Rebels dressed to impress in easy exhibition victory at the Mack

By Taylor Bern

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014 | 10:21 p.m.

The Rebels’ roster wasn’t the only thing with a new look tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center.

When Dave Rice became a head coach three and a half years ago, the longtime assistant knew there were a lot of things he was going to have to change. One of them was attire.

For years Rice would wear a white dress shirt with a tie but no jacket, so for his first exhibition game at the end of the Rebels’ bench Rice donned a full suit. At halftime UNLV trailed Washburn by one and the superstitious Rice tossed his jacket aside, never to be seen during a game again. Until now.

“New year, fresh start,” Rice said. “It’s one of the last things I think about. It just felt like the right thing to do.”

There was plenty of time to think about clothing choices because the Rebels made quick work of their exhibition opponent, Florida National. UNLV opened the game on a 28-5 run and would go on to win 100-65, a far cry from last year’s 71-70 exhibition loss to Dixie State.

Senior Jelan Kendrick got the start and played arguably better than he had for the majority of last season, finishing with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting before leaving with a minor shoulder injury. Sophomore Christian Wood led all players with 23 points (on 10-of-18 shooting) with 14 rebounds and four blocks, completely controlling a Conquistadors lineup that listed no one above 6-foot-7.

“Once I started posting I realized how small they were and that I needed to go in there,” Wood said.

It was far from a perfect performance from the Rebels, who grew stagnant and played the Conquistadors even for most of the second half. However, it did feature a lot of the elements that Rice is trying to implement this year.

The Rebels pushed the pace early and kept pushing more than they previously had and it paid off with 24 fast-break points. Some of that came courtesy of senior point guard Cody Doolin, who set up his teammates with a few alley-oops.

“It feels pretty good, especially when you can throw to guys like this big fella here,” Doolin said, nodding his head toward Wood. “It felt good to be back on the court.”

Doolin’s stat line was almost exactly what fans wanted to see. Without making a single shot — he was 0-for-2 — Doolin made a huge impact on the game, dishing out nine assists to one turnover and grabbing four rebounds. Backup point guard Kendall Smith was good pushing the pace too with four assists and nine rebounds, although his 12 points came on 12 shots.

One of Rice’s big takeaways was that UNLV played better than it had in Saturday’s scrimmage, which had been better than the Scarlet and Gray Showcase two weeks prior. He said the staff was looking not just at the numbers but monitoring hustle plays, body language and little things that factor into team chemistry.

“We’re way ahead of the game in terms of that,” Rice said.

It’s only an exhibition but the Rebels hadn’t reached 100 points since Jan. 18, 2012, against TCU. That’s a figure UNLV isn’t going to reach in its last dress rehearsal before the opener on Friday, Nov. 14, though don’t ask any of the Rebels about that one.

On Saturday UNLV is playing a closed scrimmage at UCLA, but one of the many silly NCAA rules is that coaches and players aren’t allowed to acknowledge whom they play. That created a funny moment in the postgame press conference, when a reporter tried to ask Wood about the Bruins and the big man played dumb.

“Who?” he deadpanned. “I have no idea who we play on Saturday, I’m sorry.”

Now the only question is what Rice will wear to Pauley Pavilion, or as the new-look Rebels might say, “Where?”

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.