UNLV basketball trying to eliminate fatal offensive droughts

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021 | 2 a.m.

UNLV is 4-3 this season, and in all three losses the team has been torpedoed by a lengthy second-half offensive drought.

Against Michigan the scarlet and gray went more than four minutes without scoring, allowing the Wolverines to pull away.

Against Wichita State they went 10 minutes without a field goal until Keshon Gilbert’s putback gave them a brief lead with three seconds to play.

Against UCLA on Saturday they went 6:45 without scoring a single point.

After that 73-51 loss to the Bruins, head coach Kevin Kruger acknowledged that poorly timed dry spells were coming too frequently, especially against good opponents, and resolved to study the game film in search of any common threads that might explain how his team can go so cold for such long stretches.

Following a Monday afternoon practice, Kruger said his research didn’t produce an X’s and O’s answer. In his opinion, UNLV has settled for too many quick shots instead of working the ball around and “being stubborn” in holding out for a better shot.

To hear Kruger tell it, the offensive lulls come when the team’s determination wanes.

“A ‘lull’ is a perfect word,” Kruger said, “because it does feel like there’s just a little bit of hesitancy. I don’t want to say timid, but there seems to be a point where we kind of reach a coasting gear.”

That hesitancy can manifest in several ways. Against a UCLA squad that is coached to keep the ball out of the paint, UNLV’s guards gave up on trying to drive and settled for jumpers. In 6:45, the scarlet and gray missed all eight of their shots; seven of those attempts were 3-pointers.

While those droughts make for painful viewing for fans who can track each miss in real time, junior wing Donovan Williams said players don’t normally realize they’re in the midst of an offensive dry spell until after it has come and gone.

“As the game goes along in that seven-minute span of time, we’re just trying to play,” Williams said. “We realize we’re missing shots, but we don’t know it’s been seven minutes since we made one. We’re just trying to move on to the next play.”

Senior guard Bryce Hamilton shared a similar sentiment, noting that with defensive responsibilities and other real-time decisions to make, it’s not always apparent to players that the team hasn’t scored in a while.

But once they realize it’s happening, team’s leading scorer (15.7 points per game) believes he and his teammates have to make concerted efforts to snap the skid.

“We don’t realize it, really,” Hamilton said. “Coaches may say something about it every now and then, but that’s something we should probably be more aware of and try to get to the free-throw line.”

Droughts are going to happen, especially for a modestly skilled team such as UNLV (the scarlet and gray are shooting just 40.4% on the season). The mission for Kruger and his squad is to recognize them and take steps to minimize them so they don’t result in losing winnable games.

“We’ll look to change things up,” Kruger said. “Roster, scheme, what we’re doing defensively, just to kind of get the momentum swung back in our favor because there’s no question, you can feel it out there, the momentum shifts.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.