Take 5: Zimmerman out as UNLV finishes nonconference play

By Taylor Bern

Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015 | 2 a.m.

A week ago, the UNLV basketball team was looking forward to the challenge of a big upcoming test against two Pac-12 opponents. Neither of those games went the Rebels’ way, so now they return to the Thomas & Mack Center to try to ensure that the nonconference season ends with a victory.

UNLV (8-4) hosts South Dakota (7-5) tonight at 7. The game will stream on UNLVRebels.com.

Here’s a look at what the Rebels have in store, including a big piece they will be missing:

1. Zimmerman Out

Freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr. will miss tonight’s game because of a thigh contusion that sidelined him for the majority of Saturday’s loss at No. 13 Arizona. Zimmerman took a knee to the thigh in Thursday’s practice but team officials felt he would be a full participant — Zimmerman warmed up as normal, including some high-flying dunk attempts — until the injury was re-aggravated in the first half when a Wildcat’s knee or foot hit Zimmerman’s thigh.

With the swelling also affecting his knee Zimmerman was shut him down for the remainder of the Arizona game plus this one in hopes of a full recovery by the Mountain West opener Dec. 30 at home against Fresno State. Zimmerman also sat out the victory against Chaminade as he recovered from an illness.

“Stephen’s been unfortunate,” Rice said.

Zimmerman has dealt with: an illness at the Maui Invitational, an ankle injury against Prairie View A&M, a hip injury at Wichita State and a thigh contusion at Arizona. Zimmerman is more than a third of the way through what could be his lone college basketball season, and he’s about to miss his second complete game while injuries, ailments and foul trouble have held him to 22.3 minutes per game.

It’s obviously not what he or the coaching staff envisioned, but it does offer optimism about what could happen if and when he’s able to play several games in a row at full capacity.

Zimmerman had nine points on 3-of-3 shooting plus three rebounds and a block in nine minutes against Arizona. If he had been available the entire game perhaps things would have been different, but more importantly the Rebels would have had a weapon at their disposal that they spent four years chasing and have only had for spurts this season.

2. McCaw’s Shooting Slump

In Zimmerman’s absence, even more of the offensive responsibility fell on leading scorer Pat McCaw, who’s in a bit of a funk at that end of the floor lately.

Over UNLV’s three recent losses, McCaw shot 7-of-27 and scored 18 total points. His average over the other nine games is 18.2 per game.

McCaw’s greatest strength has always been his versatility. He plays a team-leading 32.2 minutes per game because he’s arguably the team’s best defender and passer so whether or not he’s scoring McCaw impacts the game.

The problem is the gap right now between McCaw’s offensive efficiency and that of the other guards — his effective field goal percentage is a tick below Ben Carter, who hasn’t attempted a single 3-pointer — means the Rebels really do need him to score, too, as evidenced by the recent losses.

“We just need to continue to give him confidence and let him continue to play because he makes the right basketball plays,” Rice said.

McCaw is at the top of opposing scouting reports and he’s trying to learn when to play completely within the system and when to try to dominate. McCaw is still taking good shots and other backcourt members have stepped up at points, like senior Ike Nwamu in the first half at Arizona, but the Rebels either need those guys to get closer to McCaw’s level or for McCaw to return to his elite efficiency.

3. South Dakota Scouting Report

The best thing South Dakota does is shoot the ball. The second best thing the Coyotes do is limit turnovers, which gives them even more possessions to shoot the ball.

South Dakota doesn’t get to the free-throw line much and it doesn’t rebound particularly well, so defending it really does come down to closing out on jump shooters. Seniors Tre Burnette and Kasey Kasperbauer are hitting 36.8 percent on 3s (42-of-114) and 6-foot-9 freshman Dan Jech is as efficient as they come with an effective field-goal percentage at 66 percent thanks in part to his 11-of-22 shooting beyond the arc.

UNLV won this matchup 75-61 last year at a game played about an hour from South Dakota’s campus. This return game is a huge opportunity for the Coyotes, who have a double-overtime victory against Minnesota and lost by 12 on Saturday at Illinois, so the Rebels can’t afford to mess around and let their opponent get hot from deep.

4. Anyone Home for the Holidays?

This is often a tough spot to get a big turnout out to a game — unless you’re playing a top-5 opponent like last season — so it will be interesting to see what the crowd looks like in the Mack tonight.

School isn’t in session, Christmas is three days away and the opponent doesn’t offer enough cache to entice much in the way of walk-up ticket sales. Add in that UNLV has lost three of the last four, including a bad loss to Arizona State the last time it was home, plus the fact that attendance hadn’t been good before that loss and there might be more empty red seats than filled ones tonight.

Not surprisingly, the thinning crowd has pretty much matched UNLV’s declining season win totals along with the almost complete changeover within UNLV Athletics’ marketing department. The New Mexico Highlands game on Nov. 16 was the first time in Rice’s tenure that the announced crowd was below 10,000, and so far the average Mack attendance (11,372) would be about 1,400 less than last season, continuing a downward trend from the high of 15,729 in 2012-13.

5. Cook Could Soon Return

Junior guard Daquan Cook was suspended for the entire nonconference season following a November arrest for driving under the influence. Now that the nonconference slate is coming to an end, Rice said the reinstatement process is in the works.

While he wouldn’t say that Cook would definitely make his debut on Dec. 30 against Fresno State, Rice said the Baltimore native had done well in school and that he was on track to return. A final announcement on that decision is expected at some point during UNLV’s holiday break.

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