Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Rebels Basketball:

Take 5: Carter’s injury another thing to overcome for UNLV at New Mexico

UNLV Battles With San Diego State

L.E. Baskow

UNLV interim head coach Todd Simon argues another foul call on his team as a referee counsels him to back up versus San Diego State during their game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, January 30, 2016.

This isn’t the position UNLV wanted to find itself in when the calendar flipped to February, but desires aside it’s where the Rebels are at. Starting tonight we’ll start to find out what they can make of another regular season that has gone sideways on them.

UNLV (13-9, 4-5) tips off against New Mexico (13-8, 6-2) at 5 p.m. Las Vegas time in The Pit. The game will air on CBS Sports Network.

This is the first opponent that interim coach Todd Simon will face for a second time after UNLV defeated New Mexico handily at home in Simon’s debut. A lot has changed since then, though, and for the Rebels it’s been mostly bad:

1. Carter Out

When junior forward Ben Carter went down to the court with 10:46 remaining in the first half of Saturday’s loss to San Diego State, many in the Thomas & Mack Center had the same pit in their stomach. That’s the thing about noncontact injuries: They’re often as bad as they look.

Carter is officially out for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL in his left knee, although multiple sources close to the team indicated that the MCL and meniscus were also at least partially torn. Either way, there’s a lot of rehab ahead for a guy who spent most of the previous offseason rehabbing from back surgery.

In July, few expected that Carter could return to the court as soon as he did, or at least that he would be nearly as effective when he did. But Carter was ready for the team’s first official practice and showed no signs of lingering back or any other physical issues this season.

In 22 games, including seven starts, Carter averaged 8.6 points, six rebounds, 1.6 assists and 0.95 steals in 24 minutes per game. He also drew a charge seemingly every game, and his play down the stretch of games has been critical, including a game-sealing block against Indiana.

Goodluck Okonoboh’s transfer shortly after that victory wasn’t something the Rebels thought would sink them, but they knew that lack of depth could become an issue in the frontcourt if someone went down with an injury. Now, that’s exactly what they’re dealing with.

2. Motivation

The Rebels are below .500 in league play, and coming off a seventh straight loss to their main rival. the team will be without one of its key leaders this season. So, what’s going to happen the rest of the regular season?

Last year, UNLV faced a similar situation after Rashad Vaughn went down with a knee injury on Feb. 10. Although Vaughn was UNLV’s leading scorer and Carter ranks sixth, their impact is similar. In both cases it’s hard to imagine the team going on a run without them.

Last year’s team was one game under .500 in league play when Vaughn went down, just like this year’s version with Carter, and they lost their first two without Vaughn before finishing the regular season 3-4 with one win in the conference tournament. The biggest difference is that this year’s team has a couple more games, but it’s easy to see the team struggling without the guy who’s been the most consistent player on the roster.

Carter’s production isn’t amazing, but he’s probably the best the Rebels have at making plays that don’t show up in the box score. And dating back to last year’s redshirt season he’s been one of the team’s emotional leaders, too.

It was already a concern how much a team that has nothing tangible to play for would respond the rest of the season. Now they must attempt it without the guy Simon has called the heartbeat of the team on the court.

3. Lobos Rolling

Heading into league play, New Mexico lost four straight, including neutral-site losses to BYU and Washington State by a combined 53 points. Then the Lobos started the Mountain West 3-0 with three blowout victories. Then they lost a pair at UNLV and home to Wyoming. Then they won another three straight, including Saturday’s victory at Boise State.

Basically, it’s either feast or famine for the Lobos, and right now they’re eating everything in sight. New Mexico trounced the league’s two bottom-feeders (San Jose State and Air Force) before notching an impressive 1.24 points per possession to topple the Broncos.

In conference games, New Mexico leads the league in effective field-goal percentage, free-throw percentage, free-throw rate and tempo. So the Lobos are not only the fastest team in the league, which creates more possessions, but they’re also the most efficient offense in the league, which makes those possessions really matter.

Sophomore guard Elijah Brown has been the biggest key. In league games, Brown’s hitting 50 percent (20-of-40) on 3-point attempts and he’s one of the conference’s best at getting to the free-throw line.

Brown was great against UNLV in the Rebels’ 12-point victory, but no one else around him stepped up enough to make a difference. Will UNLV defend New Mexico similarly, allowing Brown but no one else to go off, or will the Rebels try to key more on the guy who just won his third Mountain West Player of the Week award?

4. New Role

Tonight, UNLV is an underdog for the first time in league play. New Mexico is a minus-3 favorite at home after covering the spread in three straight.

In fact, the Rebels and Lobos each have identical ATS and W-L records because every game they’ve won they have also covered, and vice versa. In their last meeting, UNLV was a minus-3 favorite and covered easily, winning by 12.

Overall this season UNLV is 12-9 ATS, according to Covers.com. The league’s best bet-on team has been San Jose State, which has surprised many bettors with its relative competence, posting a 12-7 ATS record.

5. The Pit

Since New Mexico’s home arena was never officially named The Pit — it opened as University Arena before the nickname took hold — it’s been easy to keep referring to it as such despite the $5 million, 10-year naming-rights deal that New Mexico reached in 2014.

Local gangster-themed pizza restaurant WisePies Pizza & Salad forked over the dough (get it?) to put their name on the building, but everyone still calls it The Pit. While it hasn’t been the toughest place to play — Rice and Wyoming won there this season, UNLV has won two straight — the crowds are starting to return a little bit and since the Lobos have no seniors in the main rotation, by next season it could again be one of the toughest places to play in the Mountain West.

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

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