Reaching finals is par for the course

By Brian Hilderbrand

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

Number of NCAA team championships for UNLV (1998).

Number of NCAA individual championships for UNLV (Warren Schutte, 1991, and Ryan Moore, 2004).

Number of NCAA Championship teams that Dwaine Knight has coached (16 at UNLV and 8 at New Mexico).

For the 16th time in his tenure as UNLV men's head golf coach, Dwaine Knight is taking the Rebels to the NCAA Men's Golf championships.

And for the first time in those 16 years, Knight has absolutely no idea what to expect from his team.

Although the Rebels have been ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation for most of the season, their only consistent trait this year has been their inconsistency.

"It's probably one of the most uncertain national finals I'll be going into - not knowing exactly what to expect," Knight said as his team prepared for Wednesday's opening round of the NCAA Championships at Crosswater Golf Club at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore.

"Of course, you never know exactly what to expect, but normally you have trends going in that you can kind of prepare yourself for, and this one is not one of those years."

Despite beating top fields in the opening tournament of the season and again at their own tournament in March, the Rebels have struggled against much weaker fields and - as was the case at the East Regional in Orlando, Fla., earlier this month - have played inconsistently from round to round within a tournament.

UNLV was in contention for two rounds at the East Regional before falling apart in the final round and shooting 16 over par as a team. UNLV finished 10th after starting the final round in second place and was the final team from the East Regional to advance to the finals.

"This is a team that has had some really tremendous moments and can compete with the very best in the nation ... and then the next week I don't know who they are," Knight said. "I thought we would - like we played the first couple of rounds - really compete for the (East Regional) championship, but we didn't get that good round the last round so we were fortunate to move on to the finals."

Knight is hoping that the Rebels' familiarity with the Crosswater course will help settle them down this week. UNLV finished fourth at The Preview tournament in Sunriver in September and took third in the Mountain West Conference Championships there in April.

"It's a good opportunity for us," Knight said. "As poorly as we played (in the regional), we weren't that far off of really having a great tournament. In one way, it's a big wake-up call for them."

Knight said he has been talking with his players about minimizing their mistakes and being more patient on the course.

"We've been talking about it all along. We kind of got away with it a lot this year, and this time it really bit us," Knight said. "What happened (at the regional) was pretty much what happened to us all year - not having the ability to keep bogeys (from turning) into doubles and triples.

"Without the spotlight on them now, they might sneak right under the radar and be in position going into that last round, and that's very possible with this group. You just hope the decision-making gets a little bit better."

UNLV, which played two freshmen at the East Regional, will undergo a slight change for the NCAA Championships. Sophomore C.J. Gatto will replace freshman Blake Trimble for this week's tournament.

In eight tournaments this season, Gatto had a 73.42 stroke average and three top-20 finishes.

Gatto will join senior Andres Gonzales, sophomores Jarred Texter and Matt Kinsinger and freshman Seung-su Han this week in Sunriver.