Rebels have some flaws, desire not one of them

UNLV’s basketball team will awake Wednesday, head to the airport and board a flight for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Its team hotel is in Brooklyn, where the Rebels will meet Stanford in a Coaches vs. Cancer Classic game Friday night at Barclays Center.

It will do all this with a 2-0 record to begin the season.

The importance of which can’t be overstated today.

The idea was that two games might offer a better forecast as to how good the Rebels will prove to be over the next five months, but it’s not yet possible to determine how many wins might be produced from the skill they own.

It is possible to suggest this: They will play hard more possessions than not; they will not surrender effort when trailing big; they will possess an ability to take and make huge shots.

Head coach Dave Rice also will wear a suit jacket, at least until the loss column isn’t so lonely.

Style points aren’t important right now. Not with this many new faces. Results are. There is nothing like winning at the same time you’re growing up.

The Rebels on Sunday afternoon won their second straight where the other guys had a shot to win in the final seconds, this time outlasting Sam Houston State 59-57 before an announced gathering of 10,902 at the Thomas &Mack Center.

On Friday, UNLV beat Morehead State 60-59.

“I don’t think I ever won a college basketball game scoring 60 or fewer points before coming here, and now we’ve done it two games in a row,” said senior point guard and San Francisco transfer Cody Doolin. “That’s some pretty awesome defense.

“Any win is big. I think the two games we played this week, against two really good teams, we expected to win. If we can keep beating the teams we’re expected to and then win a couple big games, we can have a really good season.”

There is so much to improve and yet there isn’t a practice drill for the toughness UNLV showed in rallying from 11 down in the second half of both games. The Rebels are all kinds of flawed in all sorts of areas, but desire appears to be a strength.

The trip to Brooklyn is an entirely different matter, and there is every chance the Rebels will be exposed by bigger, better teams. Stanford comes first. Win that, and UNLV likely would face No. 4 Duke on Saturday.

It’s impossible to tell if UNLV is ready for such tests physically, but, incredibly importantly, it makes the trip having had to grind out two home wins in the manner it did. The Rebels had Doolin and four freshmen on the court at the end Sunday, when Dakarai Henderson’s 3-pointer with a second left missed and a red light on the backboard went on and victory was secured.

“You can’t question our heart and camaraderie,” Rice said. “We have a lot of stuff to work on. We know that. I always believe that at 0-2 you can’t talk about youth, but you can at 2-0. This is all a very new experience with this group. It’s a dangerous recipe to get down 11 points to good teams. We can’t keep getting down and expect to come back.”

Here’s the thing: They also can’t shoot 28 of 54 from the free-throw line (which they did over the two wins) and continue to beat good people; they can’t allow 38 offensive rebounds in two games (which they did) and beat good people, although many of those were a by-product of long misses off 3-point attempts against UNLV’s zone.

Which means UNLV’s guards need to rebound better.

In Brooklyn, they won’t have 23 more fouls called on their opponents (which happened in the two games here) and won’t shoot 30 more free throws than them (no, that’s not a misprint).

Ironic. The Rebels over two home games received the Duke Treatment from officials and might now get to play Duke. Good luck shooting more free-throws if that matchup occurs.

But the Rebels also are holding opponents to 31 percent shooting, including 28 percent on 3s. Rice has done a good job recruiting longer, more athletic kids and, mostly out of necessity given some individual defensive shortcomings, has them causing a bit of havoc out of a 1-2-2 zone.

Sam Houston State was 9 of 36 on 3s, which will win the guys defending a lot of games.

The zone also features a freshman forward in Goodluck Okonoboh, who has 13 blocks in his first two college games.

“It’s what I do,” Okonoboh said. “We’ve been waiting for this trip to Brooklyn for a long time and the chance to play high-profile games against high-profile players. These two games we have played are over. Erased. We need to go on this trip with a new mindset as if we haven’t played a game yet.”

But they have, and won both.

That might not be a big deal to Kentucky or Arizona or Duke today, but it is to a team trying to create an identity.

I have no idea what UNLV might do in Brooklyn, other than this: It will play with effort and toughness, no matter the score.

There aren’t any practice drills for that.

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 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.