Difficult road stretch should make us better

It is always a difficult balance managing academics, basketball practice and games, but the week of final exams is even more difficult. Our guys have worked really hard this semester. They will be excited to have their finals behind them and will enjoy the time off from school to concentrate solely on basketball.

It was a difficult stretch of games for us, playing six straight away from the Thomas & Mack Center. We were fortunate during that span to be able to play three of them at Orleans Arena. We enjoyed our time in that facility with three wins, including games against Southern California and then-No. 1-ranked North Carolina.

Playing at UC Santa Barbara, at Wichita State and at Wisconsin provided us the opportunity to play in challenging venues against good basketball teams. We always will play a difficult schedule, and we feel like tough games on the road prepare us well for conference play. One of our goals every year always will be to compete for and to try to win a regular-season conference title. Playing such a formidable nonconference schedule helps prepare us to reach that goal.

One of the strengths of our team this year has been our depth, which we have talked a lot about. We have received great contributions from our bench and are excited that Reggie Smith will be eligible to play in games after final exams. Reggie has done a great job for us in practice this semester. He can be a game-changing point guard and will add to our depth by providing quality minutes. He has great quickness and athleticism, with the ability to make plays for his teammates and himself.

The loss at Wisconsin was tough. We were unhappy with the energy and execution in that game. The main thing that we talked to our team about afterward was that it was over and we can’t get it back. But what we can do is learn from it and not allow it to happen again.

That is something we talk a lot about. For example, if you commit a turnover, don’t commit another because of the one that just occurred. It is the same way with losing a game. If we lose, let’s not lose another one as a byproduct of the one we just lost. We need to learn from it, practice better and move on to the goal of winning our next game.

We are really appreciative of the support of our fans. Our guys are working hard.

UNLV basketball coach Dave Rice writes a weekly column for Rebels Report.