UNLV plays way into favorite’s role

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Crazy things happen in this town at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, where locals rely on agriculture and refining to aid the economy.

A barbershop quartet of balding gentlemen sing the national anthem before a college basketball game, a group of middle-aged ballers spend halftime jumping off trampolines, and UNLV's seldom-used sophomore Karam Mashour goes baseline for a one-handed slam in the waning minutes of a blowout win, which was undoubtedly felt all the way to his hometown of Nazareth, Israel.

Mashour was still celebrating a few possessions later, offering a Bill Clinton-lookalike referee who talked the entire game a low-five.

Clinton nearly obliged before realizing his was an impartial role, instead choosing to talk to Mashour about the play because it had been five seconds since Clinton opened his mouth.

UNLV ended its nonconference schedule by whipping Cal State Bakersfield 89-57 at Rabobank Arena and now stares at an eight-day break before opening Mountain West Conference play at San Diego State on Jan. 14, when a Rebels team predicted to finish second in league will instead enter the 14-game journey a solid favorite.

At best, and this would have assumed everything fell into place with new faces emerging and injuries being limited and first-year coach Dave Rice not hurting himself keeping a straight face when talking about challenging opponents such as the mighty Roadrunners, you could have seen the Rebels being 15-3 at this point. At best.

They are instead 16-2 today, just one of two teams nationally (the other being top-ranked Syracuse) with 16 wins. They are ranked 17th and own a top-10 RPI, a deep team led by Rice, who has over 18 games consistently made the kind of adjustments that equal success.

It's not a perfect team by any means. The Rebels still have issues rebounding and keeping quicker guards in front of them. But when you have outscored opponents in the second half and overtime by a combined 790-616, those in charge have done an admirable job.

When you manage to drop just two games against the nonleague schedule UNLV played, a lot of people have bought into what coaches are selling.

"We're happy with our position and yet understand we need to get better," Rice said. "Everyone in our program has made improvements and everyone in our program has areas in which they need to improve from a consistency standpoint. We're getting closer to where we want to be."

Most teams reach the conference part of their season having settled on a rotation of eight players, but the Rebels have at least nine who could see important minutes once league begins.

Reggie Smith has come far enough at point guard since gaining eligibility to think he could be a factor. It's a good problem to have.

UNLV isn't facing some pushover string of 14 games. The Mountain West has five teams with at least 10 wins, and if NCAA Tournament bids were awarded today, three (UNLV, San Diego State and New Mexico) would hear their names announced.

Remember this: One or more of those teams will fall at Wyoming or Boise State or both. There will be scores where people blink twice and wonder what happened.

You have to figure a 12-2 record would clinch an outright regular-season title and 11-3 still might. You have to know how difficult it will be to earn.

In his first year as coach, Rice has made a seamless transition to leading a program, having inherited from Lon Kruger a roster with several capable players and instilling in them a desire to play and win unselfishly.

"It's good to know we're highly thought of, but all that guarantees is that we're going to get everyone's best shot," Rice said. "It's a wide-open race. We have one of the toughest games to start league, but we'll play them as they come and we'll be ready. I'm sure the Aztecs will be as well.

"(Eight days) is a long time between games ... That's where maturity as a team comes in, and our seniors will be important because they understand San Diego State has had a lot of success against us the last few years. They understand how important it is to get off to a good start but also know San Diego State is playing extremely well."

Show me the person who predicted 16-2 and I'll show you a person not telling the truth. And still, when you think of some of the stretches that led to such an impressive nonconference run, overachieving isn't a fair description of how the Rebels have played.

But great is.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.