UNLV Basketball

As the UNLV Runnin' Rebel basketball search for a head coach draws to an end after all four of the official interviews being conducted, sources are saying that the coaching race was over before it ever had a chance to get off the ground.

According to The Gridlocks radio show on ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas, several sources have said that Dave Rice, BYU associate head coach and former Rebel player, has been the chosen one since the day after former head coach Lon Kruger abruptly resigned and took over a struggling Oklahoma Sooners team.

An official announcement could come as early has Sunday, with a press conference on Monday.

UNLV's athletic director, Jim Livengood, was in Houston for the Final Four last weekend where he had a meeting with Rice about the job. The sources the Gridlocks were speaking of said that he pretty much locked up the job right there and that the current interview process is just so UNLV follows proper procedure.

Reggie Theus, the other former Rebel and booster favorite to get the job, reportedly came into his interview with an attitude already feeling as if the job was off the market according to The Gridlocks.

Theus was turned down by Livengood once before when he interviewed for the Arizona Wildcat job back in 2008. At that time, Livengood was athletic director at Arizona, and the feeling is that he still has a grudge against Livengood from his previous interview and left this latest interview with Livengood frustrated.

Theus wasn't even contacted by Livengood until late Sunday night, a full 48 hours after Kruger announced he was leaving and over 24 hours after Livengood and Rice met in Houston.

The way the process has been carried out has reportedly angered many boosters. If Rice is hired, it will be despite former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian saying it would be a "joke" if Theus did not get the job.

Another tie between Rice and Livengood is apparent once one realizes that Livengood obtained his bachelors degree from BYU.

Though the two former UNLV players turned coaches have been the focal point of the search, former Arizona associate head coach and current St. John's assistant coach, Mike Dunlap, reportedly had a great interview and would be the clear-cut choice if Theus or Rice, with their ties to UNLV, weren't in the race, according to the Gridlock's sources.

Don't get me wrong, I have said time and again that I would be satisfied with UNLV choosing either Theus or Rice.

But if the process wasn't really for the purpose of seeing who the most qualified for the job, but instead, a decoy to show UNLV took the proper steps in choosing a new coach, this would raise serious red flags on something that should have Las Vegas buzzing for who is chosen, not how he was chosen.

As the UNLV Rebels basketball coaching job search heats up only days after former coach Lon Kruger made a surprising exit, new names of interested candidates are beginning to emerge.

Besides the two favored candidates to become the Rebels next coach, former player and current associate head coach of BYU Dave Rice and former UNLV and NBA star Reggie Theus, a list of long shots is starting to fill up.

Larry Johnson, the most beloved former Rebel of all time, is in the mix of possible candidates. Grandma-ma himself has contacted his former running mate, Stacey Augmon, who is currently with the Denver Nuggets as an assistant to possible bring the duo here as head coach and assistant coach according to Fox 5 in Las Vegas.

Even though Johnson has no prior coaching experience, his overall basketball knowledge and celebrity status could do him wonders at UNLV. What recruit wouldn't be excited to play for a former top NBA star who won a national title in college as a part of one of the most notorious teams in college basketball history?

An even longer shot to fill the void left by Kruger is Bob Knight. Listed as an 10,000-1 possibility to become the next head coach at UNLV, according to the Wynn Hotel and Casinos. This is for entertainment-purposes-only odds at the beginning of the coaching search on Friday, there has been some new buzz surrounding Knight.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal's sports department, Bob Knight has expressed some interest in taking over the one-time college basketball powerhouse.

The possibility the sometimes controversial Knight coming to Vegas would be an electric mix. He is one of the most successful coaches of all time and could really bring UNLV back to relevance in the college basketball world.

He would have an immediate impact on the program as opposed to the favored candidates, Theus and Rice, who could take a few years to get UNLV where it wants to be due to his legendary status. Top recruits would have to think twice about not signing with UNLV and could help UNLV land those star recruits that Lon missed out on time after time.

With the decision expected to be made within the next two weeks as to who will be the next head coach of the Rebels program, there are sure to be more names coming out of the woodwork as interested candidates.

Who knows? Maybe a long shot will finally pay off in Vegas and help UNLV hit a jackpot paving the way for a future brighter than the Las Vegas Strip for UNLV.

Just two days after UNLV coach Lon Kruger said his job at UNLV would be his last coaching job and that he would stay despite the rumors Oklahoma, NC State and Utah all threw offers his way, Oklahoma's persistence in acquiring Kruger has paid off as The Gridlocks radio show on ESPN 1100AM in Las Vegas confirmed that Kruger has all but signed on the dotted line to become the Oklahoma Sooners next head coach.

Kruger told multiple media outlets in Las Vegas that he would be staying at UNLV—it even was the lead story on the sports page on Friday's Review Journal in Las Vegas.

As news of Krugers departure spread, everyone first thought was that this was a cruel April Fools joke. As major media outlets such as Fox Sports started to publish stories on Kruger heading over to Oklahoma the surprising news began to settle for the Rebel fan base.

Lon Kruger has had a successful tenure while at UNLV. With an overall record of 161-71 and four NCAA tournament appearances, including the Rebels Sweet 16 run back in the 2006-07 season, his spot on the bench will be hard to replace.

Aside from what he has meant to UNLV on the court he has also done tons off the court for the Las Vegas community with various charity appearances and the annual coaches versus cancer golf tournament.

Kruger earned about $1.2 million at UNLV per season and Oklahoma has put a reported $2.2 million per-year contract on the table. Apparently that was too much to turn down, even after assuring the Rebel faithful they would see him back on the Rebels bench come fall.

With the shock beginning to wear off, UNLV has to now set their sights on who will replace a coach who had the city of Las Vegas as interested has it has been since coach Jerry Tarkanian led UNLV to it's one and only national championship.

At the top of UNLV's list of possible candidates are former NBA and UNLV standout Reggie Theus and BYU assistant coach Dave Rice, who was a member of UNLV's championship team back in 1990.

Theus has had a fairly successful coaching career in the college ranks. He led the New Mexico State Aggies to the NCAA tournament in 2007 and had an overall record of 41-23 in his two seasons there.

Every year as the Rebels were bounced early from the big dance or as in the 2008-09 season failing to reach the NCAA tournament grumblings of fire Kruger would come out from fans here and there, hire Theus. Well their wishes might come true, but not in the fashion they all hoped for.

The HBO special that aired on Saturday evening about the Runnin' Rebels of UNLV found a special chord of emotion in my heart. 

Growing up in Las Vegas from the 70's onward and having a wonderful father who introduced me to sports and college basketball made me a diehard Rebel fan.

My memories of the grand opening of the Thomas and Mack Arena with Danny Tarkanian, Freddie Banks and Armon Gilliam lighting up the scoreboard in "The Shark Tank" are still vivid in my mind.

As are the rolling out of the red carpet during player introductions and a dazzling display of fireworks and pyrotechnics INSIDE of the arena.

And never forgetting the ominous sound of the Jaws theme pulsating throughout the building and all 18,000+ fans opening and closing their arms in a gigantic great white shark CHOMP leading up to the tip-off. 

I remember being hoarse from screaming before the game even started.

I can never forgot the eventual accumulation of the hard work and perseverance by Jerry Tarkanian and his fantastic coaching teams that took Greg Anthony, Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Anderson Hunt and Moses Scurry to winning the most fulfilling accomplishment in college basketball—the National Title.

The city of Las Vegas erupted in a cataclysmic chorus from one end of the Strip to the other; people running down the street, yelling and screaming; cars honking and screeching with "National Champions, UNLV, Rebels" written in shoe polish across the windows.

Yes, there is the dark side to all this success, handed out by the massive amounts of suspensions and scrutinizing from the NCAA infractions committee that surrounded the Shark like pilot fish his entire tenure in Vegas.

Not saying everything Coach Tark did was all roses, but the segment also showed how UCLA was filled with its own bevy of indiscretions with "Papa Sam" Gilbert, who seemingly supplied players with any goods and services they needed as they drove in the most expensive cars.

Of course, the NCAA and John Wooden never saw any such things happening.

The overall most depressing time was the historic tragic loss to Duke the following season, after beating them by a record 30 points the previous year. Even Tark knew they were in trouble that day when he held an early morning-same day practice before the game and said, "we are gonna lose, they are not focused."

Of course, the bogus charge call near the end of the game against the team's leader and quarterback Greg Anthony was a HUGE momentum swing in the game and caused his dismissal from it by incurring his fifth foul.

Ultimately, I will always remember those days with extreme fondness and watery eyes, through the highs of the wins and the lows of the tournament losses.

The UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball team was struggling through much of the Mountain West Conference season.

As they eked out win after win, with only a couple of blowout wins in between, Rebel fans began to wonder if they would ever right the ship.

The answer: yes. UNLV has strung together three impressive games as of late and finds itself rolling into postseason play, as the Rebels are peaking as a team.

One noted change is Tre'Von Willis. He has been hurt for much of the year, and it seems to have affected his role as the leader of the team. During the tail end of the conference slate he has stepped up and guided his Rebels to a nice string of games.

Showing this leadership throughout the Mountain West Tournament and the NCAA Tournament later on in March will pay huge dividends for the Rebels. The team that started 9-0 is starting to emerge again.

Their defense has been one of the best in all of college basketball all season long, but their offense has been struggling ever since their near-disastrous letdown against Boise State back in December. However, the last two games UNLV has shot a combined 52 percent from the field and 44 percent from three-point land. The Rebels, with their shooting problems seemingly behind them, look to make a deep NCAA Tournament run.

With a season that started out with some much hype and then created some doubts, UNLV's resurgence couldn't have come at a better time. UNLV looks to continue its impressive play, wanting nothing more than to have the Rebels runnin' deep into March.

The Runnin' Rebels of UNLV all but guaranteed a spot in this year's 68 field NCAA Tournament with a 77-74 overtime thriller on the road against the New Mexico Lobos.

Coming off a big road win against Colorado State this past Saturday, UNLV put together two solid halves for the first time in a few games and showed it has the grit to win a tight game at a opponents frenzied arena.

UNLV's senior leader Tre'Von Willis came through in a big way. He led the Rebels with 25 points, 13 of which he scored in the first half on seven of seven shooting, to go with four assist and four steals in a game he was only 50-50 on playing prior to the tip due to his nagging knee injury.

Quintrell Thomas had another strong effort in Mountain West play adding 19 points and 13 rebounds. This was his third double-double of conference play.

UNLV took over third place in the conference standings after Colorado St. lost a close contest in Provo to Jimmer Fredette and BYU earlier in the evening.

UNLV will host the Wyoming Cowboys Saturday in the home finale, then close out the regular season at Utah.

Now the Rebels are essentially playing for seeding purposes in the NCAA tournament.

Winning the final two regular season games along with a strong showing in the Mountain West tournament in two weeks should help the Rebels move into a seed as high as a five or six, opposed to a seven or eight seed with a bad loss closing out the regular season.

If the Rebels can keep their shooting as it was last night, combined with their tenacious defense, they will be a tough team for anyone to beat come March.

The Unlv Runnin' Rebels look to pad their NCAA tournament resume by getting revenge against the Rams of Colorado State.

Last month, the Rams embarrassed the Rebels on their home court, defeating UNLV 78-63 in what was the Rebels most disappointing effort this season.

The Rebels head into Saturday's game coming off their lowest scoring game of the year, beating Air Force 49-42 in what was one of the ugliest games I have seen in recent memory.

Though the Rebels defense continues to impress, the offensive side for the Rebs has been atrocious.

Besides the thumping UNLV put on TCU three games ago, the Rebels have looked lost at times on the offensive end. With no one wanting to be the go to guy as of late, UNLV needs their leader from last year, Tre'von Willis to step up and guide this years team through the rest of the season.

One key to UNLV's success on Saturday will be stopping Andy Ogide and Travis Franklin. The front court duo who accounted for 42 points and 16 rebounds last game.

If there ever was a game where UNLV could play two of its big men at once, this would be that time.

The Rebels are 0-5 against the top three teams in the Mountain West and losing Saturday not only puts them further behind the Rams in the conference standings, it also makes UNLV 0-6 against the top MWC contenders, something that won't bode well come selection Sunday.

Note: The game against the Rams starts off a crucial two-game road trip for UNLV.

After Saturday's affair, the Rebels will travel to New Mexico to play the Lobos. The Pit in New Mexico is one of the toughest places to play in the NCAA and UNLV looks for similar results to last years meeting where the Rebels came out on top.

UNLV must go 3-1 in their final four games to keep their at-large chances strong.

The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels defeated the Wyoming Cowboys last night in Laramie, before a sleepy crowd of a few dozen Eskimos who own snowmobiles.

To say that the atmosphere was swollen with overwhelming lethargy would be a gross understatement. Around tip off, Arena Auditorium was so dull and devoid of energy, it could have bored a corpse back to life.

Predictably, the teams’ effort and sharpness the early part of the ball game were nonexistent, like a four year old wearing mittens trying to color between the lines.

UNLV was grossly outplayed by the sluggish Cowboys and trailed by eight points at the half, 31-23.

The shooting numbers were disgusting. I won’t display them here for fear that readers might lose their lunch (or breakfast or dinner or fourth meal) all over the keyboard—keyboards are hard to clean.

Wyoming was playing a matchup zone and the Rebels were struggling.

It was ugly. They were struglying, an ugly, ugly struggly struggle.

Then, at halftime, something happened. It’s hard to say what, but a different team emerged from the locker room for the second stanza of basketball.

It was as though the hapless Rebels hopped into a time machine and turned back the clock six weeks. They played with a purpose and energy absent since early December.

They played beautiful basketball.

The first half was Al Davis. The second half was Heidi Klum. 

Beautiful.

UNLV shot the ball well. They moved the ball well. They spaced the floor, worked it inside, penetrated the gaps, made the extra pass and finished effectively.

The offense was fluid and virtually flawless, an assembly line of point production.

Henry Ford would have been proud.

After sputtering out 23 first half points while playing with an effectiveness that rivaled a stopped clock, the Rebels exploded for 51 in the second half.

They could do no wrong.

It may have been a byproduct of a weak opponent and venue that felt like a 15,000 seat medically induced coma.

It’s possible that half two looked so majestic because it was juxtaposed with a level of basketball so putrid as to make a high school girls JV team squirm.

Maybe it meant nothing, but it felt like a turning point.

It felt like the Rebels realized what was happening, looked themselves purposefully in the mirror and rode that euphoric self-discovery to victory.

It felt like a drug addict hitting bottom, being jarred awake by the realization of where he (or she) was, and starting down the road to blissful recovery, a sincere turnaround.

The difference being the Rebels seem addicted to stubborn, crappy jump shooting and moribund offense.

Last night felt like a turnaround, an awakening.

It truly felt like it meant something.

UNLV now has a full week of no games to build and grow. The catharsis in Laramie was the perfect way to enter the break. They exercised some demons and hopefully left them buried in a deep snow drift far from the bright lights of Las Vegas.

The season is far from over.

If the Rebels that bulldozed Wyoming in the second half last night keep showing up, things might not be so bad around town.

Happy times, success and a good show could be lurking.

If that first half ugly stepsister of hoops rears her grosstastic face again, well, purchase some Pepto.

Things could get messy.

The Colorado State Rams buried the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels in Las Vegas last night by an eyebrow raising score of 78-63.

Naturally, the unexpected and disappointing defeat sent minions of reactionary knuckleheads spiraling towards the internet to spout nonsensical negativity behind the veil of anonymous stupidity.

The two dumbest words being spewed repeatedly by frustrated, reason-deficient Rebels fans:

"Fire Kruger."

It never fails. The minds of some are as simple as they are predictable.

“Team lose. Me angry. Coach bad. Fire Coach!”

Hopefully, these sentiments represent just a small handful of idiots and vultures rambling and whining for a coaching change, a brainless vocal minority.

But just in case the anti-Kruger, anti-intelligence movement is gaining some traction in the minds of the reasonable, yet unhappy portion of the fanbase, a few things need to be said:

First: the last few weeks have been undeniably and understandably frustrating for all who love UNLV.

All three home losses (to UCSB, BYU and now Colorado State) have spawned an emotional swirl ranging from embarrassment to confusion to humiliation to anger to disgust to sadness, depending on one’s personality.

The team has been has been inconsistent and ineffective. Their shooting has been slightly above awful. The offense has been predictable and stagnant. The defense has been solid, but the rebounding has left much to be desired.

Simply put, the team has been playing poorly, well below their abilities.

Obviously, when a team struggles, it is the head coach’s responsibility to get things straightened out.

As of yet, Kruger hasn’t been able to do that with this particular group. It is perfectly reasonable to expect better and to be dissatisfied with the current results.

Second: Lon Kruger is a great college basketball coach.

At this point, that should go without saying. The man has been successful at every university that has been fortunate enough to employ him. He has done wonderful things for UNLV and has the program in much, much, much better shape than Las Vegas has enjoyed since Tark and his towel were sent packing.

With Lon Kruger at the helm, the Rebels are consistently relevant for the first time in two decades. The reputation is squeaky clean and utterly respectable. Not to mention, he wins games, and lots of them.

Grumblings about Kruger’s perceived shortcomings are either lack perspective or are just plain false. He may not be perfect, but he gets the job done commendably well.

Third: it’s not time to hit the panic button just yet.

It’s important to remember, this season is barely half over. While there is very legitimate cause for concern, there is also ample opportunity to get this thing turned around.

The loss to the Rams is clearly the low point of the season’s first 19 games, but if the NCAA tournament started today, the Rebels would be playing in it. The overall resume is still strong.

The real concern is that if the Rebels continue to play the sloppy, sporadic brand of basketball that has plagued them of late, they are likely to drop quite a few more games between now and March, and slowly remove themselves from NCAA tournament contention.

They must right the ship, and they must do it fast.

They can hardly afford to drop any more contests they are “supposed” to win, and would be well served to steal a couple they are expected to lose. This team may yet be considered a whopping success by the time the madness of March arrives, or they may yet sink in to further depths of disappointment.

Ultimately, that is up to them.

Panic time? Not yet. It is, however, time for the Rebels to play with a poignant sense of urgency. Any more slip ups and the panic alarm will ring out loud and fierce.

All UNLV fans can do is cross their fingers and hope for the best. In all likelihood, the Rebel rollercoaster has a few more twists, turns, ups and downs to endure before the schedule fully plays itself out.

At this point, only one thing is clear:

Firing Kruger is not the answer.

Unless, of course, the question is, “How can we make things much, much, much worse?”