UNLV guard Patrick McCaw lies on the court with concussion-like symptoms after taking a hard shot against San Diego State at the Thomas & Mack Center, Wednesday, March 4, 2015.
Thursday, March 5, 2015 | 12:15 p.m.
The Rebel Room
Rivalries, Recruiting and Tributes
It's a loaded show this week as Las Vegas Sun sports writers Ray Brewer and Taylor Bern get into UNLV's tribute to Tark, Tony Sanchez winning the offseason, guessing Stephen Zimmerman's decision and more.
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- Rice not ruling out lesser postseason tournaments for UNLV this season
- The Sun's UNLV basketball section
When freshman Rashad Vaughn went down with a knee injury, one of the main guys to fill in his scoring role was fellow freshman Pat McCaw. Now, UNLV will be without both of them heading into Saturday’s regular season finale at San Jose State.
McCaw has been diagnosed with a concussion and will miss at least this weekend’s game, UNLV announced this morning. McCaw exited Wednesday’s 60-58 home loss to San Diego State with 14:20 remaining after his face collided with the back of teammate Christian Wood’s head on a defensive possession.
McCaw was taken to the locker room and eventually returned to the bench, but coach Dave Rice was told that McCaw couldn’t return to the game. McCaw will be evaluated daily but considering the season could potentially end Wednesday in the Mountain West tournament, it’s possible McCaw’s year is done.
The Rebels will play as the No. 7 seed at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in one of the play-in games, most likely against UNR. If they win, they would likely face San Diego State the following night.
There hasn’t been anything official on Vaughn (partially torn meniscus) but he’s likely done for the season, and freshman guard Dantley Walker (sprained MCL) isn’t expected to return by this weekend.
Rice said Dwayne Morgan, who’s been playing his best basketball of the year the past two weeks, will practice and play at small forward for the first time all season as UNLV is down to six scholarship players.
Against San Jose State, one of the five worst teams in the country, the bench will be Morgan and walk-ons Barry Cheaney and Charles Rushman.
With McCaw, Vaughn, Walker and redshirts Daquan Cook (ACL) and Ben Carter (back) out, the Rebels don’t have many bodies to practice against as they prepare for what they were hoping would be a strong run in the conference tournament.
Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.
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