UNLV basketball looking for better results on offense

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Immediately following UNLV’s 62-55 loss to San Diego State on Saturday, senior guard Bryce Hamilton walked into the postgame press conference and did what leaders are supposed to do. He took the blame.

Hamilton scored 15 points in 37 minutes, but in his mind that wasn’t good enough, especially against a Mountain West favorite with an elite defense. Though UNLV’s offensive issues extended to the entire team—missed shots, poor ball movement, poor player movement—Hamilton shouldered the responsibility.

“They’re a top-10 defensive team in the country, so they played their defense,” Hamilton said. “They did it very well. We were very stagnant on offense. I put a lot of that on myself. We just have to do better moving the ball and getting them into rotations.”

Hamilton’s frustration was evident. He had powered the scarlet and gray’s four-game winning streak to close nonconference play by practicing superlative shot selection, but San Diego State made that impossible. The Aztecs walled off the paint and made it a priority to cut off Hamilton’s driving lanes; with no room to penetrate, UNLV’s leading scorer found it tough to generate open looks.

Eleven of Hamilton’s 19 attempts were 3-pointers while just three of his shots came from the paint. For a player who is shooting 31.8% from 3-point range and 50.0% inside the arc, that is not an ideal ratio.

Coach Kevin Kruger did not buy Hamilton’s attempt to take the blame and pointed out that it was a combination of strong defense by SDSU and poor offensive execution all around that led to UNLV’s trouble scoring.

“For him to take responsibility, that’s not—I don’t think he should have,” Kruger said. “We put him in a lot of situations where we expect him to make plays and we lean on him, and he tries to do that to the best of his ability.”

After shooting 52.2% during UNLV’s four-game winning streak, Hamilton made 6-of-19 (31.2%) against San Diego State. That was still actually a more efficient performance than the rest of the team, as UNLV’s other players combined to shoot 13-of-45 (28.9%).

Kruger credited San Diego State for playing exceptional team defense and filling gaps before Hamilton or anyone else could get going downhill. The way to beat that was with more ball movement and patient offensive sets, but that’s easier said than done against the Aztecs.

“I think there were a number of times that we’ll see on film where we probably just needed to be one more pass patient, and maybe one more movement,” Kruger said. “[We] moved twice when we might have needed to move three times. It’s easy to go back on film and notice and it’s easy to kind of see from the side, but it’s a whole different world when you’re out there.”

Hamilton and his teammates are likely to have a better time on Saturday at Air Force. The Falcons are No. 171 in KenPom’s adjust defense rating, so Hamilton should be able to find the type of shots he prefers. For the season he leads the scarlet and gray at 18.4 points per game.

The sooner Hamilton gets back to scoring efficiently, the sooner UNLV is likely to get back in the win column.

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