Bern’s-Eye View: Rebels’ roster full of interesting lineup combinations

By Taylor Bern

Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Life is better with options, and they’re nice to have in college basketball, too.

UNLV hosts its exhibition game at 7 p.m. Friday night against Whittier, and the regular season starts a week later at home for a 7 p.m. tip-off on Nov. 13 against Cal Poly. In both of those games, and the 30-plus that follow, the Rebels will seemingly have a lot of options in regards to their lineups.

On paper this is the deepest team of fifth-year coach Dave Rice’s tenure, and with an up-tempo style expected to require a lot of substitutions, all 11 eligible players should get an opportunity to make their case for minutes. But how will, or should, all of those pieces fit together?

Fear not, because I’m here to go through some of the combinations that we’ll likely see this season and a couple that will exist only in my mind:

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  L.E. Baskow

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  The Starters
  

  • Jerome Seagears

  • Ike Nwamu

  • Pat McCaw

  • Stephen Zimmerman Jr.

  • Goodluck Okonoboh

  Two returning starters, two newcomers and one senior point guard who practiced with the team last season. This is what I think the Rebels’ starting lineup will look like for most of the season.

  Junior Ben Carter, who is out of Friday’s exhibition game because of a concussion, and sophomore Jordan Cornish are also in the mix. UNLV’s style of play, if executed correctly, is going to mean a lot of substitutions that probably lessen the importance of starting. Total minutes, and especially who plays at the end, matters more.

  Seagears' performance, positive or negative, will have a huge effect on what UNLV turns out to be this season. Other than him, I’m fascinated to see how Zimmerman and Okonoboh work together, or if UNLV is going to find out it's better to split them up.

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  The Platoon
  

  • Jalen Poyser

  • Nwamu

  • McCaw

  • Dwayne Morgan

  • Ben Carter

  UNLV isn’t going with a full Kentucky-style platoon system, but in theory they could. The Rebels have 11 scholarship players eligible — plus redshirting Chris Obekpa and suspended Daquan Cook — and all of them seem capable of at least being role players in the Mountain West.

  If the Rebels were to opt for a platoon, with wholesale lineup changes, I think this would be my second group. Cornish and freshman Derrick Jones Jr. would move into the starting rotation, and at power forward, it’d be a battle between Morgan and junior college transfer Tyrell Green.

  As I mentioned with the starters, I’m intrigued to see how well Zimmerman and Okonoboh work together. I think their games complement each other, but in a full platoon system it might be best to split them up.

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  L.E. Baskow

  
  Pressure Defense
  

  • McCaw

  • Nwamu

  • Jones

  • Carter

  • Okonoboh

  McCaw will harass you, Nwamu will bully you, Jones will swarm you, Carter will angle you and Okonoboh will swat you. The key to improving from last season is on offense, but the key to getting to the level that UNLV thinks it can achieve is on defense and getting this full-court pressure to work as designed.

  I’d put Jones on the ball with McCaw and Nwamu, who both have good steal rates, ready to spring traps in the back court before rushing back to get into position with the clock already under 20 seconds. Then it’s up to the experienced defenders in Carter, Nwamu and McCaw to hold their ground with Okonoboh or Jones behind them ready to swat away any close shot.

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  L.E. Baskow

  
  Let it Rain
  

  • Seagears

  • Austin Starr

  • Cornish

  • Nwamu

  • Tyrell Green

  Everybody loves 3-pointers — I know, because during games I’ve heard from some of you who would rather lose than see UNLV’s 3-point streak snapped — and this is the lineup to set up everyone around the perimeter and let them fire.

  Sure, it’s impractical, but since when do I need to make this make sense? Walk-on Austin Starr, a Foothill High grad who won the preseason 3-point contest, is in the rotation and so is the transfer Green, who has been known to catch fire in practice.

  Line up all five guys behind the line, one in each corner, one at each wing and one up top, then let them drive and kick all day. I’d watch that.

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  L.E. Baskow

  
  Pat’s Playground
  

  • McCaw

  • Poyser

  • Nwamu

  • Jones

  • Zimmerman

  A guard who loves to throw alley-oops (sometimes too much) and four guys who know how to finish them. Honestly, this might be the perfect lineup.

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