of this is that 6 years ago there was the dispute as to whether Theus or Rice was the better coach for the UNLV job. Well Menzies cleaned up and rebuilt NMSU after Theus. Now Menzies has to rebuild UNLV after Rice.
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I look at Menzies as a very good pick as a basketball coach and believe the only reason he was overlooked is that he was at a small time program that has no flash and UNLV was going after a big time flashy coach and failed, which in the long term may be a blessing for UNLV.
Menzies got the job because Chris Beard took the TT job. Here is Beard's head coaching resume:
1999–2000 Fort Scott CC
2000–2001 Seminole State JC
2011–2012 South Carolina Warriors
2012–2013 McMurry
2013–2015 Angelo State
2015–2016 Arkansas–Little Rock
Please illuminate me as to which of these stops are what you would categorize as "Big-Time" or "Flashy"?
You don't need to agree with my conclusion, but it's hardly a "tirade" nor is it an exercise in "Political Correctness"
It's my conclusion that Black head coaches are systematically under-represented in college basketball. I presented an article that supports that claim. Do you dispute the facts presented? Are the numbers incorrect? Or do you merely object to the mention of race on Rebel-Net?
How 'bout those cheerleaders? Hot stuff!...Better?
Go Rebels!
Beard was the darling of the college basketball world because of how quickly he has been able to turn programs around and is the opposite of coach Kruger. Kruger was more blue collar while Beard was one of the young gun more flashy types. Menzies is a good coach but he has more of a blue collar mentality and was lost in the backwaters of NMSU for over a decade.
You can agree or not.
You can agree or not.
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Not…Although I recognize that your assertion about Beard being everyone’s “darling”. Is accurate. As you say, he turned losers into winners. But so did Menzies..
I don't think it was the color of his collar that separated them. He took NMSU to back-to-back 13-1 seasons in their league and to the post-season in five of his last six years. He was selected as the WAC Coach-of-the Year for '15 & '16.
So why was Beard a “darling" but not Marvin? Could there be a racial component at play? Hmmm....
Go Rebels!
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There are way too many shoulda, coulda, woulda's connected to how Marvin became the UNLV coach to try and decipher what happened in terms of race, visibility, coaching connections, etc. Menzies is our coach and Beard is at Texas Tech. The only question that matters as far as I am concerned is, "Am I happy with MM as coach?"
And my answer is "yes." The team, that was pieced together very late, is fun to watch. But it will take two or three more years to see if MM can build UNLV into a respectable team that can compete for MW title and have realistic chances to play in the NCAA tournament.
And my answer is "yes." The team, that was pieced together very late, is fun to watch. But it will take two or three more years to see if MM can build UNLV into a respectable team that can compete for MW title and have realistic chances to play in the NCAA tournament.
You're too easy then. Last game was fun to watch because they played together and were focused. Watching 50 point losses to your own alma may have been fun because it's your alma mater, but it wasn't fun for any other UNLV fan. Either were the handful of 20 point losses or the 30 point loss. Very frustrating to watch varying but low levels of some combination of non-competion, disinterest, confusion, ineptness, effortless games.
Hopefully we find consistency that mirrors last games effort and focus. But that was the first somewhat "fun" game this year. The morgue that's been the recent Thomas and Mack hasn't been fun, it's oozed apathy. I don't find that fun at all.
And when you look across this league, it appears to be contagious at other schools like UNM and SDSU. It sucks for the conference as a whole.
Then again, you've always been one to find sunshine in a vacuum. You're actually lucky you can do that.
Here's the problem with that because it implies Bird has rebuilt Texas Tech. However, it was not a rebuild because Tubby Smith left Bird with a ncaa caliber team and they are on a very similar path to what they were on last year where they went to the NCAA tournament.
It's funny, but I have not rooted for Duke since 1991 except when the play UNC. The circumstances surrounding the hiring of MM and the assembling of this team were so bizarre that I have given the coach and players a pass for this season. That makes it easier for me to enjoy the good games and not get too aggravated over the bad games. So far, they have done a good job in the competitive games though the blowouts have been sad to watch.
I will reiterate, that I am looking for growth in this team and better recruits in future years. For now, we are doing better or at least as well as could be expected given the circumstances.
Better or at least as well as could be expected... matter of opinion but I don't think you are close to right. You don't lose that many games that badly and think it could have been worse... and you don't lose to teams you are supposed to beat and think it could be worse.
I had very low expectations heading into the season as well. But bare minimums are ALWAYS play hard, never give up ... and that minimum was missing in several games.
Funny how a lot of the people on this board that used to accuse Rice haters of not being true and loyal fans, sure don't mind and even want to see this program go full scorched earth now that their precious expanded access and link to the 90 championship is gone. We get it. No one liked the way CDR was fired mid season and how the subsequent coaching hire was handled, but Dave Rice aint coming thru that door. You can keep posting pictures of the lower tank empty 10 min before tip off(i see you on twitter), and keep complaining/insinuating how this team has quit on this coach(at times?) and how that would NEVER happen under a CDR coached team, but you're not doing yourself or this program any good by doing so.
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A very interesting post. Forgive my density, but would someone please explain what the hell you're talking about?
I monitor this board fairly closely and I can't recall a single post (other than this one) where anyone has stated or implied that the team has quit on MM.
I can't speak for the board, but the general trend has been towards cautious optimism regarding the Coach. Whatever happens this season is generally viewed as a pass, due to the extraordinary handicaps that awaited him.
So I'm unclear who your ranting at, or why...
Go Rebels!
I forgive you as reading isn't always the easiest, but look at the very post above mine. Bare minimum : never give up, play hard and that minimum missing in a few games. Hence my reference "quit on this coach (at times?)". There is a clear agenda from some people to make(and even hope) for our current situation to look as bad as humanly possible.
Maybe you are talking about me? If so...
Menzies hasn't lost this team, they haven't quit on him, and I never insinuated he lost the team. I have said they have been disinterested and unfocused in games and there were games were there was zero fight. All you need is two eyes to see that. I don't know what the average margin of defeat is overall, but we have been anhiliated in most of those losses, they've been among the program's worst in history. I'm not making that up, it's there for all to see. Now you can say they were inspired and went hard in those losses if you want, but it's certainly not what I saw.
As far as the crowds, it's depressing. I hate seeing it like that, but I'm still one of the handful that actually goes to games. I wish fans were stronger, could see the team through hard times (though apparently these aren't hard times to you). But they aren't and it really sucks to see. I've seen it before, pretty close to this level because I've been there the past 30 years, every game.
I don't like where we are this season at this point. I think they should be further ahead. But the UNM game gave me something to look forward to because they finally looked focused for most of the game. First time I've seen that this year unless you want to toss in the roadkill games against teams that have won two games like Incarnate Word and NAU.
And though I don't like where we are this season, I'm looking forward to seeing if last game was the first step in improving for this season, if it's a foundation setting of sorts. And looking further ahead, I think the program is aligned for good things and that WE DONT need any player overhaul. We need a piece or two.
But that doesn't change what I've seen - which has been downright ugly for most of the season. It's been bad basketball, bad offense, bad defense, for most of it.
This program needs Menzies to do well. The fans need Menzies to do well. Menzies needs some time to point the ship in the proper direction and move towards the destination. It doesn't happen overnight. Nobody can afford for a failure and a revolving door in the head coaches office. That just sets you up for consistent failure. It's a critical time in UNLV athletics. We need him to do well, we should ALL want him to do well.
My agenda is this - I want UNLV to do well. I don't care who it is in the captain's chair as long as we get there or move towards it. Whoever it is going to need patience and support from fans and administration, but patience in today's 'what have you done for me lately' society is rare, which is unfortunate when you are trying to build.
17-13
10-17
11-17
These are the records from 80’, 81’ & 82’ for Mike Krzyzewiski at Duke. His first three years there. I believe he came close to getting axed. Now look where they are. 30 NCAA berths in 31 years. As much as I hate to cite The Evil Empire, there’s no denying that Coach K has built something to admire.
Is Marvin Menzies going to do that at UNLV? Who knows? I certainly don’t at this point, but I won’t dismiss it as impossible. Unless fidgety, impatient fans, boosters, or AD’s can’t allow him to develop a program that has continuity. He has a reputation as a quality recruiter. If he can show signs of a system that can compete on a national level, we will get very good players. UNLV still carries a cache with kids coming up. Despite our current sad state, it’s still cool to be a Runnin’ Rebel.
I see signs that MM can be a good X’s & O’s guy. He appears to be able to, as they say “coach ‘em up”. There won’t be any shortcuts to the promised land. It will require patience. Fan support will only return when they begin to show that they can compete. But I’ll be here through every single game until we get there.
I just hope we don’t f#*/ it up...
Go Rebels!
10-17
11-17
These are the records from 80’, 81’ & 82’ for Mike Krzyzewiski at Duke. His first three years there. I believe he came close to getting axed. Now look where they are. 30 NCAA berths in 31 years. As much as I hate to cite The Evil Empire, there’s no denying that Coach K has built something to admire.
Is Marvin Menzies going to do that at UNLV? Who knows? I certainly don’t at this point, but I won’t dismiss it as impossible. Unless fidgety, impatient fans, boosters, or AD’s can’t allow him to develop a program that has continuity. He has a reputation as a quality recruiter. If he can show signs of a system that can compete on a national level, we will get very good players. UNLV still carries a cache with kids coming up. Despite our current sad state, it’s still cool to be a Runnin’ Rebel.
I see signs that MM can be a good X’s & O’s guy. He appears to be able to, as they say “coach ‘em up”. There won’t be any shortcuts to the promised land. It will require patience. Fan support will only return when they begin to show that they can compete. But I’ll be here through every single game until we get there.
I just hope we don’t f#*/ it up...
Go Rebels!
The last two posts were excellent. It would be great if the team showed the same level of excellence in each game. A home game against SDSU will a good test tomorrow.
Lets see how Jovan and Dembele play tomorrow. I hope they continue to show improvement against an excellent defensive team.
Lets see how Jovan and Dembele play tomorrow. I hope they continue to show improvement against an excellent defensive team.
Nobody knows what he can or can't do at this point.17-13
10-17
11-17
These are the records from 80’, 81’ & 82’ for Mike Krzyzewiski at Duke. His first three years there. I believe he came close to getting axed. Now look where they are. 30 NCAA berths in 31 years. As much as I hate to cite The Evil Empire, there’s no denying that Coach K has built something to admire.
Is Marvin Menzies going to do that at UNLV? Who knows? I certainly don’t at this point, but I won’t dismiss it as impossible. Unless fidgety, impatient fans, boosters, or AD’s can’t allow him to develop a program that has continuity. He has a reputation as a quality recruiter. If he can show signs of a system that can compete on a national level, we will get very good players. UNLV still carries a cache with kids coming up. Despite our current sad state, it’s still cool to be a Runnin’ Rebel.
I see signs that MM can be a good X’s & O’s guy. He appears to be able to, as they say “coach ‘em up”. There won’t be any shortcuts to the promised land. It will require patience. Fan support will only return when they begin to show that they can compete. But I’ll be here through every single game until we get there.
I just hope we don’t f#*/ it up...
Go Rebels!
As for fidgety fans, boosters and admin, that part scares me. Because we've always been that way at UNLV, moreso than at most places. And for Menzies to have a fair shot, he need the patience. Personally, I don't think the patience will be there. I just have to look at the history of UNLV to have my severe doubts. It's part of what sucks at UNLV.
As for coaching up, I haven't seen it. Had we even competed (not even won) against the top teams we've played, had we won all the games we were "supposed to win" had we grabbed any of the "coin flip" games or had we pulled off some upsets - then I'd agree to some degree. But we haven't seen any of that. I don't know if we have any top 100 wins after 18 games? I don't know our exact record vs the top 100, top 150, top 200.... but it's going to be below anything that leads me to believe the team has been coached up. At least to this point - still a lot of time left to show otherwise.
Personally, I think X's and O's are emphasized too much as a reason for wins and losses. Guys gotta play, make plays. Basketball X's and O's isn't rocket science. Don't get me wrong, it's important, but you win a game and you "outcoached" the opposition, lose it and you were "outcoached". That seems to be pretty commonly used logic on message boards and I don't think it's nearly that simple. Players have to execute. All these basketball guys know X's and O's and it's not mindnumbingly difficult for players - and they've seen a lot of it before. We aren't introducing Quantum physics in Mandarin to a bunch of English only speaking 11 year olds. But I haven't seen anything jump out at me too much. The move to stay in a zone against a good shooting USU squad while the game was on the line - only to watch them hit 5 or 6 three pointers and pull away... it had me wondering why we stayed in the zone for so long. But you know what? Crap happens. You can call for a hit and run and your best contact hitter swings and misses and leaves he runner hanging. That doesn't mean it was a bad call given the situation. Crap happens. But I haven't seen jockeying, manouvering, a great game plan or anything like that where I'd say it was "credit" for a win.
I am looking forward to the staff's work with Dembele. Menzies has had success with developing bigs and Dembele has great attributes and most importantly, an eagerness to learn. I think those two things will go together and the sky will be the limit for him and it'll be a real impact to future teams here. But that's down the road.
For now, build on the focus and determination displayed at UNM and let it carry the team through the rest of the season. If they have that tomorrow, they'll beat SDSU. That's what we all want. When the team starts winning these types of games, the fans will show. They won't blindly show. They never have here. We have about 3/4K local fans that will show no matter what and that's where we are at. Win and they'll show up.... let's get the next one tomorrow.
I see one game on our schedule that was a "shoulda win" that we lost and it was South Alabama as 8 point favs and btw, that was our very first game of the year. Some of the expectations and excuses being used here are downright laughable. Was the expectation to really hang with Duke, Oregon, Kansas for 37-38 minutes just to fall short in the end in close defeat?! That's simply not going to happen given the circumstances of our current roster. And yes, one of the biggest struggles facing MM is getting consistent/solid efforts from our players game in and game out. Idk why it's so unacceptable and appalling that this current group of players has the potential to come out flat and lose by 20 to good teams.
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Didn't expect to win those games. Expected to lose. And lose big. Didn't expect to not compete for the entire game, though. Didn't expect to have a deer in the headlights, we've Never seen an orange ball before. I'm guessing Duke didn't win their exhibitions or games against D2 by 50 points. UNLV has never lost that badly to anyone. We had zero excuse to lose to Utah by 44 and Cindy by 40 in 2000, but we did and it sucked just as bad because it was a complete non-compete.
ASU is a .500 team. We were completely outclassed. Wasn't close.
It's bothersome that it has happened SO OFTEN and to some not so good teams. When it happens regularly, where is the improvement? Hoping for improvement over the course of the season is unreasonable???? Not asking to shatter records, not asking for an NCAA or any post season bid. Compete, improve, show signs of life. Until the UNM game, I didn't see any. I'm hoping that game is a starting point for the rest of the season (which I still don't expect much from) and Menzies tenure. And guess what? Even if SDSU beats us tomorrow, that doesn't mean the end of the world. If the Rebs roll over, get smoked by double digits at home against a team in the bottom third of very bad conference, it won't be a fantastic sign. It won't mean the end of the world but I'm not going to jump out of my seat and say 'hey, we played them even from the 16 minute mark to the 8 minute mark of the second half! That's progress!"
If the expectation is solely to compete against the bottom 100 of D1, we are meeting expectations. I have very low expectations for this season in particular but certainly not that low.
I'm in wait and see mode for the long term, but I'm allowed to not like what I'm seeing at this point, just like you can like what you are seeing right now.
I want Menzies here long term but I'm worried a bit. Support is rock bottom, financially and in the flesh, the team has a long way to go, and we have a new AD coming in and you never can tell how things will play out (patience vs impatience).
Well I know how it's playing out (patience vrs impatience) with the supposed face of the Rebel forums and it's a little disturbing how much he sounds like a scorned lover. If you couldn't see any improvement from the Duke game till now, I don't know what to tell you. There was even obvious improvement from Duke-Oregon. You say you expected to lose big in those games, well a DIRECT correlation to losing BIG is not competing very well/much so there seems to be some contradictory/conflicting statements going on there. I think expectations have been met or exceeded at this point in the season and I'm definitely not alone in thinking so. Anything better than Dave Rice's last two 7th place finishes would be a HUGE success.
What do you call from Oregon to who was that MWC team we got at home? I think Boise. We were down 33 in the second half of that game, if I recall correctly? Maybe more? I agree. Exceeding expectations. We were a 40 point underdog at home against Boise. We shouldn't have competed in that one. Or at Utah State. Or at Colorado State. We were four touchdown underdogs on the road so we actually showed up well there. Bravo for hard fought effort against unbeatable foes.
I don't know if you fully recognize how bad this conference is, either. I don't think the MWC has ever been a shoo in auto bid only before Pearl Harbor day. It'll be competitive, no doubt. The league always is. But competitive because everyone is clustered around the below mediocre line. What's the highest rated team in conference? Probably Nevada or Boise around 60 or 70?
I hope we finish in the top 7 of conference. I hope we finish in the top 5 since there's an associated first round bye in the MWCT. With the autobid the only thing that matters, a bye could be huge. And I think the Rebels have a chance at that. The league is way down and there isn't much separation between teams. A lot of teams can make a case for that top 5, why not UNLV? UNLV stole a big one on the road now it's time to hold serve at home and get back into the mix. Anything can and usually does happen in this league. If we get the effort and focus we had at UNM, UNLV gets back into the mix of the league race.
Yes we absolutely have exceeded expectations up to this point regardless of that Boise game that we came out completely flat for. That was by far our worst performance of the year and it seems a little weird that someone would make broad/season long generalizations about this team based on that game. Bottom line is there are going to be games like that; something we/you have to come to terms with. Col St we had a bad 5 min stretch, otherwise played well for 35 minutes. Utah State we had a lead with ~10 min left in 2nd half and they hit 7 straight 3's; another bad 5 min stretch. Obviously playing a full 40 minutes of quality basketball will be as season long challenge for these guys and MM.
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Playing a full 35 minutes is a challenge for all but a small handful of teams in college basketball. Even 30 minutes.
