UNLV picked 6th

[Doneoett]

UNLV fifth-year guard EJ Harkless thinks he might have the path to the NCAA Tournament figured out. A new arrival in Las Vegas this season, he spent the previous two seasons at Oklahoma.

During his first year as a Sooner, Harkless played for Lon Kruger, the former UNLV coach and father of current Rebel coach Kevin Kruger, during the coach’s final season. Oklahoma made the NCAA Tournament, and Harkless is looking to maintain that streak.

“I’m 100 percent with Coach Krugers and the tournament,” he said. “If it worked one time, it’s going to work again.”

Harkless, senior Luis Rodriguez — another UNLV newcomer — and Kevin Kruger all spoke at Mountain West men’s basketball media day Wednesday. The Rebels were picked to finish sixth in the conference’s preseason poll and didn’t have any players picked for the preseason all-conference team or the individual awards, but Kruger is happy with the state of his program.

“I do feel good about where we’re at,” Kruger said. “At this point in October, I think the guys are working hard. I think they’ve gotten better.”

The Rebels have lots of new faces, but have several questions surrounding the team — particularly on offense. UNLV’s 2021-22 leading scorer Bryce Hamilton departed, along with offensive contributors like Donovan Williams and Royce Hamm Jr. The Rebels also have several new faces on the team’s coaching staff, as each of Kruger’s top three assistants from last season were poached by Power Five schools.

Kruger and his new staff have already had a chance to preview this year’s team. The Rebels took a three-game preseason tour to Canada. The trip included a surprise loss to the University of British Columbia, but Kruger believes the team has made major improvements during training camp.

“Taking that information that we got (in Canada), blending it into the fall workouts and now the official practices … This is a group that’s gotten a lot better, consistently, since they’ve been together,” Kruger said.

Harkless, for example, wasn’t available in Canada as he was recovering from knee surgery. Kruger also mentioned late additions Shane Nowell, a guard,, and Karl Jones, a forward, hadn’t been fully incorporated and were still finding their roles in the system during the preseason tour.

The tour also gave the Rebels a chance to spend time together and continue building their chemistry. Besides the new staff, UNLV added seven scholarship players this season. It’s not quite the massive turnover from Kruger’s first year with the Rebels, but has still created a steep learning curve for this team both on and off the court.

Rodriguez said the team tries to spend as much time together as possible. The Rebels bond over extra shots after practice. They hang out at each other’s apartments and go to the movies. The former Ole Miss wing said even getting lunch with a teammate can go a long way toward building camaraderie.

“I think our bonding is going pretty well,” he said. “I think we mesh together.”

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on Twitter.

More Rebels: Follow at reviewjournal.com/Rebels.

 

[khokhol8]

6th? I'm surprised they were picked that high. They lost their 3 best players. Maybe they will put it all together, turn heads, and lead us back to the tournament.

 

[MonsterJam]

Seems legit.

 

[reagan21]

SDSU is still the (sour) cream of the MWC cr(a)p, but after that positions 2-6 are way up in the air and I think 2-3 games separates those 5 teams. With that said, 6th could be a possibility but I don't see it happening. I guess the team can use this as motivation, but have past UNLV teams ever done that?

 

[Rebel_Luv]

SDSU is still the (sour) cream of the MWC cr(a)p, but after that positions 2-6 are way up in the air and I think 2-3 games separates those 5 teams. With that said, 6th could be a possibility but I don't see it happening. I guess the team can use this as motivation, but have past UNLV teams ever done that?

This is where i guess we see how CKK can coach. This is his team. Its his roster makeup. We have talented players. I did not say All Americans JOE. Kind of hard to gage how good we are suppose to be. Lots of new pieces and not very many offense players. Defensive minded team. IF we jell we should be able to finish in the TOP 3 in the MWC. If we finish below the projected finish of NM, Boise ST, SDSU, Colorado ST and Wyoming i will be very disappointed.

 

[MonsterJam]

A lot of people are going to be disappointed if we finish outside of the Top 3.

 

[WarthogRebel]

A lot of people are going to be disappointed if we finish outside of the Top 3.

Not any more disappointed than we've been 9 out of every 10 years for the past 30.

 

[MonsterJam]

And to be fair, it is the same people.

 

[j. spilotro]

And to be fair, it is the same people.

Your boy Luv thinks it’s a final four year. I remember him talking about how great we were and how good Marv was as a coach when he watched McCoy, at 6-11, drop a routine dunk at fan jam. It was one of about 3 total team dunks that made it through the net during the slam dunk contest. Smdh with that fanboy.

 

[Rebel_Luv]

Your boy Luv thinks it’s a final four year. I remember him talking about how great we were and how good Marv was as a coach when he watched McCoy, at 6-11, drop a routine dunk at fan jam. It was one of about 3 total team dunks that made it through the net during the slam dunk contest. Smdh with that fanboy.

Embellish much?? Yes i am a fan boy. Have u seen my car. Lets just say it will stand out to other cars and u will know who is its when u see it. I try and be optimistic. Never said final 4. We got a McDonalds All-American to come here in Brandon McCoy. Plus we got a HIGHLY rated JC Shakur Juiston. I believe he was the highest rated JC player since some guy named Larry Johnson .Also got the beast of a player in Anthony Smith (that guy had talent to make money playing the game IMO his instincts, athleticness and quickness was fun to watch) Plus Beck, and Hardy were solid players according to their rankings. Had highly rated schools after them. CMM first year was horrible ,but he came in the last second and lost almost everybody. Yes his following years was also horrible. Hindsight is 20/20. I saw the talent he was bringing in SORRY i did not know he could not coach a LICK and won most of his games on talent at NMSU. Had a solid record there and won the conference i think almost every year there. So i dont think it was too much of a stretch to think he could do good things here. I dont have the connections u do so i WAS just basing things off what i saw a knew and saw.

​

 

[j. spilotro]

Embellish much?? Yes i am a fan boy. Have u seen my car. Lets just say it will stand out to other cars and u will know who is its when u see it. I try and be optimistic. Never said final 4. We got a McDonalds All-American to come here in Brandon McCoy. Plus we got a HIGHLY rated JC Shakur Juiston. I believe he was the highest rated JC player since some guy named Larry Johnson .Also got the beast of a player in Anthony Smith (that guy had talent to make money playing the game IMO his instincts, athleticness and quickness was fun to watch) Plus Beck, and Hardy were solid players according to their rankings. Had highly rated schools after them. CMM first year was horrible ,but he came in the last second and lost almost everybody. Yes his following years was also horrible. Hindsight is 20/20. I saw the talent he was bringing in SORRY i did not know he could not coach a LICK and won most of his games on talent at NMSU. Had a solid record there and won the conference i think almost every year there. So i dont think it was too much of a stretch to think he could do good things here. I dont have the connections u do so i WAS just basing things off what i saw a knew and saw.

​

Anthony Smith, yeah, I miss his 10 minutes per with 3 points and a rebound before he was booted and then murdered somebody. Which might not have been exactly predictable, but given his issues and boot from Durango, it’s not exactly surprising. What was surprising was UNLV overlooking his issues in the first place, given the nature.

You never considered the fact that we played UNLV’s worst schedule in modern history to get to 20 wins either.

McCoy, I didn’t mind him, he had talent but was ultra lazy (we’ve seen that before) even though he was “smart”, spoke a couple languages, came from a solid family, played instruments.

But you could see the laziness and lack of competitiveness immediately if you looked for it.

I liked Juice. As a tertiary player, not as a game changer. And Beck had a similar laziness to McCoy, if your eyes were open. Hardy was decent, certainly had talent but was also one dimensional.

I don’t know, I saw nothing special at all about that team and it was easy to see they’d be a product of charmin soft scheduling, the type which some fans are too fanboy to recognize.

But don’t tell me you weren’t sold as Marv as a savior that night. Your eyes looked like you were struck by cupids arrow while I just laughed and shook my head.

 

[Rebel_Luv]

Embellish much?? Yes i am a fan boy. Have u seen my car. Lets just say it will stand out to other cars and u will know who is its when u see it. I try and be optimistic. Never said final 4. We got a McDonalds All-American to come here in Brandon McCoy. Plus we got a HIGHLY rated JC Shakur Juiston. I believe he was the highest rated JC player since some guy named Larry Johnson .Also got the beast of a player in Anthony Smith (that guy had talent to make money playing the game IMO his instincts, athleticness and quickness was fun to watch) Plus Beck, and Hardy were solid players according to their rankings. Had highly rated schools after them. CMM first year was horrible ,but he came in the last second and lost almost everybody. Yes his following years was also horrible. Hindsight is 20/20. I saw the talent he was bringing in SORRY i did not know he could not coach a LICK and won most of his games on talent at NMSU. Had a solid record there and won the conference i think almost every year there. So i dont think it was too much of a stretch to think he could do good things here. I dont have the connections u do so i WAS just basing things off what i saw a knew and saw.

​

BTW i knew he was a conman right around the time of the DUKE loss. Telling me a fan on the radio that maybe in 4-5 years"HE SAID IN 4-5 years" he can compete with DUKE and when he does the UCLA of the world will come knocking on his door. Something like that. Would love to have the audio of that. Some people said he was joking when i brought it up. I said if he was joking its even worse.

 

[j. spilotro]

BTW i knew he was a conman right around the time of the DUKE loss. Telling me a fan on the radio that maybe in 4-5 years"HE SAID IN 4-5 years" he can compete with DUKE and when he does the UCLA of the world will come knocking on his door. Something like that. Would love to have the audio of that. Some people said he was joking when i brought it up. I said if he was joking its even worse.

It took you that long???? Should have heavily suspected it before he was hired.

You gotta give him credit. Though he stole a page from Jussie S, he was a bit ahead of his time with his smokescreens and lies, deflections, playing the victim, throwing everyone else under the bus, smiling while telling his lies, catch phrase bullshit, etc. He had the current day politician act down before it became super prominent.

And some people never caught on, though after he was canned, some did come around and admit he wasn’t very good. I guess it’s easier to admit things once finality sets in instead of calling it out while it’s happening. Then again, some have never admitted it. Being wrong, very wrong, is too difficult for some to admit.

 

[Rebel_Luv]

Anthony Smith, yeah, I miss his 10 minutes per with 3 points and a rebound before he was booted and then murdered somebody.

You never considered the fact that we played UNLV’s worst schedule in modern history to get to 20 wins either.

McCoy, I didn’t mind him, he had talent but was ultra lazy (we’ve seen that before) even though he was “smart”, spoke a couple languages, came from a solid family, played instruments.

But you could see the laziness and lack of competitiveness immediately if you looked for it.

I liked Juice. As a tertiary player, not as a game changer. And Beck had a similar laziness to McCoy, if your eyes were open. Hardy was decent, certainly had talent but was also one dimensional.

I don’t know, I saw nothing special at all about that team and it was easy to see they’d be a product of charmin soft scheduling, the type which some fans are too fanboy to recognize.

But don’t tell me you weren’t sold as Marv as a savior that night. Your eyes looked like you were struck by cupids arrow while I just laughed and shook my head.

Anthony Smith had talent lots of talent. . Made plays when he was on the floor. Never played basketball until like 16. So it was not going to be a instant transition. Probably got few minutes not because of his game Your stating the obvious AFTER the fact. Yes those players were not as good as advertised except Juice kinda of. Oh yea i almost forgot about Joel Ntambwe and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua both of those guys had talent ,but bye that time i was already selling CMM stock as fast as possible. Look .... 4-5 of his recruits transferred to VERY HIGH MAJORs . How in the hell am i suppose to know he could get outcoached by teams with far less talent. BTW after listing to more of his interviews that year he sounded like a BETA male of a coach. No fire or competitive nature in his rhetoric.

 

[j. spilotro]

Anthony Smith had talent lots of talent. . Made plays when he was on the floor. Never played basketball until like 16. So it was not going to be a instant transition. Probably got few minutes not because of his game Your stating the obvious AFTER the fact. Yes those players were not as good as advertised except Juice kinda of. Oh yea i almost forgot about Joel Ntambwe and Jonathan Tchamwa Tchatchoua both of those guys had talent ,but bye that time i was already selling CMM stock as fast as possible. Look .... 4-5 of his recruits transferred to VERY HIGH MAJORs . How in the hell am i suppose to know he could get outcoached by teams with far less talent. BTW after listing to more of his interviews that year he sounded like a BETA male of a coach. No fire or competitive nature in his rhetoric.

He was long, quick and active. Not very skilled. We can go down a list of players like that who never made it, they’re a dime a dozen.

Marv could recruit decently, I’m not saying he didn’t. But you didn’t need until year two to figure out he was going to base everything around deflection and creating a narrative to disguise his own shortcomings. He put that in action very early.

 

[Doneoett]

Let’s put the past behind us and go kick it at Drai’s.

 

[saulpaul21]

The way they looked the last 10 minutes, they should be in last place. Horrid vs the press and they did not run offense. 15% from 3. They do hustle on d though.

Jackie Johnson big ball hog and shot bad.
Some players had good moments, but no rebel looked great overall.

 

[WarthogRebel]

The way they looked the last 10 minutes, they should be in last place. Horrid vs the press and they did not run offense. 15% from 3. They do hustle on d though.

Jackie Johnson big ball hog and shot bad.
Some players had good moments, but no rebel looked great overall.

"no rebel looked great overall"

No Rebel looked like he would even make the bench on a Tark team.

 

[j. spilotro]

"no rebel looked great overall"

No Rebel looked like he would even make the bench on a Tark team.

I think some are better than Emerzian and Symanski.

But yeah, if you compare to those rosters, you just shake your head. Comparing to some other coaches rosters, you still shake your head.

 

[rebneck]

Not a shooter on this team. Jackie J will shoot us out of as many games as he doesn't. Dude doesn't know when he should pull it back out. Thinks he can just out run everyone to the basket, even the guys with a half court head start. And Rodriguez needs to stop shooting and dribbling, otherwise he's okay to pass it as soon as he gets it. This team looks like it was built for football, with a bunch of situational players, and none of those situations on offense.

 

[saulpaul21]

Team looked better today. Much better on offense. Defense forced a lot of turnovers but also allowed a lot of open, unchallenged shots. K Gilbert had 23 points. He will be all conference if he can average 15 a game with that great defense he plays.

 

[unlove]

"no rebel looked great overall"

No Rebel looked like he would even make the bench on a Tark team.

Tough comparison to make for any UNLV team in the current state of the program. I’m from the Tark era (wore my Augmon jersey to yesterday’s game) and it’s very hard not to place that weight on the team every year, but I have to remind myself that it just isn’t a reasonable expectation. Desired goal for sure, but not reasonable to expect that this season and probably not next.

 

[MonsterJam]

San Diego State fans are right - yall are delusional as hell. Or high as ****. Maybe both. Comparing this team to Jerry Tarkanian's dynasty teams. lol

It aint 1990 anymore. And no one loves the 80s more than me.

 

[JTthe2nd]

Seemed like a fair assessment. I'd say we're sleeping giants who can wake up and be a major player in the conference. Just the same, we haven't proven much over the years so who are we to be indignant for being overlooked? I don't agree with him ranking Boise at the top and giving UNR any unearned respect though.

 

[RebelScrub]

I must be getting old. I don’t remember Shakur Juiceton or whatever his name is..

 

[j. spilotro]

I must be getting old. I don’t remember Shakur Juiceton or whatever his name is..

Juice was a good player. I liked him a lot, actually. The problem was he was our #2. As a #4 option, I think you have a really good team.

 

[rebelfan1969]

Juice was a good player. I liked him a lot, actually. The problem was he was our #2. As a #4 option, I think you have a really good team.

Wish he would have stayed. Oregon got a good one. Just Played hard