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By Rhett, November 27, 2009 12:15 pm

If this were any other game, I’d have been all in for Holy Cross. They have been a classic small timey team as of late, hail from the Patriot League, and shoot a ton of 3’s. In reality though, this was just a warm-up game for UNLV. They had balanced scoring across the board from Willis (14), Bellfield (13) and super frosh’s Anthony Marshall (14) and Justin Hawkins (12). UNLV was outrebounded for the1st time all year, but I attribute this to the abundance of long rebounds going out to the 3 point line after brutal 3 point shot after brutal 3 point shot on the Crusader’s account. UNLV was in control for the whole game, avoided the trademarked slow start, and put things away for good halfway through the 2nd half. UNLV 80, Holy Cross 59.

Still looking for Derek Jasper to take over a game though. He’s shown flashes of his talent, definitely runs the offense well enough, and has shown no ill affects of his previous knee issues (highlighted by a alley-oop slam in the second half where he jumped high enough to have his arms and head above the rim it seemed). Here’s to hoping he shows up big next time out, vs this guy ->

The look ahead is to Louisville on Saturday. There may be a little bad blood between the two schools. Ricky Pitino was rumored to be a lock for the UNLV job before Kruger got it, before Pitino’s lady friend nixed the deal due to her not wanting to live in Las Vegas. UNLV also won a close game in Louisville last year without their best player, Wink Adams, on the floor due to an injury the previous game. These two items, coupled with the fact that UNLV needs to gain some national respect with a big win after their nice start (#1 in RPI rankings to start the season), and it’s going to be a hard fought game once again. I’m sure the student section will have a few choice chants for Pitino and his gangster style shotgun marriage of his extra special lady friend and some dude who guards the door while he’s picking out the carrots for a stew or something at his local watering hole. Should be interesting to say the least.

Due to the Louisville game, I will be missing the 1st two games of the 2nd day of the Las Vegas Invitational. I’m headed to the first two games after this post is done, and will be looking for Bradley and Utah to knock off Illinois and Oklahoma St. this evening.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends, family, and giant plates of food.