What went wrong
The day after an excruciating loss you can start to really pinpoint what the major problems were that created the predicament. UNLV's 10-point loss to Arizona State, where the Runnin' Rebels led by 12 points at halftime, is no different.
Rebounding was a cause for concern before the contest against the Sun Devils and looks to be even more worrisome today. Arizona State outrebounded the Rebels 43-30 and pulverized them on the offensive glass, collecting a total of 16 boards. Those rebounds accounted for 16 second chance points to just one for the home team.
Two things really jump out of the box score.
ASU guards Tra Holder and Gerry Blakes combined for 20 rebounds between them. Holder, who was the smallest player on the court for either team, was simply quicker to the ball. There was a sequence in the second half where it appeared UNLV had two straight defensive stops before Holder came dribbling out of the pack with the ball.
These were totally inexcusable. The fact that on two occasions within a 25 second span nobody cared to try and put a body on the diminutive Holder is hard to fathom. Give the ASU guards a lot of credit for being willing to mix it up, but it made the Rebel guards (Pat McCaw one rebound, Ike Nwamu 3) look uninspired.
Nearly half (21 of 50 to be exact) of the Rebel field goal attempts came from beyond the 3-point stripe. Let's just say that is way too many.
Facing an undersized team, UNLV failed to capitalize on its height and routinely took jump shot after jump shot. Maybe some of this was due to being called for six personal fouls on the offensive end of the floor in the first half. That could have curtailed some of the Rebels enthusiasm to drive into the paint.
Regardless, the way to get out of a scoring slump is to find the easiest way possible to score.
Some of the blame can be put on the coaching staff. The other portion can go squarely on the players that made some very poor decisions. The Jerome Seagears triple from the top of the key with 25 seconds left on the shot clock was brutal. The Derrick Jones Jr. shot with a player in his face was rushed. The three airballs that Nwamu threw up in the second half looked shockingly bad.
Out of timeouts UNLV tried desperately to go inside to Stephen Zimmerman Jr., but he was unable to connect on a couple of close ones.
Sometimes it just isn't your night. Those shots are going to fall more often than not, especially the bunnies from Zimmerman. I would've just liked to have seen a killer instinct from the Rebels that you witnessed from the Sun Devils.
Once ASU got rolling on offense and the shots continued to clang away for UNLV, the game was pretty much over. All the confidence had switched to the visiting bench.
The Rebels could've really used their offensive leader, McCaw, to come up with some timely buckets. The problem was McCaw never got in the flow, even in the first half when shots were falling.
McCaw, who has easily been UNLV's top player, took a total of five shots all game, and four of those came from beyond the arc. There was a hesitancy in McCaw last night that we generally don't see. I'm not sure what the issue was but he didn't appear comfortable from the opening tip.
At halftime, I was thinking what a luxury it was for the Rebels to have their leading scorer nonexistent and still be leading by double-digits. Unfortunately, whenever UNLV needed McCaw to do anything, he never showed up.
This is certainly not the end of the world for the Rebels, despite the fan reaction following the defeat last night. UNLV (8-3) already has two solid wins over teams that will likely be in the NCAA Tournament in March. Also, the Rebels have played two other teams that will be in the event down to the wire.
UNLV will get another crack at a marquee victory on Saturday when it travels to Tucson to tangle with the Wildcats. The Rebels will need to compete and execute with a purpose to pull off the upset, but a win would do wonders to sway back supporters who were, with good reason, disappointed in the ASU outcome.
Don't write this Rebels club off just yet.
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