Rebels push pace at first practice under T.J. Otzelberger

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019 | 2 a.m.

After UNLV’s first full preseason practice on Tuesday morning, the Rebels were talking fast. As in, this team is going to push the pace at every opportunity this season — even after the whistle.

That message came through loud and clear, from new head coach T.J. Otzelberger down to the players, many of whom were still pouring sweat as they met with the media after the intense session wrapped up.

Otzelberger liked what he saw from his team on Day 1 and thought they handled the up-tempo drills and scrimmages as well as could be expected.

“I’m not somebody that believes in being out on the floor for three hours and having extremely long practices,” Otzelberger said. “We want to be efficient. We want to have a really fast pace from drill to drill. I thought we did that today, for the first 90 minutes for sure.”

Last year under previous head coach Marvin Menzies, UNLV ranked No. 182 nationally in KenPom.com’s adjusted tempo; Otzelberger’s South Dakota State team was No. 40. And while UNLV averaged 71.1 possessions per game (167^th in the country), South Dakota State averaged 74.0 possessions (54^th).

To get the Rebels used to running again, Otzelberger is stressing the need to be quick in all aspects of practice. He wants the players moving at full speed before, during and after every drill.

Junior guard Amauri Hardy, one of the team’s expected offensive catalysts, vouched for Otzelberger’s insistence on putting the pedal to the floor at every opportunity.

“I would definitely say it’s a fast practice,” Hardy said. “There’s no walking around. When we’re going to get some water you can’t even walk, you’ve got to run over to get the water. As soon as we snap into the next drill guys have to run and do whatever it may be. I would say the pace is definitely a high level because we want to play at a high pace and we want to run. We want to be a team that doesn’t really get tired.”

Under the NCAA’s preseason calendar, teams are allowed to begin practicing 42 days before their first game. During that span, teams are allowed 30 full preseason sessions.

As part of Tuesday’s practice, Otzelberger had the Rebels scrimmaging full-court with a pair of referees officiating the action.

Guard David Jenkins played his first two college seasons at South Dakota State under Otzelberger, so in theory he should be used to the coach’s obsession with speed. But Jenkins said practices at UNLV have been even faster than the Jackrabbits’ workouts.

“I think T.J. changed his philosophy up a little bit,” Jenkins said. “I think our practices are a lot more high-intensity, because his deal is he wants to play a faster brand of basketball, which I feel ultimately fits our system well because we have a lot of athletic and talented guys. So I feel like the faster pace we can play, we can throw a lot of teams off guard.”

As one of the players who will be tasked with pushing the pace this season, Hardy said he thinks the team is adapting to the kind of basketball — and the kind of practices — that Otzelberger wants.

“This is the first day officially, but I feel like we’ve been doing this for a while now,” Hardy said. “I think guys are starting to get used to it. We’re getting used to how we want to play.”

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