The Rebels are coming off a 92-56 loss at San Diego State, their worst defeat in 16 years. But even with all the adversity and the uncertainty about who will be available this season, UNLV appears to enter the Mountain West tournament upbeat.
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On paper, the UNLV women’s Mountain West tournament first-round matchup against Air Force looked like it might turn into a blowout.
The Rebels are in the market for a new coach, though interim Todd Simon and assistant Stacey Augmon could get a look.
Led by 17 points from McKynzie Fort, eighth-seeded San Diego State came away with a 62-44 victory over Wyoming in the first round of the Mountain West Conference tournament on Monday.
Mountain West presidents switched from an 11 to an eight-team league tournament next year and they failed to inform their head coaches of the move after the coaches voted 11-0 against it.
UNLV is 16-13 overall and 9-9 in the Mountain West, meaning the only chance it has at an NCAA Tournament berth is winning the conference tournament. But the Lady Rebels have three wins in their past five games.
UNLV sophomore guard Patrick McCaw was named to the media’s second-team All-Mountain West squad. McCaw averages 13.9 points, and his 4.0-assist average is third in the conference. He also is first in the Mountain West with 2.5 steals per game.
When the Mountain West women’s basketball tournament begins Monday, Colorado State will be the favorite. But UNLV coach Kathy Olivier said the conference has parity, and she expects that to be on display at the Thomas and Mack Center.
The Mountain West men’s basketball tournament begins Wednesday at Thomas & Mack Center with host UNLV playing as the No. 7 seed against No. 10 Air Force at 1:30 p.m., the league announced Sunday.
Colorado State (28-1, 18-0) won the 2015-16 Mountain West regular-season title and enters the league tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Tim Duryea was preparing for basketball season, about to begin his head coaching career at Utah State when his phone rang. It was then-UNLV coach Dave Rice letting Duryea know he was about to lose one of his best players in forward David Collette.
UNLV athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy was answering questions Sunday evening about the firing (with a capital F) of Dave Rice when the future was mentioned, specifically if the school will commence a national search to identify a new full-time basketball coach.
On the day Josh Adams signed with Wyoming, there was no live announcement on ESPN. He was not a five-star prospect surrounded by hype. Four years later, he’s the nation’s No. 4 scorer, averaging 25.7 points.
When in doubt — and doubt surrounds most of the basketball teams in the Mountain West at the moment — it would be easy to side with Steve Fisher. He gets the job done at San Diego State year after year.
The curtain is set to be raised on the 18-game Mountain West schedule. Here’s the predicted order of finish: