All-defense experiment underway on UNLV practice court

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Midway through UNLV’s first full practice on Tuesday, sophomore guard Keshon Gilbert pressured an opposing ballhandler in the backcourt and forced him to lose the ball out of bounds.

Gilbert turned to his teammates with a smile on his face and nodded demonstrably, as if to announce this is how the Scarlet and Gray are going to play in 2022-23.

And with the collection of players Kevin Kruger has assembled, it’s a message that should go over very well.

A perusal of UNLV’s roster may not reveal any high-octane scorers after the program lost Bryce Hamilton and Donovan Williams to the NBA Draft, but the squad is stocked with quality defenders at every position, and it seems everyone is on board with winning games via defensive stops.

Kruger indicated that will indeed be the game plan when the season tips off.

“Everybody that came in and transferred over has a defensive reputation,” Kruger said. “That’s not to say they’re not able offensively, they just played more a defensive role where they were at. We think they’re all incredibly good, talented, unique, but also elite individual defenders. If we can just continue to work and get reps from a team-defense aspect, I think that just makes them all the more dangerous.”

Tuesday was the first of 10 practices UNLV is allowed to hold prior to its exhibition trip to Canada. The Scarlet and Gray will play three preseason contests from Aug. 16-19.

Three of UNLV’s five returners could end up as candidates for the Mountain West’s All-Defensive team (Gilbert, senior center David Muoka and senior forward Victor Iwuakor), and most of the eight newcomers are capable of joining them. Senior guard Elijah Parquet was named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive team in 2020-21 and was voted Colorado’s top defender each of the past two seasons. Senior forward Luis Rodriguez started 51 games at Mississippi the last two years due to his defensive prowess. Senior guard Elijah Harkless is known as a bulldog defender on the ball. And junior forward Isaiah Cottrell and senior center Karl Jones bring additional rim protection in the middle.

That should be enough for Kruger, who guided UNLV to a respectable defensive ranking in his first year at the helm. The Scarlet and Gray allowed 0.977 points per possession in 2021-22, which ranked them 123^rd in the nation and sixth in the Mountain West. (Three of the country’s top-25 teams in defensive efficiency hailed from the MWC, including No. 1 San Diego State.)

Along with Gilbert, Muoka figures to be one of the cornerstones of the UNLV defense. The 6-foot-10 center was named the Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Year in 2020-21, and though it took him some time to get up to speed last year, he posted a team-high block rate of 8.8% and recorded multiple rejections in five of UNLV’s final 10 contests.

Muoka has gone through eight weeks of summer workouts with his new teammates and now one full practice, and he is sufficiently impressed with their collective level of play on the defensive end.

“’Athletes’ is definitely a great word to describe everyone that we have,” Muoka said. “We have a bunch of guys that can switch. We have a lot of that. Offensively and defensively we have a lot of versatility. I feel like we can definitely switch 1 through 5. Whatever coach has schemed up for us, we can perform to a high level.”

Scoring is a different question. Harkless put up 10.0 points per game at Oklahoma last year, but none of the other newcomers has ever reached double digits. Among returners, senior guard Justin Webster has the best track record by virtue of posting 12.3 points at Hawaii two years ago.

Kruger is confident this year’s crop of transfers will thrive when given more offensive responsibility.

And on nights when their shots aren’t falling, UNLV should be able to rely on its defense to remain competitive.

“There’s a few guys out there that defensively, they really are elite,” Kruger said. “They slide incredibly well. You think they’re beat, but they’re not. On that side of it I thought their reputations rung true. On the other side I think the way they shoot it, the way they can make plays offensively, just maybe didn’t have that opportunity as much at their previous school.”

Gilbert exits early

Gilbert hit the deck with about 10 minutes remaining in Tuesday’s session, and after getting up slowly he left the practice court with a team trainer.

The early exit may have been precautionary, since practice was almost finished.

Kruger seemed to believe that to be the case, indicating the tough-nosed Gilbert will bounce back soon.

“Knowing Keshon, I’m sure he’ll be back tomorrow,” Kruger said.

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