UNLV faces long odds to make goal of NCAA Tournament

UNLV opened its basketball season with the belief that it could make its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2013.

With a 6-5 record, that aspiration will require a dramatic turnaround when the Rebels open Mountain West play against Fresno State on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Rebels were picked fifth in the Mountain West preseason poll. Coming out of their nonconference slate, it looks as if they might not even meet that expectation.

UNLV landed at No. 121 in the NET rankings, which are now the primary metric for NCAA Tournament evaluation.

In 2022, Rutgers (No. 77 NET ranking) was the lowest-ranked team in the NET era to make the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid. But each conference winner earns a bid, an unlikely pursuit that begins for UNLV on Saturday.

Fourth-year coach Kevin Kruger believes the Rebels’ nonconference experiences could help.

Those efforts included blowout losses to Mississippi State and Creighton. But other losses to (now No. 21) Memphis, Northwestern and most recently No. 22 Dayton were by an average margin of four points.

“It was a very tough nonconference schedule put together to have a lot of different challenges,” Kruger said, “Guys had some curveballs thrown at them, some adversity to continue to build together and some really good opponents in great environments. So I’d say, as much as anything, there’s nothing once conference rolls around that we haven’t seen. When you talk about the nonconference, preparing guys for a good Mountain West conference, I think we definitely achieved that goal.”

Here are three takeaways as UNLV begins conference play:

1. Mixed outlook

As tough as the road to the postseason goal might be, the early conference matchups offer the best possible warmup.

UNLV will start with games against three teams that fared even worse in the nonconference.

Fresno State went 4-8, with blowout losses to Cal State Bakersfield, San Diego State, Santa Clara, BYU and Cal Baptist.

The Rebels will then travel to face Air Force (3-9) on Tuesday before returning to host San Jose State (7-6) on Jan. 4.

UNLV could reasonably be 3-0 in conference play and 9-5 overall after those games.

2. Improvements

From the close losses to the routs, the Rebels’ most glaring weaknesses were rebounding and defense.

On at least one of those fronts, sophomore point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. is confident the team is trending in the right direction.

Following a 66-53 win over UC Riverside in UNLV’s nonconference finale, Thomas said he saw defensive improvement.

“At the beginning of the year, defensively, we were just so spread out and just not together,” he said. “But now, I feel like we’re just so much more compact and just on the same page more in practice.”

Kruger is confident in the team’s ability to adjust, and that will be put to the test in league play.

“They’ve done a really good job just of absorbing the film and absorbing the lessons from each game to get better,” he said.

3. Unexpected silver linings

UNLV has displayed the ability to bounce back.

After the blowout loss at Creighton extended the Rebels’ losing streak to three games, Julian Rishwain exploded for a season-high 21 points in a 72-65 victory over Pacific. The sixth-year guard was 5 of 7 from the 3-point line.

Jalen Hill’s return has been another positive. The sixth-year senior suffered a season-ending ACL tear in January, but has played in all 11 games this season. He’s averaging 7.2 points, but scored 17 in an 80-69 win over Omaha on Nov. 14.

Kruger expected to have a deep frontcourt, but that hasn’t necessarily been the case. The circumstances have allowed players to showcase their resiliency.

Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry said after the UC Riverside win that he’s been playing with a broken finger since the Creighton game.

Kruger said center Pape N’Diaye didn’t practice for two days before the UC Riverside game because of an illness. The 7-foot freshman still scored eight points in nine minutes.

Forward Rob Whaley (back) and guard Jace Whiting (foot) have played in only two games as they recover from injuries.

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.