Analysis: UNLV’s defensive issues go beyond Jenkins

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Saturday, Feb. 6, 2021 | 2 a.m.

David Jenkins took a beating from his coach after UNLV’s demoralizing 72-62 loss at UNR on Tuesday. Did he deserve it?

In getting swept in Reno, the scarlet and grey dropped to 3-5 in league play and got exposed on the defensive end, particularly down the stretch of Tuesday’s defeat. That much is not in question.

Jenkins, who came in averaging 29.1 minutes per game (third on the team), played just 6:22 in the second half. After the contest, T.J. Otzelberger said his junior guard rode the bench because of his struggles on the defensive end.

The numbers didn’t quite bear out that conclusion, however.

Jenkins committed an offensive foul and was pulled from the game with 14:51 remaining in the second half. UNLV trailed, 37-35, at the time. Jenkins didn’t check back in until the 4:49 mark, and going without him for that stretch worked for Otzelberger, as UNLV surged ahead, 58-56, in the 10 minutes Jenkins rode the bench.

Jenkins checked back in for a minute or so and then exited for good with 3:36 to play. And that’s when things fell apart for UNLV.

UNR scored on its next eight possessions, outscoring UNLV 19-4 to close the game. There was no way to pin that collapse on Jenkins, who watched it unfold in the same helpless manner as UNLV fans at home.

In the 25:36 that Jenkins was on the floor on Tuesday, UNLV allowed 0.82 points per possession. In the 14 minutes he was on the bench UNLV’s defense cratered, giving up an outrageous 1.40 points per possession.

Otzelberger indicated in his postgame remarks that he holds Jenkins to a high standard on that end of the floor. As the most experienced perimeter defender on the team, Otzelberger seems to want Jenkins to take on more of a leadership role.

The coach must have run out of patience with Jenkins in the second half on Tuesday, despite the stats saying otherwise.

“David as a fourth-year college player needs to be a guy to help get our defense set up, help anchor it, help talk, help communicate, really care that we get stops,” Otzelberger said. “I thought there was some slippage there.”

After UNR outscored UNLV 19-4 to close the second half of that game, T.J. Otzelberger held Jenkins responsible for a lot of the team’s issues on the defensive end.

In the big picture, Jenkins’ defense is a legitimate issue. His defensive rating is 106.3, according to sports-reference.com, which is the worst mark of any scholarship player. And for most of the second half it looked like Otzelberger’s gambit would work, as UNLV initially surged once Jenkins left the game.

“When we went with the other guys I felt like we had good momentum,” Otzelberger said. “I thought there was good chemistry. I thought we were able to get some more guys in the post and things like that, so we went with it and I thought until that stretch right at the end it went pretty well for us. We just came unglued late.”

There is a lot of truth to that. Before the final meltdown, UNLV played 9:03 consecutively with Jenkins on the bench and outscored UNR 21-15 to take a 3-point lead with less than four minutes to play. Things were going pretty well.

Then something clicked for the Wolf Pack and they scored every time down the court to turn a nail-biter into a blowout.

For one game at least, it wasn’t entirely Jenkins’ fault.

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