Superior athletes expose Rebels

“You think you have an open shot and here comes Earl Clark, who’s 6-9 with who knows how long a wingspan. And then you have to change your shot and maybe take a dribble, and everything changes.”

It happens against superior athletes.

Things change a lot. Quickly.

Sooner or later, their talent produces a run you aren’t good enough to answer and the dam breaks and water rushes in and you sink.

UNLV’s basketball team Wednesday night managed to defend its way to staying with No. 6 Louisville for 30 minutes, but hidden within a 68-48 loss at the Thomas & Mack Center are the troubles that could bother the Rebels often this season.

It’s this simple: Ridiculously undersized, UNLV owns no backup solution to poor shooting games, which means 16-for-64 from the field and 6-for-30 on 3s will get the Rebels beat by bad Mountain West Conference teams, never mind a Top 10 opponent.

If Louisville — admittedly without two of its best players — is the nation’s sixth-best team, then maybe only a few teams are capable of winning a national championship this season. But as average as the Cardinals appeared for long stretches, they still possess qualities UNLV might not find all year.

They can go get a basket inside when things become tight. They can create easy chances. They can wear you down to the point dribble penetration that was controlled in the first half results in open jumpers or free throws during the second. They answer your long 3-point misses with run-out dunks.

“They’re long and active, and that bothered us,” Rebels coach Lon Kruger said. “Their size and length were factors. Their pressure dictated the game. But it’s a good learning experience for us.

“You don’t like the feeling of losing, and it’s one you can’t accept, especially at home. But good things will come from it.”

They will come on nights when shooting numbers don’t read like UNLV’s winning percentage in football the last five years. Take away a stretch to open the second half, when UNLV’s first four baskets were 3s, and the Rebels came close to hitting more backboard than the rim on countless jumpers.

Terry shot 2 of 9 and Wink Adams 3 of 12, and Rene Rougeau and Lamar Roberson combined to shoot 1 of 12. It’s a point that was raised often last season and yet now seems undeniably clear: Any opposing coach who doesn’t at least begin a game against UNLV playing a zone defense ought to be terminated by halftime.

You can stay close defensively by guarding your brains out and gimmicking your way to stops, which the Rebels did well enough to trail just 26-23 at halftime.

But it’s different when trying to score. You can’t generate size that isn’t there, and right now UNLV is far more about a few swing passes and its next 3 than anything. That the Rebels appeared overly anxious to start Wednesday didn’t help their cause.

It’s more mind-set than anything.

Players at least must force themselves to look inside longer than a few blinks, to believe isolating Matt Shaw or Joe Darger and throwing them the ball more than once every 10 trips will produce something positive.

If not, runs such as the 16-2 spurt Louisville pasted on the Rebels midway through the second half become more inevitable than possible.

“You can’t simulate that kind of size in practice, and we don’t have a lot of it,” Kruger said. “Louisville turned it up, and we didn’t respond as we needed to at that point.

“Anytime you play a Top 5 (caliber) team, logically, you have to shoot it well. We didn’t.”

The Cardinals had something to do with that. Shots are more open against the Montana States and Dixie States of the world. Not as many hands are contesting, not as many bodies flying at you.

But more athletic teams are to come for UNLV, which demands the Rebels either figure out a way to make more shots or find some way of consistently converting closer than 15 feet.

“We just didn’t handle our responsibilities, and things got out of control,” Terry said. “Nobody gave us a shot coming in (except the oddsmakers and their 4-point spread).

“We thought we could come in and play with these guys. We did for the first 30 minutes.”

Then the dam broke and water rushed in and UNLV ultimately sunk amid a mass of missed shots.

It happens against superior athletes. Quickly.

Ed Graney’s column is published Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.