Win vs. Big Ten team may loom large in March

Less than three months from now, an 81-64 win on a Sunday afternoon where UNLV officials apparently decided to count the number of fans twice before pathetically announcing a crowd of 11,615 could keep the Rebels in the at-large conversation a tad longer.

It’s what you can take from a Duel in the Desert championship at the Thomas & Mack Center. It’s a lot.

UNLV next opens Mountain West Conference play at Colorado State on Saturday, but first needed to beat a known nonleague opponent more than it needs to discover a better overall field for this exempt event, considering Bishop Gorman might have finished third this year.

"It’s a very important (victory)," Rebels coach Lon Kruger said. "We talked about the Louisville game (a 68-48 home loss) and how we were too young and it showed. We then battled Arizona (a 52-49 home loss) and played extremely well but had a tough time scoring the last four minutes.

"We approached this game like those two, as another opportunity to play a quality team. I think all three will be in (the NCAAs) and (beating Minnesota) goes in the right column for us. The good column. If you are in position for at-large consideration, they look at that."

Not one conference game has been played, which means comparing RPIs of other Mountain West teams and those across the nation is a bigger waste of time than trying to find street parking at midnight tonight near The Strip.

But it’s just not enough for teams from non-Bowl Championship Series conferences to play ones from those leagues. You have to beat some to have any chance of making the field if you don’t eventually earn an automatic bid by winning a league tournament.

Even when you do that, you can enter the NCAAs with 28 wins and an RPI of 10 and be 9-1 in your last 10 games and go 4-3 against Top 50 schools and post eight road wins and still be handed a No. 7 seed and shipped to Chicago.

Or don’t you remember last Selection Sunday for the Rebels?

"This was a big-time game for us," said Rebels guard Wink Adams, named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and now in possession of a new video game and T-shirt to prove it. "After the Louisville and Arizona games, we knew how important it was to come out and beat another great team."

This was Adams at his politically correct best. The only thing great about Minnesota are those few months your arms and legs aren’t dinner for mosquitoes.

The Gophers are a decent 10-2 team with a feeble résumé whose biggest wins are at Iowa State and home to Santa Clara. They aren’t near the quality of the Big Ten’s top three teams (Michigan State, Indiana and Wisconsin), but could potentially finish around fifth.

That would likely mean an NCAA bid, if for no other reason the selection committee might collectively explode without including at least six Big Ten teams.

An 11-3 record to its credit, UNLV didn’t hurt itself in nonconference play but certainly didn’t overly help itself.

Losses to Louisville and Arizona were more expected than not and falling at the buzzer on the road to a UC Santa Barbara team that could win the Big West Conference is hardly a dreadful sin.

It’s also true UNLV will be in any Mountain West game it shoots anywhere close to Sunday’s effort of 46 percent from the field and 50 percent on 3s, and again owns the advantage of hosting the conference tournament.

Consider the list of questions about the Rebels before the season began. How many close to the program (other than those coaching and playing) wouldn’t have taken 11-3 before a game was played?

"Going into a week of practice before conference begins off a win is really big when you contrast it to coming off a loss," Kruger said. "We’ll look at tape of this game and see areas we need to improve. But we’re going into (league) with a fresh attitude and coming off a sweep this weekend is very helpful."

One of the wins could prove extremely helpful in March if UNLV finds itself with at-large aspirations.

At worst, beating an average Big Ten team keeps your name on that board longer than the guys who didn’t.

Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.