Lady Rebels getting red hot at right time
So this is where the Runnin’ Rebels basketball team has been hiding.
Cox Pavilion is a midrange jumper from the Thomas & Mack Center, but there was more pushing of the ball and guarding of the dribble and running of set plays in the small gym Wednesday night than we have seen in the big arena of late.
UNLV’s women have become red hot at the right time, having won five straight with a Mountain West tournament and automatic NCAA berth at stake at home in a few weeks.
The Lady Rebels aren’t perfect. Not close. They’re still just 13-13 on the season after dismissing Utah State 69-61 before a gathering of 787.
But they’re also 10-5 in league, alone in fourth place and in position to get a first-round bye in the conference tournament. There will be no play-in game for them.
They also play incredibly hard.
And they run.
Off makes, off misses, off turnovers.
The don’t always finish and the transition result isn’t always pretty, but they’re not afraid to attack.
They really run.
They really guard people.
This is really happening on campus.
“I just think we’re better right now than we have been,” said seventh-year UNLV coach Kathy Olivier. “I think that when we don’t do things well, we regroup and say, ‘Let’s get this right.’ ”
It’s no different with the women’s game when it comes to the importance of senior leadership, with relying on those who have been around a program for years and understand its heartbeat, its purpose, its mission, its subtleties that define how you want your team viewed.
If there is a reason UNLV can continue this successful stretch and perhaps make a serious push at the conference tournament, it’s because of the savviness and hunger provided by Danielle Miller and Alana Cesarz, seniors who have started since their sophomore season.
It’s because Miller and Cesarz and fellow senior Briana Charles want more than anything to send Olivier to the NCAA Tournament for the first time as UNLV’s coach. Such pursuit drives them.
“We only have three (regular-season) games left in our careers, but I don’t see it as the end,” Miller said. “I see it as a beginning. We haven’t had great seasons in the past. But we have the pieces now to get that taste of an NCAA Tournament. Put it on our backs as seniors. Let us carry the team on our shoulders. I just don’t feel like this is the end.
“We want it so bad. We went to the WNIT our first year here, but that’s not the goal when you come to college. Everyone’s goal is the NCAA Tournament. We want to be remembered as the players who led (Olivier) there with UNLV. Numbers mean nothing. None of that matters. We’re all about the wins. Give us Connecticut. Anything to get there.”
Miller might not care about statistics, but hers this season could earn Mountain West Player of the Year honors, a wing from San Diego who leads the conference in scoring with an 18.5-point average and had 21 against Utah State. She also recorded six rebounds and a career-high six assists in 32 minutes. She takes a lot of shots (21 of them Wednesday) but also makes some difficult ones.
Cesarz added 18 points and seven rebounds. It’s a nice tandem.
It is also unquestionably Olivier’s best chance to make the NCAAs since arriving in April of 2008, a coach who advanced to the field five times when in charge of UCLA’s program for 15 years. She led the Bruins to an Elite Eight game in 1998-99, but the Lady Rebels have struggled producing winning records in her time here.
Seven years isn’t a day or a week or a month. It’s a significant period of time for a coach who has two years remaining on her contract.
UNLV did win 22 games in 2011-12, but would have been pressed to overcome San Diego State that season in chasing the league’s automatic NCAA bid. But there isn’t a team the Lady Rebels can’t beat when the conference tournament tips off March 9, no dominant side running away with anything.
“For the (seniors) to talk about making (the NCAAs) is absolutely huge,” Olivier said. “That sort of conversation means you have high expectations and you’re going to work harder in practice to be able to achieve that goal.
“All three seniors are great girls. They learned so much from the (22-win team) and just have a lot of UNLV pride.They’ve stuck together and worked really hard to improve our program. They’re just really good people.”
They like to run and defend and play really hard, not always a thing of beauty but seemingly never with a lack of effort.
They wouldn’t beat Connecticut and wouldn’t stay competitive for very long, but it’s easy to understand Miller’s desire for taking on anyone if it means making the NCAAs.
It’s how someone who hasn’t known such a moment views things.
It’s a how a senior thinks.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 100.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.
