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By Rhett, January 17, 2010 8:50 am

Last night is a perfect example of no matter what you do, you’re just going to lose a hoop game. It may be the other teams night, your team may be “off” in a “funk”, or any number of cliche words used to describe basketball, and often used on this website. UNLV played host to Utah and nearly 18,000 fans at the T&M last night, and Utah came out with the win. They won despite their up and down play this year because they played hard on both ends of the floor, and UNLV didn’t have “it”.

Besides Tre’Von Willis (27 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists), and Chace Stanback (14 points, 10 rebounds), nobody for the Rebels could be referred to as a reliable option last night. This really hamstrung UNLV down the stretch. For all the mentions about UNLV’s depth, Willis was forced into playing the whole game, as he was the only Rebel who could get his own shot and be relied upon to create offense.

Utah shot 50% from 3 point land (8 for 16), and also made a healthy percentage of their FT’s (23-29). In comparison, Vegas was only 1 of 12 from beyond the arch, and shot 65% from the FT line (22-34). At least 4 of those misses were front ends of 1-1’s as well.

So there you have it. It was a close game, UNLV had its shots to pull it out when things got tight at the end, and did not take advantage of the chances. Like I said, sometimes, you’re just going to lose a game. Utah 73, UNLV 69.

So UNLV is 14-4, and 2-2 in conference. Stumbles like these are what killed UNLV last year, and resulted in them not making the tournament. They pretty much have to take care of home court the rest of the way and win the road games they “should” win, including teams like Air Force, TCU, etc. You figure on two more tough home games against BYU and New Mexico. You want to be able to count on a split of both of those. In a league that figures to get more than one bid this year due to the non conference prowess of its teams, UNLV would do well to stay near the top of the standings as time goes by. New Mexico has stumbled as well, giving the Rebels a shot to right the ship, notch a few wins, and be there later on. Time will tell (cliche’s, hoary!).

Game #18 for myself, next game is Jan 26th, sheesh. Next weekend may be my “break out of Vegas random hoops road trip” weekend. We shall see.

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By Rhett, November 29, 2009 12:49 pm

I am sure most of you have enjoyed some extra time off from your day jobs the past few days, perhaps a couple fine meals with family and friends, more than one piece of pumpkin pie, and some downtime to relax. At least I hope this is the case. I had a great meal with the family here in Vegas prepared by my special lady and her mom who flew in from Michigan. Thanksgiving in Las Vegas takes on another meaning for me though, as a banquet of college basketball was on hand over the past couple of days.

UNLV took on Louisville yesterday in an early tip off at the Thomas and Mack. We arrived early and watched the T&M fill up to near capacity. UNLV had looked pretty good the first hand full of games we’ve seen this season, but  I wasn’t sure how they would perform in a much hyped around town game. I felt UNLV was better than Louisville overall, but didn’t know if it was prime-time yet. Lots of these questions were answered yesterday.

UNLV came out early and took it right to Louisville, letting them know there would be no pushing around. Shaw, Massamba, and Santee went to work on Samuels denying him the ball, Bellfield did a job staying in front of Sosa, and overall, the Rebels played very solid man to man defense.

Jasper, Willis, and Bellfield all had several nice moves in the 1st half. Super Freshman combo of Hawkins and Marshall did their part, and UNLV was up 10 at halftime.

The second half started with more of the same. The Rebels held Louisville scoreless for over 4 minutesto start, with UNLV extending the lead from 10 to 16 or so. It was 48-32 with 5 minutes gone in the second half, and I was thinking blow out. I should have known better.

Louisville tied it up with a 30-11 run over the larger portion of the second half, making the last 4 minutes of this game pretty intense. Edgar Sosa started hitting 3’s, Some guy I’ve never heard of (Rakeem Buckles) had two nice hoops and got to the line a hand full of times, it seemed like they were coming from everywhere, and were possibly playing with a 6th guy on the floor. UNLV was forcing things a bit when it got closer. Once it was within 2, things calmed down a bit and UNLV was forced to bring it to the zone. Louisville used the zone almost 100% of the time in the second half, which gave them the turnovers and missed shots they needed for the comeback. However, when it came to crunch time, Bellfield scored on 3 straight trips against the zone, gaining the lane with the shot clock under 5 seconds and putting runners in the hoop. It was amazing.

With under a minute left, UNLV stepped it up on defense too, with a big block by Santee (and two made FT’s after the intentional foul from Samuels), and a steal by Jasper as Sosa gained the lane the next trip down. UNLV was up 6 at this point, and iced the match. Final Score: UNLV 76, Louisville 71.

And what a crowd. The T&M was absolutely rocking, silencing the hand full of ‘ville fans. How can you stand up for your team when your coach hooks up with women in storage closets of your favorite eatery and then forces one of his assistants to marry her? I heard a few classic one liners from the upper deck on Saturday that I will save for personal conversations. Overall, it was a great time.

After this game, I headed back to the Orleans Arena to catch the last two games of the Las Vegas Invitational. Yesterday I was on hand for four total games, including a great comeback by Utah for the night cap. I was hoping for another upset special early as Bradley took on Illinois for the 3rd place game.

The crowd once again was made up by a large conglomerate of Illinois fans. Bradley had its fan block back as well, but was drown out by “ILL-INI” chants for most of the afternoon. The game started close with both teams trading baskets, resulting in Bradley gaining a small lead for most of the 1st half. Illinois put on a rush at the end after they settled down and started running some real offense. Tisdale was in early foul trouble, much to the dismay of the Illinois fans in the stands. Mike Davis was effective down low working FT line extended and in, using the glass, etc. For Bradley, it was pretty balanced for the most part. Things stayed close in the second half as well. Big 3 pointers back to back from Roberts and Warren helped Bradley to a small cushion and that was enough to knock off Illinois and send their jerk fans walking. Final Score: Bradley 72, Illinois 68.

Bet the top 25 ranked Illini did not figure on losing both games in the desert. This is a testament to top 25 rankings before a season even starts being completely useless.

Second game of the night was a yawner. Utah came off its upset over Illinois, Oklahoma State handled Bradley pretty well. Utah hit a few shots to start the game, but it was over by the time the buzzer sounded for halftime. OSU guards are small, but damn fast, and the combination of Luca Drca and Carlon Brown could not keep them in front of the defense. Jim Boylen was fired up as usual, drew a technical early in the 1st half (looking to fire up the troops), but just couldn’t get it going. Down almost 20 at the half, the second half was more of the same. Couple spurts in either direction, but nothing of great note. Utah is pretty young. Had their squad from last year been matched up against the speed and strength of OSU, I think it would have been a different story. Boylen has a good thing going in Utah though, and the Utes should be in the top half of the MWC again this year. Final Score: Oklahoma State 77, Utah 55.

In addition I watched two brutal games before the “prime-time” games yesterday. Wofford vs Southern and Seattle vs Presbyterian. Seattle has some Juco transfer who is an absolute beast. He’s like 6′10″ and still handles the ball up the floor, backs his guy down and shoots the ball. It’d be like putting Kevin Garnett on the floor. Just odd to watch, but interesting nonetheless. Seattle beat Presbyterian 67-63, and Wofford beat Southern 81-66. Incidentally, I did catch the last 4 minutes of the “title” game between Wofford and Seattle. Wofford won with a great defensive stand on the last play of the game, denying Seattle’s KG a shot after he had previously missed two FT’s and got the rebound, slammed it home to take a 1 point game. Wofford nailed a shot, giving Seattle’s monster man a shot, but it was not to be. Wofford 84, Seattle 83 (Look at the box score. Charles Garcia has 41 points on 24 shots, and also shot 18 FT’s. 1 assist).

That is it for my basketball weekend. Four more games on Friday, Three and a half (lol) on Saturday, and one last Wednesday puts my total at 11. It was a long weekend of basketball watching. Today I am settling back into my normal routine for the work week ahead. UNLV is on an extended road trip because of the rodeo coming to town. Dar. My next game will be when Sam is in town, and we head back to the Orleans Arena to watch UNLV take on Kansas State.

I’ll chime in again sometime this week with a few observances around the world of college basketball instead of whats going on in my little sports bubble. In closing, shame on you Illinois fans, and shout out to UNLV. Let the buzz begin.

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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.

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By Rhett, June 13, 2009 7:00 pm

http://www.themwc.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/061209aaa.html

Wow that is so far away. Since I am now resting in a barren sports wilderness I have no choice but to look forward to the fall and hope I survive the brutal Las Vegas heat. If I make it, I will be here rooting for Bradley and Utah. Cause that’s what I do.

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By Rhett, January 25, 2009 8:38 pm

Shout out to Obama.

No updates in a while for the 3 people who’ve come to the site are not going to make them return. That is OK, as this is more of a chronicle for members of “The Trip”. I need to log my most recent games, so here you go:

12/22 – Creighton vs Fresno State, Saint Louis vs DePaul: “This place is dead anyways” – sad to see fewer than a thousand or so people at The Las Vegas Classic. With the way the economy is, I can’t imagine they bring this back. These pre conference season tourneys are delicious golden basketball for me and I would hate to see them go. Creighton is solid and DePaul keeps their head above water vs  Saint Louis, but won’t vs the Big East this year.

12/23 – Creighton vs DePaul, Fresno St. vs Saint Louis: Why is it that all Jesuit schools have creepy mascots? Creighton pulls off an entertaining win vs Depaul, Fresno just looks sad out there. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the two games before these on either day due to my work schedule. I would have loved to seen Steph Curry’s brother play for Liberty. Obviously the ability runs in the family and maybe he would have waved to me or something, seeing as I was practically the only one there.

1/3 – UNLV vs New Mexico: Conference hoops begins with a win for the Rebels

1/17 – UNLV vs Wyoming: Maniac head coach finds a suit and tie. Still loses. Wyoming has fast guards and decent bigs, surprised they can’t put something else together.

1/24 – UNLV vs Utah: Utah has (had) a nice SOS and RPI. Huge win for Vegas, keeping Utah’s 7′2″ buffoon in check for most of the game let their shooters loose. Kruger had the right adjustments for the second half with a nice comeback win.

10 + 7 = 17 games on the year for me. Another 5 conference games for the Rebels, will put me at 23. 6 games in Philly for the 1st and 2nd rounds of the NCAA tourney will have me at 29. Throw in another 3 for the Final Four in Detroit and I’ll be at 32. Mix in any random conference championship games (MWC and WCC both here in Vegas) I may be able to snag in early March and I could get close to 40 games.

The Trip agrees that outside of people who do this for a living, we are complete authorities and cannot be stopped. Domination is our only option. Often, conversation with people who are not addicted is impossible. It goes something like this:::

Random: “Hey, Rhett, did you see that guy from Oklahoma last night? He’s pretty good, huh?”

Me: “Yeah, sure.”

And I’m the rude one? Come on man, realize whats going on here. By the time I’m in my 30’s I’ll have HUNDREDS of games under my belt that I’ve actually attended. The trip will realize a decade of being there. This does not count the thousands of games on TV. All of this, and I fall well short of fellow trip members, who’ve been doing this since damn near conception.

Not being cocky. Just facts.