UNLV falls short on talent, toughness

The most talented basketball team in the Mountain West Conference will meet its toughest team in the league’s tournament final today, and UNLV will be among those watching.

The Rebels proved to be neither over the last month.

They were not built to hang any sort of conference banner this year.

UNLV was eliminated in one semifinal on Friday night by a New Mexico side that is simply better, falling to the Lobos 72-67 before a Thomas & Mack Center crowd that seemed to favor as much the team from Albuquerque as it did the local one.

There might not be a foul called on his team that New Mexico coach Steve Alford doesn’t complain about, and his players in a postgame news conference on Thursday talked as much about individual honors as team goals. But beyond the boorish and laughable attempts at playing the no-respect card for a team picked by media to win the Mountain West, there still exists the deepest and most capable side.

One the Rebels just weren’t up to handling for a second time.

So it goes that the two teams that shared the regular-season title (New Mexico and San Diego State) will play at 4 p.m. today for the right to cut down nets and be able to brag a little harder than the other about how this league season ultimately plays out.

The Lobos are better from players 1 through 8.

The Aztecs are mentally tougher.

We’ll see which strength wins out.

Speaking of a (lack of) brute strength.

The Rebels will learn their NCAA Tournament seed and pairing on Sunday, and should they be matched against an aggressive, physical team with a strong post game, well, just don’t do anything silly like betting the kids’ college tuition on UNLV.

This is who the Rebels are, a team whose strength is in the jump shot and not in the game’s physical nature. They are not as capable in the key or at the rim as New Mexico and nowhere near as tough above the shoulders as San Diego State.

That’s why they are spectators today.

Think about it: UNLV played 40 minutes of intense, spirited, possession-for-possession basketball on Friday and had just three turnovers.

And lost.

“New Mexico,” UNLV senior Chace Stanback said, “played harder.”

It’s just a bad matchup for the Rebels. Mike Moser (11 points on 5-for-15 shooting and three rebounds in 33 minutes) struggled mightily against New Mexico for a second time, while UNLV’s centers fouled far too much.

You want to bottle stretches when watching the Rebels at their best. The second half against North Carolina. The second half against Illinois. The final 15 minutes against these same Lobos here in January.

The opening four minutes Friday.

But it’s impossible to maintain such defensive intensity and offensive execution against someone better or at your equal in a tournament setting. So while the Rebels running to a 12-0 lead might have brought their fans to an off-the-charts decibel level, it wasn’t going to last.

UNLV wasn’t going to make every shot, and New Mexico was eventually going to make a concentrated effort to attack the basket and dare UNLV to defend inside well enough. It couldn’t.

The Rebels are now, have been and will be limited at key spots until this season ends and the next one arrives with a better post presence. New Mexico outrebounded UNLV 41-25, but 34 of the Lobos’ boards came at the defensive end.

That’s what happens when jump-shooting teams make just 35 percent of their attempts and are 2 of 12 on 3-pointers in the second half.

UNLV had a chance in the final minutes because it converted on enough turnovers to remain close, but when you allow 30 points in the paint, and the best player on the court (Drew Gordon) goes for 19 points and 13 rebounds while making 8 of 10 shots, you’re destined for a seat on the couch come championship game time.

“We just didn’t make quite enough shots,” UNLV coach Dave Rice said. “Disappointed right now, but we will be in the NCAA Tournament and play either Thursday or Friday, and we need to learn from this experience. The thing is, the season is not over. We have a lot to still play for.

“It doesn’t make us feel any better. I think the biggest thing is we played a very good basketball team.”

The Rebels are built to win a certain style of game over 40 minutes, built to have the advantage in a specific matchup.

This wasn’t it Friday night.

New Mexico is better.

Proved it again.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from noon to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN Radio 1000 AM and 98.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.