Take 5: Rebels trying to avoid three-game skid Saturday at Wyoming

By Taylor Bern

Friday, Jan. 8, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Everyone can see where UNLV could be headed, because the Rebels were just there. The season is starting to resemble last year’s seventh-place finish and the Rebels are trying to maneuver themselves to a different track.

In the wake of Wednesday’s 66-65 loss at Colorado State — UNLV’s fourth defeat in the last five games and fifth in the last seven — the complaints about the Rebels familiar problems only grew louder. Winning on Saturday at Wyoming won’t completely silence anyone or answer those questions, but that’s where the Rebels (9-6, 0-2) must start.

The game tips off at 3 p.m. Las Vegas time and will air on CBS Sports Network. Here are some things to watch entering the game:

1. Must Win?

The easy answer is no, because by definition no game is a must win until something tangible is on the line. That’s not the case here — at least it doesn’t appear to be — but to UNLV coach Dave Rice the term applies to this Saturday’s game the same as it did to Wednesday’s loss.

“I think every game is a must win,” Rice said before Thursday’s practice in Denver.

Boise State started the Mountain West at 0-3 last year and still split the regular-season title, so the blueprint is there and nothing is off the table with a loss. Of course, Rice’s job could potentially be on the line with each game, which adds a different meaning to what constitutes a must-win game.

UNLV Athletic Director Tina Kunzer-Murphy recently entered the final year of her contract, so it will be interesting to see if her own situation has any bearing on the decisions made regarding the basketball program. It seems like no decision either way would come until after the season, but if the Rebels quickly fall out of the conference race, who knows?

UNLV only “needs” to win this game in the same way they need to win every game, but with the pressure turning up, it’s easy to see how the Rebels might view these as much bigger than regular season games.

2. Point of Emphasis

Talking about your fears can make them less scary, and that’s sort of how UNLV plans to eradicate its most recent glaring issue: turnovers.

For a few games, the Rebels’ biggest concern was defensive rebounds, so that’s what got the most attention in practice. Rice is hoping a similar plan of making their weakness the primary focus will help the Rebels get better control.

“Whatever we emphasize is what’s going to happen,” Rice said. “For a week or so we emphasized defensive rebounding, and we’ve out-rebounded our opponents in those two games.”

It’s true that UNLV won the rebounding battle in each of the past two games. But a total of 39 turnovers that turned into 55 points were too much to overcome.

The Rebels’ turnover rate hasn’t been great this season but lately it’s been downright awful, and getting that cleaned up is the priority. The challenge, along with just fixing the turnovers, is making sure it doesn’t cause something else to slip and become an issue.

“It’s inexcusable because we’re creating a lot of those turnovers on our own,” Rice said. “They have nothing to do with anything except carelessness, so there has to be a penalty for that.”

3. Different Rotations?

Rice went with a different starting lineup in part to try to spark the Rebels, and he’ll keep trying out different in-game lineups for the same reason. It’s too early to say whether this is the start of a trend or an outlier, but it seems like one of those changes will be less Ike Nwamu and more Jalen Poyser.

Nwamu was out of the starting lineup for the first time all season and he played a season-low 12 minutes, shooting 1-of-6. Meanwhile, Poyser played at least 21 minutes for the third straight game and he was once again on the court during crunch time.

Mostly lost in the loss was how well Poyser and junior Ben Carter played for the majority of the game. It wasn’t enough but it’s something to build on and reward, while guys like Nwamu and senior Jerome Seagears — his 22 minutes were the second-lowest this season — look like they need to prove themselves again.

4. The Double-A

In 2013, the Rebels went to Wyoming and won by 23. In Rice’s other two trips to Arena-Auditorium, also known as the Double-A, the Cowboys have been victorious.

That includes last year’s meeting on New Year’s Eve, when Wyoming set UNLV off to an 0-1 start in league play with a comeback victory. The Mountain West’s uneven schedule left a trip to Laramie off the Rebels’ 2013-14 schedule, which was one of many things the league has done to upset besweatered Pokes coach Larry Shyatt.

The Cowboys don’t seem to have the same home-court advantage in recent years for the simple fact that the team isn’t nearly as good, but as Wednesday and other recent history prove, it’s often these games that seem to be the most difficult for the Rebels.

5. Three’s a Crowd

Through his first three seasons, Rice never lost three games in a row. Then, last year around this same time, it happened twice in a seven-game stretch.

UNLV opened league play with a loss at Wyoming and then lost five of the next six, too, with only a win against San Jose State to show for it. Right now the Rebels are in a similarly frustrating stretch, as South Dakota is the lone victory in the last four weeks.

A third straight loss on Saturday would be an even worse league start than last year’s squad had, and it would make another bottom-half league finish seem very possible, if not likely.

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