Livengood hopes to help take program forward entering important offseason

By Ryan Greene

Friday, March 25, 2011 | 2:15 a.m.

Among the hundreds of fans behind the UNLV bench who wore blank stares during the second half of the Rebels' NCAA tournament loss to Illinois last Friday night was athletic director Jim Livengood.

"If you weren't surprised, then you weren't paying attention to the way we were playing for the better part of the year," Livengood said. "It's one of those things where it is what it is. We'll fix it. Lon (Kruger) will fix it. We have to.

"We have to learn from that, because that wasn't a fun evening."

Livengood boarded a plane with the team to head back from Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday morning. Over the next couple of weeks, he'll be meeting with Kruger and members of the coaching staff to assess the state of the program and help them figure out where improvements can be made.

"It's not our job to coach the teams — A lot of athletic directors make the mistake of thinking they can coach at the teams," Livengood said. "Can we coach the coaches? Absolutely. That's part of our job. I can talk about things in a private manner that I've observed over the years, discuss what's worked and what hasn't worked."

By losing to Illinois, who despite a maddeningly up-and-down regular season still possessed one of the Big Ten's most talented rosters, UNLV was in no way the victim of a shocking upset. But the way in which the Rebels lost certainly caused a few jaws to hang open.

While the Illini shot an unconscious 59.6 percent from the floor, hit seven of 13 3-point attempts and out-rebounded the Rebels 30-21, UNLV reverted to playing against a long, athletic opponent in the same way it had during a mid-season swoon. Instead of attacking Illinois' size the same way it had against San Diego State a week earlier during a huge second half comeback, they swung the ball around the perimeter, opted for low-percentage looks with few opportunities for second chances and, in general, looked uncomfortable.

They'd won six of seven coming into their fourth NCAA tourney appearance in five years, with the lone loss being suffered in the final minute of the Mountain West Conference tournament title game against SDSU.

It marked three straight tournament trips in which UNLV fell short of the Sweet Sixteen.

"I don't think we're very far off at all," said Livengood, who added that he in no way believes that the program has plateaued. "I think the hard thing is there's a tendency to overreact by everybody after a Friday night game like that, because it tends to lead you to believe that we're a long ways away and it'll be hard to catch up. I don't believe that."

Livengood won't go public with the specifics of what his talking points with the coaching staff will be. It's likely, though, that one area of emphasis will be the program's recruiting blueprint.

Much of the staff's focus this offseason will be spent in two areas.

One will be bettering and developing the talent already in the program. UNLV only loses two members of this season's team to graduation — Tre'Von Willis and Derrick Jasper — and two of the three newcomers — Marquette transfer Reggie Smith and UCLA transfer Mike Moser — have already broken themselves in with the Rebels while redshirting. With BYU leaving the league and San Diego State set to lose a ton from its Sweet Sixteen team, UNLV and New Mexico will likely be the two preseason favorites to contend for the MWC regular season title.

Along with that, the process of filling the 2012 recruiting class kicks into full gear.

There will be at least four scholarships to fill, and plenty of the recruiting focus will be on the bumper crop of locals in the upcoming senior class.

It could turn out to be the most important summer the program has had under Kruger, who will likely land his 500th career win in his eighth season at UNLV.

Livengood plans to be as involved as he can.

"It's not a time to overreact, not a time to jump off of a cliff," he said. "But it's a time for a very candid look at what we're doing."