UNLV basketball back at practice, hopeful to play at CSU

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021 | 2 a.m.

The UNLV basketball team gathered on Monday for their first practice in three weeks, but things still aren’t quite back to normal in this very abnormal season.

“There was a lot of excitement to get back on the practice court and have the possibility of a game later this week,” head coach T.J. Otzelberger said.

If you detected some hesitancy in Otzelberger’s words — the mere “possibility” of a game — it’s because nothing is guaranteed this season. So UNLV will practice and prepare to head to Fort Collins for a two-game series at Colorado State on Thursday and Saturday and hope for the best.

A brief recap of UNLV’s season to this point: The team lost its first four contests, including all three at the Maui Invitational in Asheville, N.C., before breaking through with a road win at Kansas State on Dec. 5. The next two games (home dates against Eastern Washington and Pepperdine) were canceled due to positive COVID-19 tests, and UNLV suspended all basketball activities on Dec. 15.

At that point the team was ravaged by COVID-19, with a spate of positive tests forcing the postponement of Mountain West series against Wyoming and San Diego State. Players were forced to stay on campus through the holiday break with minimal basketball activity until the program un-paused on Monday.

Not every player has cleared protocols to get back on the court, but Otzelberger said most of the roster is available for the first time in a long time. Now the focus is on getting them back into game condition, as they’ll only have time for a couple of practice sessions before tip-off at Colorado State.

“This was our first time able to do five on five in a game setting and get up and down the court,” Otzelberger said. “It’s clear at this point we’re going to be a work in progress because we’re trying to get guys back into game shape. Some of them have not practiced in 21 consecutive days. In preseason, usually guys are doing conditioning in advance of that first game, but because of health protocols a lot of our guys have not been able to do anything — in fact, we had to instruct them not to.”

The UNLV coaching staff will be mindful of the players’ fitness on Thursday, as Otzelberger expects to use a larger rotation and deploy players for shorter stints until they get their legs under them again.

Getting the players back up to game speed and on the same page mentally may even supersede the advance scouting work the coaches would typically do under normal circumstances.

Instead of preparing specifically for Colorado State, Otzelberger said UNLV’s main focus has to be inward right now.

“Colorado State is a great team and I have a lot of respect for them, they just had a great win at San Diego State,” Otzelberger said, “but at the same time we need to worry about us. Our focus needs to be on doing what we need to do for our guys, individually and collectively, to be at their best far more than it has to do with what Colorado State may or may not do.

“We need to worry about being in shape and being together,” he continued. “In prep we’re spending the vast majority of the time on those aspects and understanding if we can keep our focus on what we need to do, that’ll give us a better chance than if we were just focusing on all the plays that Colorado State is going to run.”

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