As Rebels celebrate Senior Night, Menzies envisions an evolving team dynamic

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Wednesday, March 1, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Technically, UNLV will be saying goodbye to three seniors before tonight’s home game against Utah State (8 p.m., Thomas & Mack Center), but due to the truncated tenures of Christian Jones, Uche Ofoegbu and Tyrell Green, it’s not going to feel like a typical Senior Night.

Coach Marvin Menzies is making a point to change that in the future.

That’s not a knock against Jones, Ofeogbu or Green — three sturdy, reliable players who served the Rebels reasonably well this season, when reliability was at a premium — they just weren’t in Las Vegas long enough to leave a lasting imprint on the program. Because of the complete reconstructive surgery Menzies had to perform on the roster last offseason, Jones and Ofoegbu were brought in as fifth-year grad transfers, while Green came in as a junior college transfer last season.

That means the Rebels’ three departing seniors will go out with a combined four years of experience at UNLV. Though Menzies spent much of Tuesday’s media session praising his seniors, he also made it clear he wants future Senior Nights to feature more four-year Rebels.

“When you look at the successful programs, outside of maybe Kentucky, they have seniors that have had great careers and come back and contribute and work in the community and had a lot of success in their junior and senior years,” Menzies said. “I think the more successful programs that have had long periods of success are the ones that have brought in younger kids and developed them.”

It’s going to take a lot of time for that vision to come to fruition. There won’t be any four-year Rebels graduating next year (Jovan Mooring and Jordan Johnson came in as transfers), meaning 2018-19 would be the next time UNLV could have homegrown seniors (Jalen Poyser, Dwayne Morgan).

Beyond that, there’s no guarantee any of the freshmen from Menzies’ initial UNLV recruiting class (Cheickna Dembele, Troy Baxter, Zion Morgan, Djordjije Sljivancanin and Ben Coupet) will stay here for three more years. But Menzies is a believer in long-term development, and he’s going to try to groom the young Rebels — and the incoming recruits in the 2017 class — to become productive upperclassmen, and, eventually, senior leaders.

“I think I’ve expressed that my philosophical approach to recruiting would inevitably be majority freshmen every single year we sign a class,” Menzies said. “Whether you lose two, three, four or five guys, you’re signing class would be [made up of] a majority of freshmen. So just by the numbers, you’d be graduating three, four, five guys who you’ve been with for four years. And I think those are the tough teams to beat, the ones with a lot of experience.”

It’s going to take a lot of recruiting, a lot of coaching, and a lot of trust in his system, but Menzies envisions a day when Senior Nights will regularly feature a handful of career Rebels who leave behind four years of production and a lot of victories.

Ofoegbu has seen Menzies and his staff working to build that culture, and despite the team’s 10-19 record this season, he sees brighter things ahead for future seniors.

“[The coaches] work hard,” Ofoegbu said. “They work extremely hard. Sometimes they work even harder than the players. All they’re all about building back the UNLV brand and working to get it back to the top, winning Mountain West Conference championships and getting back to the NCAA tournament.”

It's not going to happen overnight, but Menzies is confident UNLV will eventually be a stable program led by cornerstone players who bond with the community while leading the Rebels to sustained success on the court.

“You’ve just got to work the plan,” Menzies said. “We’ll get there. I’m 100 percent convinced we’ll get there. I have the script. I have the blueprint. I’ve got a great family and a great staff around me, a great administration supporting me. We’re going to be fine, guys.”

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