UNLV season ends with MWC tourney loss to Wyoming; What’s next for program?

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Thursday, March 10, 2022 | 6:27 p.m.

For a few minutes, everything came together for UNLV.

Bryce Hamilton got hot at the right time, Keshon Gilbert made play after play at the defensive end, David Muoka and Royce Hamm patrolled the paint, and Donovan Williams used his stretchy length to score back-to-back baskets to give UNLV a 56-52 lead over Wyoming late in Thursday’s Mountain West tournament quarterfinal.

After trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half, UNLV appeared to have figured things out just in time to save its season.

Then Wyoming closed on a 7-0 run over the final two minutes, including a deciding 3-pointer by Cowboys guard Xavier DuSell with 30 seconds to play, to knock off UNLV, 59-56.

It was a swift, stunning, bitter end to the season for a Scarlet and Gray squad that battled throughout the year and appeared to be playing its best basketball in February and March.

UNLV called timeout after DuSell’s go-ahead triple and head coach Kevin Kruger drew up a play that unsurprisingly called for the ball to go to Hamilton. Wyoming blitzed a high ball screen set by Justin Webster, and the double-team forced Hamilton to kick the ball back to Webster. From there, Webster swung it to the corner, where freshman Keshon Gilbert was positioned for an open shot.

Despite making just seven 3-pointers on the season, Gilbert let it fly with confidence. The attempt bounced off the rim, Wyoming corralled the rebound with three seconds remaining and made a pair of free throws to make it a 59-56 game.

Hamilton got one last look at the basket, but his desperation heave from just inside halfcourt missed as time expired.

For a team that has been defined all season by putting the ball in Hamilton’s hands down the stretch, to see another player take the season-deciding shot was a shock.

 After the game it sounded as though Hamilton would have preferred to take the potential game-winner, but Wyoming’s defense made that impossible.

“The play was drawn for me to get a ghost screen and be able to make a play, but they started to trap me, so they forced me to make a pass,” Hamilton said. “From there we just had to play ball.”

Gilbert played a strong game, finishing with seven rebounds, two steals and two assists in 25 minutes off the bench, and Kruger trusted him to run the point ahead of senior Jordan McCabe down the stretch. But when it came to shooting the ball, Gilbert went 0-of-5 from the field and 0-of-3 from 3-point range.

Without condoning or condemning the execution of the final play, Kruger seemed willing to live with the result.

“We were ready for a lot of things,” Kruger said. “It’s not that simple when you’ve got guys trapping you to get everything exactly on the dot that you want.”

The fact that UNLV was even in a position to steal the win was remarkable considering they went more than 12 minutes without a field goal in the first half. That allowed Wyoming to race out to a quick double-digit lead, and the Scarlet and Gray spent the rest of the game chipping away.

Wyoming’s double-teaming defense limited Hamilton to four points in the first half, but he caught fire after the break and poured in 18 while playing the entire second half. He finished with 22 points on 10-of-21 shooting (0-of-5 3FGs).

Wyoming will advance to face top-seeded Boise State in Friday’s semifinal, while UNLV finishes the season 18-14 overall in the program’s first year under Kruger.

Farewell, Bryce

The finish to the season appeared to hit Hamilton especially hard. He enjoyed a magical senior campaign that saw him lead the Mountain West in scoring and earn All-MWC First Team honors, and he was this close to carrying UNLV to another improbable victory on Thursday.

He ends his time in Las Vegas as UNLV’s ninth all-time leading scorer with 1,773 career points.

“It hurts,” Hamilton said after the game. “We play so hard. We fought all year, especially this game. We were down 13 in the first half. We didn’t start off great, but we fought to come back and get the lead. I’m so proud of this team. We fought hard. We stuck together. We never separated. I couldn’t ask for a better team. I’m proud of how we ended. It didn’t end how we wanted it to go but I’m proud of the effort from the guys.”

Up next for Hamilton is preparation for the NBA Draft. He entered his name in the draft last offseason, but based on the feedback he received he decided to return to UNLV for one more year. Now, after showcasing improved shooting and defense this year, his stock figures to be higher this time around.

Gilbert shines

Though he missed the potential game-winning shot, Keshon Gilbert flashed cornerstone potential against Wyoming, to the point where Kruger stuck with the true freshman ahead of senior Jordan McCabe with the season on the line.

Gilbert’s defense was a revelation this season, and he may have turned in his best performance on Thursday as he dove for (and recovered) two loose balls, drew a charge, picked up two steals and played superb post defense on Wyoming star guard Hunter Maldonado.

Kruger didn’t want Gilbert’s all-around showing to be overshadowed by one missed shot.

“How many times did he dive on the floor?” Kruger said. “How many times did he get a huge stop? He’s guarding a player as good as Maldonado, he’s in there rebounding with guys like [Graham] Ike, Royce and those guys. The ball ended up in his hands and he didn’t hesitate. We’ll take that.”

NIT?

At 18-14, some projections have UNLV in the running for an NIT bid. UNLV hasn’t played in the postseason since making the NCAA Tournament in 2012-13, and Kruger hopes to snap that streak in the coming days.

When asked if he’d like to play in the NIT, he was definitively in favor of the idea.

“Absolutely. And I would really hope that who’s deciding on the NIT would take into account how much this team has gotten better and come together over the last month or so. I think this is a much different team than we saw the first few weeks of the season. I really hope so. We would absolutely love to. I think this team deserves that kind of recognition.”

2022-23

The 2022-23 UNLV team is going to look very different, in large part because of Hamilton’s departure. He was everything to this team on the offensive end, scoring 21.8 points per game in the regular season and racking up a usage rate of 35.6 percent.

But Kruger sounded optimistic about the team’s core of returning players — a group that includes second-leading scorer Donovan Williams (junior), Gilbert (freshman), Muoka (junior), Justin Webster (junior), Jordan McCabe (senior) and Victor Iwuakor (junior).

“David Muoka’s progress from the start of the year to now, how couldn’t we be excited about that?” Kruger said before going on to also single out Webster, McCabe and Iwuakor as players he expects to improve through the offseason.

With Hamilton, Hamm, Mike Nuga and James Hampshire graduating, UNLV will have four scholarships to fill for the 2022-23 season. One of those spots is earmarked for incoming recruit KyeRon Lindsay, a 6-foot-8 forward who is rated the No. 83 high-school player in the country by 247Sports.

With the other three spots (or more, depending on whether other UNLV players decide to exit the program), look for Kruger to hit the transfer portal in search of upside and immediate production. That approach paid dividends for Kruger last offseason, when his first recruiting class included gems like Hamm, Williams and Iwuakor.

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