Take 5: Rebels face Southern Utah before heading off to Maui

By Taylor Bern

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015 | 2 a.m.

The Rebels are right back in action this week, returning to the Thomas & Mack Center a couple of days after a 62-point victory. Tonight, UNLV (2-0) tips off against Southern Utah (0-1) at 7:30 p.m. and the game will stream on the Mountain West Network and Campus Insiders.

This is UNLV’s last game before taking off for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational and the step up in competition level that comes with it. The Thunderbirds are an improved team that returns most of its pieces, but this should operate as a tune-up game for the Rebels, who want to continue tinkering with their full-court pressure and lineup combinations.

Here are some things to look for in tonight’s game and beyond:

Whistle Stop

There’s no denying the impact sophomore Dwayne Morgan had on UNLV’s run*, but going forward will foul trouble limit his role?

*What is the preferred run total to cite for UNLV’s huge first half against New Mexico Highlands?

A: 28-0

B: 39-1

C: 47-4

Shortly after Morgan entered the game, the Rebels brought an extra defender down in their press to cut off a quick pass back to the inbounder, and with Morgan terrorizing the ball-handler UNLV forced three turnovers in a minute. He was the spark plug the Rebels needed, and Morgan finished with six rebounds, two points, and four assists to one turnover in 13 minutes.

Morgan would have played more but he fouled out for the third time in his career. Foul trouble is a natural downside of the physical play required in a full-court press, and the current emphasis on touch fouls makes that a bit more of a concern. No Rebel needs to adjust to that more than Morgan, whose minutes as a freshman were limited in part to his propensity for fouls.

Morgan led UNLV with 90 personal fouls while playing the team’s seventh most minutes, and his rate of 6.6 fouls committed per 40 minutes was more than double every teammate except Goodluck Okonoboh. The Rebels need energy off the bench and the opportunity for a bigger role is there for Morgan, but only if he can manage the line between aggressive and reckless.

Free Candy Corn

There are few things in basketball more deflating than missed free throws. It’s right there in the title; those points are there for the taking, and too often in November the Rebels have been passing them up like the picked-over Halloween candy nobody wants.

In two games, the Rebels are hitting 61.9 percent at the free-throw line. In Rice’s first four full seasons, UNLV shot under 60 percent during a month only twice: November 2013 and November 2014.

The last two seasons have trended about the same way at the line, with UNLV starting out dreadful and then hitting 73-74 percent in January before leveling off a bit at the end. Over all four seasons, though, the Rebels are remarkably consistent at the line, hitting between 66.2 and 66.7 percent in three of the five months.

Basically, the Rebels should be fine this year considering only one player on the roster has hit lower than 71 percent from the stripe in college — Hackonoboh is a legit late-game strategy if Okonoboh continues to make only 33.8 percent — but it will be interesting to see if this year’s team continues the sub.-60 percent trend or if they can more quickly rise to the mean.

Coming Home

Southern Utah expects to make a big step forward this season, and to do that they’ll need big production from Las Vegas talent.

The starting backcourt is senior Travon Langston, a Las Vegas High grad, and junior Trey Kennedy, a Bishop Gorman High grad. The pair of 6-foot-3 guards each scored 13 points in Southern Utah’s 11-point loss at No. 16 Utah.

Another Las Vegas High grad, junior guard Juwan Major, comes off Southern Utah’s bench and freshman guard Matthew Johnson played at Coronado High. The Thunderbirds might be an improved program over the next few years, and if it happens the connection to Vegas will be a big reason why.

Will the Mack Return?

The announced attendance at Monday’s game was 9,961, the first time it’s been below 10,000 for a regular season game in Rice’s tenure.

Many people may have decided the opponent, Division II New Mexico Highlands, wasn’t worth it. Since Rice took over, the Rebels have played four lower-division opponents in Las Vegas before this one, and three of them were sparsely attended games at the Orleans Arena. The other was Rice’s debut against Grand Canyon, which moved into Division I two years later.

But lower attendance is a bigger trend than just this game. Seven times during Rice’s first two seasons the announced crowd eclipsed 17,000, which hasn’t happened at all the past two-plus seasons.

Cal Poly was Rice’s smallest crowd for a season opener (12,201) and the first two games continue a trend that’s seen the average home attendance drop each of the past two seasons. The decline coincides not only with UNLV teams that didn’t win as much at home and failed to make the postseason but also with a lot of turnover within UNLV Athletics, particularly in the marketing department.

An electric atmosphere can help create a home-court advantage, but the Rebels know Vegas well enough to know they need to win to see big crowds. Derrick Jones Jr.’s dunk probably sold a few tickets on its own and UNLV could generate a lot of excitement with a strong showing in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

Speaking of …

Maui on the Mind

Southern Utah’s 3-point shooting is UNLV’s biggest concern right now, but soon it’s going to be trying to match up against UCLA and former conference coaching foe Steve Alford.

The Rebels will meet at the Mendenhall Center and board a bus at 4:30 a.m. Friday for the first leg of their trip to Maui. They have the weekend to prepare for Monday’s 8:30 p.m. tip against the Bruins, and a victory would earn UNLV a meeting with No. 4 Kansas less than 24 hours later.

UNLV’s first game is so big because of the difference between facing the Jayhawks in three straight seasons (and getting the RPI boost that comes with it) and getting stuck with another Division II opponent in Chaminade.

Last year the Rebels traveled about 2,500 miles to Brooklyn and opened the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic with a 29-point loss to Stanford, negating a chance to play Duke. Can UNLV win to get its desired second-game opponent this time around?

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