I think we lead by 20 with 2-minutes left then the MWC refs remember that they need all the best NET rated teams to win.
Idaho 72
UNLV 66
Idaho 72
UNLV 66
Line ‘em up: Predictions and Game Thread The Rice I don't like at Boise
- Thread starter bcvegaspt
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Going to be a blowout in favor of whoever wins IMO. Rebs either come in with a chip on their shoulder and take it out on Leon Rice and co. Or they come out flat and the Broncos roll. I don’t have a good pulse on this one so I’m gonna say Rebs by 10+ 😂
Unlv is Jekyll and Hyde this season. You don’t know who you’re going to get. I think we lose by ten just because it’s at Boise.
77-67
77-67
LuRod and JJ3 have 2 fouls. Nobody else I'm the game does. Second half should be solid
Big win on the road. Should be 3-1 in conf right now. I have a feeling that USU game is going to piss me off all season.
If we didn’t get ROBBED, we’d be in a tie for first place right now, with the toughest 5 game start in conference play.
It is hard to figure UNLV. They easily beat New Mexico, then lose a close game to Utah State at home, then they go into a touch Boise State arena and pull out a win. Now the same New Mexico that UNLV easily beat is up by 11 over Utah State.
Good win. Shows this team can compete in conference. Should bolster teams attitude for first week in March...
Offense still has no movement and you could really see it in the final minutes where we struggled to get a good shot up.
Boise missing front end of 2 one and ones late saved us.
That flat shot of DJ at the line makes him a shaky FT shooter.
But winning at Boise is a good win no matter how it happened.
Boise missing front end of 2 one and ones late saved us.
That flat shot of DJ at the line makes him a shaky FT shooter.
But winning at Boise is a good win no matter how it happened.
Tough, gritty win for the team. Web, Whaley, and LuRod came to play. Did Whaley threw that ball to the ref's nuts by accident? It seems like that ref hates UNLV.
Lil Boone has been a fouling machine. Plays aggressively, so the fouls are understood at times, but also reaches for other fouls.
Two games in a row DJ missed the second of two free throws in the final min. Came back to bite us (with help from the refs) against USU. We were able to play more composed defense at the end against BSU and pulled it out. Really impressive road win imo. Not easy to play at BSU (weren’t they coming off a win at UNR??) especially after such a gut-wrenching BS loss the previous game. These guys seem to be making adjustments and improving every game. I’ve been pretty tough CKK and his staff this year so I need to call them out when they’re doing a good job and the last few games it appears the staff is communicating well with the team and making the necessary adjustments to keep them improving game by game. The best outcome for UNLV coaching-wise is for CKK to put it together this season, make a run, and keep the core of the team together as the program continues to improve overall. Keeping DJ will be paramount if he doesn’t go pro.
Watch our shooting in Conference and tough games. We need to shoot close to 35% or higher from three to win.
Or get Robert Whaley to throw more basketball and crush that ref's nuts. Some Ticky tacky calls by that one ref.
Am I stupid for thinking this team could win the conference tournament? I do think we'd need SDSU to get upset prior to playing us but I'm much more optimistic about this team now than I was 5 games ago.
I am pretty confident that we have the ability to beat anyone in the conference, especially in a tournament setting outside of SDSU.
SDSU is just a bad match up, not impossible, but I am much less optiimistic with them.
This team hasn’t shown at all this season that they can win consistently. Certainly not consistent enough to win a tournament. If they can rip off 3-5 wins in a row, I’ll feel more confident.
What’s going to happen is the same thing we’ve done for 2 seasons under CKK, sitting around saying “man we’re right there, if only we did x,y,z we’d be playing in the NIT or whatever.”
I think the potential is there but that potential is there for about 7 teams in conference.
They’ve defended well, much better than in the first 10 games. It shouldn’t have taken as long as it did, but we are where we are now …
I can’t fully sink my teeth into it though. I’ve seen some people have, flipped on a dime from get rid of the coach to we are NCAA bound. I think we are essentially a 500 team, yet people are still hopeful for an at large? Sure, lose one more along the way but that’s not realistic to me. Thinking we might be destined for the MWC title or MWCT championship - seems like a giant leap given the level of inconsistency with the bottom being very low and the top being a notch or two above mediocre.
The body of work isn’t at all that impressive, the direction is just fine for now, but when you obliterate the beginning, you need close to perfection to make up for it. When people shrug off - oh, it was the first game of the year, it’s ok … the were neutral site games in Florida, that’s no big deal … losing to LMU isn’t that big of a deal, we can make up for it … that’s just blind hope. It all matters.
I’m hoping they maintain this focus for the duration, win or lose (you can be focused and still lose, I’m looking for competing and defending every game), then they will avoid that first round game of the MWCT and you roll the dice, who knows?
SDSU is more beatable than they’ve been in a few seasons. I do think they are a semi-difficult matchup, but not as much as before. It all counts, but we probably outplayed SDSU for 30 minutes at their place, it was the terrible jack it up from all over the court offense at the beginning that made it difficult to get over any hump.
Just like football, focus on one game at a time. Dont take anyone for granted. I remember Tark glorified his opponents so highly that his team would get all amped up and jump over their heads and sh!t.
WE can beat the Aztecs -
I would NEVER have thought so a few weeks ago....
But we are clicking
and showing serious signs of being able to compete with any team in this confernce.
This confernce is really not that good - just even - lots of MID MAJOR parody _ losts of teams between 30th and 60th best in the country.
BUt i really dont think we have a true top team like SDSU in years past
Thier is NOT a team in this confernce that wants to draw the Rebels in the MWCT,
TRUST ME, it would be a toss up between UNLV and SDSU if you polled MW coaches with who would you NOT want to face in March IN VEGAS.
NOT with the way we have been playing lately.
Hope it stays that way
Overall the season has not been consistent at all. Especially early on, but you can argue that they have been pretty consistent since the Creighton game.
St Mary's was a tough loss, but close. A quad 1 loss isn't the worst thing.
2 meaningless games, but then a tough quad 1 loss at SDSU, where yes they came out awful but fought back.
Quad 1 home win against UNM,
A should be quad 1 home win against USU, still not a bad loss
Then a quad 1 road win at Boise.
We are 3 points away from being 5-1 in quad 1 right now. Which is objectively very very good.
As it is 3-3 is not bad.
we still have 5 quad 1 opportunities to go.
Which brings up the question. Should this matter?
I say it should.
Yes every game does count, and bad early losses could easily take away a post season.
But if this staff brings together a team at the end of the season that is legit good, shouldn't that count? Well if the goal is to see if CKK can bring together a good team, late is better than never. Especially in year 3 of the contract for a rookie head coach. It doesn't mean you extend him, but it may buy another year.
Personally I think it is way better than previous teams that started strong and fell apart down the stretch. Yes, like last year.
If we finish top 4 in this league, which totally looks to be doable ( that is more than 1 more loss BTW) I think he should stay. It would be the best league finish in quite some time. In the best the league has been top to bottom since BYU left. Arguably better.
We have definitely turned a corner lately.
It doesn't take away from the fact we were so ill prepared in the first place.
You cant be a good basketball program if you decide to only win half of the games ? We squandered a lot of easy games that left us in the position to where we have to probably win the MW tourney - to dance
Which, if we keep playing the way we do - might be able to do that this year _ its what im rooting for
I think we can do better than KK. I don't believe he can consistently get us in the top two/three of our league - much less have a National impact. You have to consider the entire year. We weren't prepared for the first 10 games.
I’ll say this watching the games has been tolerable lately but I’m definitely not in the we have turned any corners of any kind?! We are not consistent, Kevin is not there as a coach and while the last 2 out of 3 games have been wins, we have a long way to go before we arrive as a decent program. We can do better than Kevin and like Arroyo he ain’t going to save his job with a few silver lining type things happening here or there!
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Or I should say he should not be able to save his job with a win here or there, isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing anyway, winning?!
Get to the tournament and we shall see if the talk changes but until then just watch the games and enjoy the few good moments we have during them because Lord knows we will have plenty of bad moments too with this team and this coach!
Still think we deserve better than Kevin!
Get to the tournament and we shall see if the talk changes but until then just watch the games and enjoy the few good moments we have during them because Lord knows we will have plenty of bad moments too with this team and this coach!
Still think we deserve better than Kevin!
We all here think he wasn't truly seasoned enough to get the job.
But the flip side of that coin is that his ceiling is actually potentially higher.
It was inevitable that he would make mistakes. And he certainly has. But if we jeep up this play and finish in the top 4 of a league that will get 4 or 5 in the dance, that is something.
I'm not saying that he is the savior or anything, I'm just saying that I think he can earn at the very least another year of his job with a strong finish and the best conference finish we have had in nearly a decade. Even if those early mistakes cost him an at large bid.
He does have a solid class coming in next year and has done well with the portal. A strong finish to this season should give him another year.
Unless you have a sure fire seasoned hit waiting in the wings. But that is very very unlikely.
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I tend to agree with this. I’ve been (and continue to be) very critical of CKK and his team particularly this season and it’s been deserved. But I’m likewise not going to ignore improvements when they’re clearly presenting themselves, which they have the last few games (I don’t count the cheapies against the Podunk States). Moreover, this program’s best outcome is CKK and his staff continuing its current trajectory, winning conf games, making the Trny, and putting itself in position to return a strong team along with a significant portal upgrade (or two). Ultimately CKK showing he is the right person to lead the program forward. Another round of a coaching search and complete reset is a VERY risky path forward for UNLV. We’ve had a string of failures and dumping CKK would confirm yet another. Echoing @dcut03, short of having a strong replacement with D1 coaching experience waiting in the wings we need CKK to make significant steps forward this season. Now, if he doesn’t do that, yes a new coach is fair game imo.
As small as the crowds have been at games, I wonder how much of an impact that will have with the current players and future recruits no matter what the outcome of the season is for CKK?
It could definitely impact recruits and concerns me as well. As for the players they’ve kinda made their own bed. If they want fans to come back, keep winning games (and don’t lose to quad 4 teams).
It’s difficult when you can’t bring a recruit on an official visit and have it be an exciting atmosphere. I mean, that’s gotta be seriously difficult. I remember fans swarming certain players for autographs, pulling them into the student section and just a great college atmosphere. Now it’s essentially a chilly morgue. And I don’t know how you get around that as a staff aside from scheduling them during top games (SDSU is pretty much it) to minimize the typical deadness in the arena.
Home crowd attendance and enthusiasm is a pretty good barometer of overall program health.
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