UNLV ready to face top-10 foe: ‘It’s a big one for us for sure’

Kevin Kruger and UNLV were perfect a year ago.

The Rebels were 10-0 after beating Washington State 74-70 on Dec. 10, 2022. It was the program’s best start since Jerry Tarkanian’s 1990-91 Final Four team.

UNLV’s success didn’t last much longer. A weak nonconference schedule hid some of the Rebels’ flaws until conference play began in the Mountain West. The team finished 9-13 its final 22 games.

Kruger tried to do things differently this year. He created a tougher schedule for the 2023-24 season and his team, at 3-4, has struggled with it so far.

UNLV faces its toughest test yet Wednesday. The Rebels will play No. 8 Creighton at 6 p.m. in the Jack Jones Classic at the Dollar Loan Center.

“We’re just really excited for the opportunity,” Kruger said. “All these nonconference games have been great challenges in different ways, and tomorrow will be a huge challenge for us.”

Wednesday’s matchup won’t be the only time these two programs see each other.

Kruger said Tuesday that UNLV will also play the Bluejays (8-1) next season in Omaha, Neb.

Creighton is the highest-ranked nonconference opponent the Rebels have faced since Kruger’s first season as coach in 2021-22. UNLV lost to No. 4 Michigan 74-61 at T-Mobile Arena that year and No. 2 UCLA 73-51 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Rebels hope to flip the script Wednesday. A win would be a huge feather in the team’s cap after a difficult first seven games.

“Not off to the start we wanted to get off to,” sixth-year wing Luis Rodriguez said. “New game, new opportunity, so it’s a big one for us for sure.”

UNLV’s porous perimeter defense will be tested against Creighton. The Bluejays are one of the best 3-point shooting teams in college basketball, making 40.2 percent of their attempts from distance. That shooting percentage ranked 13th in the country entering Tuesday.

Four different Creighton players are shooting better than 41 percent from 3, including former Utah State guard Steven Ashworth.

The senior has been a thorn in the Rebels’ side before. Ashworth hit a go-ahead 3 with 1:09 remaining in the Aggies’ 75-71 victory against UNLV on Jan. 17 last season. He then scored 27 points in Utah State’s 91-66 blowout win over the Rebels in the penultimate game of the regular season March 1.

“He’s an elite shooter,” Kruger said. “He spreads the floor and makes good decisions. He’s a great ball handler, low turnovers. He’s just one of those guys you can’t really earmark him for one thing.”

UNLV’s perimeter defense, on the other hand, has not been stout this season. The Rebels are allowing opponents to shoot 40.9 percent from 3, which ranks 348th out of the 351 Division I basketball teams. Only Detroit Mercy (41.6 percent), Grambling State (42.2 percent) and North Carolina A&T (45.2 percent) have worse opposing 3-point percentages.

Rodriguez said the Rebels have to do a better job defending at the point of attack and staying attached to the Bluejays away from the ball. He also said UNLV needs to trust each other more and avoid helping too much.

“If we can do that and we can have each other’s backs, we can get better defensively, for sure,” Rodriguez said.

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on X.