Bayno has team focused on SMU

DALLAS -- Bill Bayno will be pleased to know that his UNLV players are not overlooking winless in the WAC Southern Methodist tonight.

Of course, that won't stop the coach from delivering a stern reminder that to take the 0-3 Mustangs lightly is inviting disaster at Moody Coliseum.

With a six-game winning streak and off to a fast 3-0 start to lead the WAC Mountain Division, the Rebels are in a great position to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the pack -- if they can come out of this two-game Texas road trip unscathed.

But unless UNLV takes care of business tonight, Saturday's game with 21st-ranked Texas Christian at Fort Worth loses some of its luster, while putting added pressure on the Rebels to leave the Metroplex with a split.

"Don't even ask me about TCU," Bayno warned earlier this week. "Right now, my entire focus is on SMU."

Actually, Bayno's focus is on his own team.

Despite the 10-6 overall mark, the six-game win streak, the 3-0 start in the Mountain Division and the newfound confidence, the coach will not let his players embrace success.

"I'm very happy with where we're at," he said. "Anyone would rather be 3-0 than 0-3. But the goal hasn't changed. We want to be playing our best ball at the end of the season. To do that, we have to concentrate on getting better every day, both individually and as a team.

"We've got to continue to work hard in practice. We have to continue to take pride in our half-court defense. We have to continue to be unselfish on offense and keep the droughts to a minimum."

Tonight presents a new challenge for this team. It's the first conference road game. And anyone who has followed the WAC over the years knows how difficult it is to win on the road.

Teams tend to protect their home court as if it were the Alamo. And any road win, regardless of who the opponent is, is treasured.

"It doesn't matter where you go," Bayno said. "It's status quo. It's tough to win on the road."

And even though UNLV has posted a couple of road wins (Nevada-Reno and Cal Poly), Bayno knows WAC games bring a higher level of intensity to them. So he doesn't put a lot of stock in what little preseason success the team has had away from the Thomas & Mack Center (2-3 overall, including neutral-site losses to Kansas and Arizona State and a Dec. 12 loss at UCLA).

"We have to look at our road experiences and try and get better," he said. "The key to winning on the road, and I've said this a hundred times, is you have to rebound, you can't turn the ball over and you have to play great defense. If we can do those things, we'll give ourselves a chance (to win)."

Look for SMU to try to negate UNLV's strong front line by playing zone and packing it in. At the same time, the Mustangs will try to dominate in the backcourt with Stephen Woods and Jeryl Sasser, two of the WAC's best.

"We have to be patient and not rush," Bayno said of attacking SMU's zone.

"We need to get great play out of our bench and we've been getting that the last few games. Greedy (Daniels) has been giving us great defense. Donovan (Stewart) is letting the game come to him. He's not forcing things. Issiah (Epps) is doing a lot better and Des (Herod) is starting to understand what we're doing out there."

Hoop du jour SMU lists four guards (Woods, Sasser, Chad Elsey and Willie Davis) among its starting five. The reality is Davis and Elsey are more like small forwards than off-guards although Sasser, who essentially is SMU's two-man, leads the team in rebounding. ... SMU should be well rested following a tough three-games-in-six-days grind last week. The Mustangs played TCU in a game that didn't conclude until early Tuesday morning Dallas time, then flew to Denver to face Colorado State on Thursday in another game that started at 11 p.m. Dallas time, so it could be shown on ESPN2. The trip ended in Wyoming Saturday and that meant a three-hour bus ride back to Denver for the flight home to Dallas Sunday. ... Tonight will mark UNLV's debut, and likely final appearance at Moody Coliseum. The two schools have only met once -- in 1983 at the Rebel Roundup in Las V egas. With UNLV leaving the WAC for the Mountain West Conference, there are no plans to extend the series beyond this year.

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