Rebels exhibition against Whittier more than decade in the making

By Taylor Bern

Friday, Nov. 6, 2015 | 2 a.m.

For most Rebels fans, tonight’s exhibition against Whittier is a simple stepping stone on the way to next Friday’s official opening of the 2015-16 season. For Dan Carvalho, this is a game at least a decade in the making.

Carvalho, a partner at Las Vegas law firm Rogers, Mastrangelo, Carvalho and Mitchell, is a member of the Runnin’ Rebels Club, which raises funds specifically for the basketball program. Long before that he was a guard for the Division III Whittier Poets, and ever since former UNLV coach Lon Kruger’s second season, this is a matchup Carvalho has been trying to make happen.

“It’s always been sort of a pipe dream,” said Carvalho, a 1991 Whittier grad who continued making his pitch when Dave Rice took over in 2011.

That dream becomes reality at 7 tonight, with the game streaming on UNLVRebels.com. Carvalho and his fellow Poet alums are excited for the experience, though he doesn’t have any illusions about how this one’s going to play out.

“We expect to get absolutely crushed,” Carvalho said. “There’s no doubt about that.”

UNLV debuted its full-court press against an outside opponent last weekend in a closed-door scrimmage at USC, but this is the first time it will be on full display to the public. One thing you’re likely to see, and it was an issue against the Trojans, too, is a lot of fouls.

“It will be interesting to see how we’re able to play with the way fouls are being called,” Rice said. “I think that’s something we’ll have to react to and adjust to as the season goes on.”

Guarding without fouling is often a tough transition for teams at the start of the season. Add on to that UNLV’s new, frantic pressure and overall body control is likely going to be a work in progress.

Something Rice expects to see right away is max effort because the plan is to rotate players a lot more often than in recent years. Several factors, including the shot clock going down from 35 seconds to 30, have come together for the Rebels to go with this style this season.

One of the biggest is UNLV’s depth, and to best take advantage of that Rice wants guys going all out for three- and four-minute bursts. Some of them, by design, shouldn’t be able to do more than that.

“Particularly the point guard spot and the madman,” he said. “Those are hard spots to play a lot of minutes.”

The madman is the guy assigned to guard the inbounder on every dead ball, and when the Rebels spring traps in the backcourt he’s often involved in those before hustling back to get into regular defensive position. It’s a job for UNLV’s wings and power forwards, and it’s not supposed to be easy.

UNLV’s probable starters tonight are seniors Jerome Seagears and Ike Nwamu, sophomores Pat McCaw and Goodluck Okonoboh and freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr. In that lineup, Okonoboh is the madman, and when he goes to the bench it will be up to freshman Derrick Jones Jr., sophomore Dwayne Morgan or junior Tyrell Green.

Normally, junior Ben Carter would also be in that rotation but he’s out of tonight’s game because of a concussion he suffered in the scrimmage at USC. Rice said the Rebels hope to have him back by Sunday, and Carter, a Bishop Gorman High grad, is expected to make his UNLV debut in the regular season opener against Cal Poly.

Another former Gael, the much-heralded Zimmerman, said he isn’t certain what to expect from his hometown debut tonight. Well, there’s one thing he knows will happen.

“I for sure know my parents are going to cry. That’s a given,” Zimmerman said. “I’m just really excited. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time and I can’t wait for it to actually start.”

That’s kind of how Carvalho feels, too. When he was a player, Whittier, which is located about 20 miles south of Los Angeles, took one big trip to play Washington University in St. Louis.

“It was the first time that I had a chance to play in an environment that didn’t feel like high school or D-III,” he said. “We had a banquet the night before overlooking Busch Stadium. It was such a memorable experience for me.”

Flash forward to Thursday night in a private corner room at Lakeside Seafood overlooking the Lake of Dreams at Wynn Las Vegas, where Carvalho and other Runnin’ Rebels Club members hosted a dinner for Whittier. Carvalho’s still connected to the program — Rock Hunter, who’s entering his 21st straight year as Whittier’s head coach, was a player and then an assistant on Carvalho’s teams — and he was excited to help create a memorable trip for the next generation of Poets regardless of the outcome.

“I can only imagine what it’s going to be like for these kids getting to come to Vegas, playing against a D-I school, coming here and having a banquet the night before,” he said. “It’s a big deal for these kids.”

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