In his third season as coach, Dave Rice has a unique UNLV basketball team. There is not another one in the nation like it, and that alone sets the scene for intrigue.
Basketball
College basketball is going cold turkey. It has chosen to abruptly cease a bad habit over gradual reduction, accepting the nausea and hives and dizziness and headaches and muscle pains all at once. Three words: It’s about time.
Bill King died in 2005. While his voice has been silenced, his legacy as one of sports’ most versatile and professional radio play-by-play announcers remains vibrant.
The No. 1 overall pick is still looking for basket No. 1. Anthony Bennett, the former UNLV standout who was the first player taken in this year’s NBA Draft, hasn’t scored a field goal for the Cavaliers.
I was looking for Lewis Skolnick at one guard spot and Dudley “Booger” Dawson at small forward. But it wasn’t Adams College that UNLV’s basketball team welcomed Tuesday night. It was Adams State. The Rebels might have preferred a group of nerdy Tri-Lambs.
It took longer than Kevin Olekaibe had hoped for the NCAA to approve him to play this season. But the senior guard’s arrival came just in time to help UNLV escape another exhibition embarrassment.
It was a mystery to Dantley Walker where he was headed next. Two years ago, he waited for a mission assignment for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As soon as basketball practice ended Monday, UNLV senior Kevin Olekaibe went looking for his phone.
Every time Kentucky coach John Calipari starts to praise his latest crop of talented freshmen, he’s just as quick to point out that it is a work in progress.
Midway through the first half, UNLV junior guard Bryce Dejean-Jones limped off the floor while clutching his right hamstring. That was the injury, and then came the insult.
Play hard. Play together. The request might seem overly simplistic for college basketball players owning a wealth of ability, but Dave Rice knows that continuity most often comes before prosperity.
Those who play the NBA will find few uncontested layups. How do you handicap pro basketball? Here are five points of emphasis.
It was not a wonderful life he was leaving behind, so Deville Smith listened when family members pleaded for him to get out of Mississippi and take a higher-percentage shot at success.
There was a Shark sighting on the UNLV campus Wednesday. But this Shark was bronze. And it sure looked like Jerry Tarkanian. The school officially dedicated a statue to the 83-year-old Hall of Fame basketball coach.
During his redshirt year on the bench, UNLV junior Roscoe Smith made a decision to get off the couch. As a transfer from Connecticut, Smith practiced with the Rebels and watched games from the sideline. But when the team was on the road, he was at home. The time alone was a chance to look in the mirror.
