UNLV’s Jovan Mooring (30) drives to the basket against Utah State’s Jalen Moore (14) as the Rebels play the Utah State Aggies at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Wednesday, March 1, 2017.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017 | 8 p.m.
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When it comes to sports memories, nothing seems to resonate as deeply as the big upset — those games where the big favorite gets toppled by the plucky underdog, against all odds. Those are the ones that players, coaches and spectators on both sides seem to remember.
Before Tuesday’s practice, the Rebels recounted some of their greatest “us against the world” experiences.
Christian Jones pointed to last year’s St. John’s team, which went 8-24 on the season but somehow managed to upset Syracuse, a team that eventually advanced to the Final Four.
Uche Ofoegbu talked about his 2013-14 San Francisco team that lost starting point guard Cody Doolin after just four games, but still managed to finish second in the WCC and earn an NIT berth.
Jovan Mooring went back even further, recalling the time his Illinois Crush AAU team beat a highly ranked Florida club when no one gave them a chance.
Mooring remembered scoring 36 points in that upset, including the glorious buzzer beater.
“I’ll never forget it,” Mooring said with a smile.
Such is the power of the Cinderella story. Slay one Goliath, and the memories will last long after the buzzer sounds. The Rebels recognize that, and they’re leaning on their underdog experience as they prepare to take on San Diego State on Wednesday in the play-in round of the Mountain West tournament (4 p.m., Thomas & Mack Center).
After going 4-14 in conference play and finishing in last place for the first time in school history, no one is giving UNLV much of a shot to make any noise in the postseason. Especially when the first opponent is San Diego State, which has beaten UNLV 10 times in a row, including a series sweep this season.
That’s why No. 6 seed SDSU opened as a 9-point favorite, but as these Rebels know (from firsthand experience), March isn’t always a good month for favorites.
“It’s a fun time,” Ofoegbu said. “Anything can happen. You see a lot of the big dogs getting beat by underdogs. You see a lot of conference champions in the regular season losing in the conference tournament. It’s a crazy time. Hopefully we can bring some magic here in Vegas.”
In order for UNLV to take down San Diego State and notch one of those magical upsets, a lot of things are going to have to go right. SDSU plays the best defense in the league (0.803 points per possession allowed, 11th-best in the country), so the offensively challenged Rebels will need to make a lot of shots they normally miss.
It’s hard to imagine enough of those shots falling for UNLV to have a real chance, but the players are confident in the face of expectations.
“I’ve been an underdog my whole life, so it’s no problem for me,” Mooring said. “I think it’s definitely in the back of everyone’s mind that no one thinks we’re going to win, so that just drives you to play harder.”
Jones has struggled against San Diego State this season, averaging 8.0 points and 2.5 rebounds in the two losses, but it sounded like he is jumping at the chance to get another crack at the Aztecs with the season on the line.
“I think it’s tough to beat a college team three times in a row,” Jones said. “Every game we learned something different. After the two games we lost to them, I think we come in here with a good sense of how to play them.
“Losing to somebody twice, you’re going to be the underdog,” he continued. “We’re last in the conference, we’re going to be the underdog regardless. So if we come in with that mentality, we have some fight.”
The Rebels know the task at hand: Pull off a stunner on Wednesday, or clean out their lockers and get an early start on the offseason.
“We’re the last seed,” Ofoegbu said. “Nobody expects us to win against San Diego State. Everybody expects our season to be over after this game, so we just bring a chip on our shoulders in practice and in the games. I feel like with the way our mentality is, everybody is on the same page and wants to come out with this win.”
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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