It keeps searching for consistency, for not being so up and down, not losing one night at home to Wyoming and then giving first-place New Mexico everything it could handle and then some.
Not winning two straight against Utah State and San Diego State and then immediately dropping two at the Thomas & Mack Center.
UNLV’s basketball team isn’t there yet. Twenty games into a season, things are still a bit erratic. They should be more settled by now.
It has also been this way for more than just this year. The Rebels are consistently inconsistent in a grand manner.
Beat or come close to really good teams. Lose to less desirable ones.
The Rebels on Saturday chose the former in dropping a 75-73 decision to New Mexico before an announced gathering of 6,158. It was a game that certainly could have gone in UNLV’s favor if not for this:
The Lobos (17-4, 9-1) made plays when winning was on the line.
The Rebels (11-9, 5-4) didn’t.
More fight, effort
“The last couple of minutes we need to get shots at the rim and also good shots,” UNLV coach Kevin Kruger said. “I’m sure once we watch (the film), of course, we will obviously wish we did this and wish we did that.”
The Rebels showed more fight than in a forgettable loss to Wyoming on Tuesday. Had more energy. Exhibited more effort. They more than competed with the team that sits atop the Mountain West standings.
It was an afternoon when two of the league’s best guards faced off, with the conference’s top player in Donovan Dent of New Mexico and sophomore Dedan Thomas Jr. of the Rebels leading their respective teams.
Dent got the better of the matchup.
He scored 34 on 13-of-21 shooting, time and again getting downhill and inside against a UNLV defense that struggled mightily containing him most of the afternoon. It also saw forward Nelly Joseph go for 22 points and 18 rebounds while drawing nine fouls.
Thomas led the Rebels with 18 points but couldn’t convert when it mattered most. The Rebels trailed by two with 1.3 seconds left and had Thomas at the line for a pair of free throws.
He would make the first, be iced a bit by a New Mexico timeout and miss the second.
It’s not the first time over the past few years the former Liberty High star has had a chance to win or tie a game in the closing seconds.
Things haven’t gone well for the most part in those moments. More misses than makes.
But he’s your best player. You want the ball in his hands. You need to trust him, and Kruger has. It just hasn’t worked out all that well, is all. Not yet, anyways.
“We work on (free-throw situations) every day in practice,” Thomas said. “Disappointed. But I’ll be back in the gym tomorrow getting up 100 free throws.”
Said senior guard Julian Rishwain: “(Thomas) is always the last one in the gym shooting free throws. Others missed free throws. It didn’t come down to just (Thomas). I missed. Bear (Cherry) missed some. … We just move forward.”
Utah State next
It was physical in the sense nobody wanted to allow much at the rim, which is a main reason 40 fouls were assessed. The Lobos still managed 42 points in the paint compared to 28 from UNLV. It was physical in the sense you would expect 75-73 to be.
“Just because you play hard, it doesn’t always go your way,” Kruger said. “This was a tough one, but like every night in this conference, now you have to get ready for the next one.”
That comes Wednesday at Utah State, which is 8-1 in league with its only loss coming at UNLV on Jan. 15. If things hold true to form, the Rebels will play well again while opposing one of the conference’s best sides.
Because that’s how things usually go around here.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at [email protected]. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.
