UNLV basketball has great chances to reach NCAA Tournament as MW play begins | UNLV Basketball | sport

UNLV opened its basketball season confident it would make its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2013.

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

The Rebels were ranked fifth in the Mountain West preseason poll. Based on their non-conference schedule, it looks like they may not even meet that expectation.

UNLV finished at No. 121 in the NET rankings, which is now the primary metric for evaluating NCAA Tournaments.

In 2022, Rutgers (No. 77 in the NET rankings) was the lowest-ranked team in the NET era to reach the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid. But every conference winner gets a bid, an unlikely task that begins for UNLV on Saturday.

Fourth-year coach Kevin Kruger believes the Rebels’ non-conference experience could be helpful.

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

“It was a very tough non-conference schedule that presented a lot of different challenges,” Kruger said. “The guys had some adversity thrown at them, some adversity that they had to continue to build on together, and some really good opponents in great environments. “So I would say, first of all, there’s nothing we didn’t see after the conference. When you talk about the non-conference and getting people ready for a good Mountain West conference, I think we definitely accomplished that goal.”

Here are three takeaways as UNLV’s conference begins:

1. Mixed outlook

As tough as the road to the postseason goal may be, the early conference matches provide the best possible warm-up.

UNLV will begin with games against three teams that fared worse in the non-conference.

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

The Rebels will then 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 these games.

2. Improvements

From the close calls to the defeats, the Rebels’ most glaring weaknesses were rebounding and defense.

On at least one of those fronts, second-year point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. is confident the team is headed in the right direction.

After a 66-53 win over UC Riverside in the UNLV nonconference final, Thomas said he saw improvement defensively.

“At the beginning of the year we were just so spread out defensively and just not together,” he said. “But now I have the feeling that we are much more compact and are more on the same wavelength in practice.”

Kruger is confident the team can adapt and that will be put to the test in league play.

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

3. Unexpected silver linings

UNLV has shown the ability to bounce back.

After the disastrous loss at Creighton extended the Rebels’ losing streak to three games, Julian Rishwain scored 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.

The return of Jalen Hill was another positive. The sixth-grader suffered a season-ending ACL tear in January but has played in all 11 games this season. He averages 7.2 points but scored 17 in an 80-69 win over Omaha on Nov. 14.

Kruger expected a deep frontcourt, but that wasn’t necessarily the case. The circumstances have allowed the players to demonstrate their resilience.

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

Kruger said center Pape N’Diaye did not practice 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 defenseman Jace Whiting (foot) played just two games after recovering.

Contact Callie Fin at [email protected]. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.

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WHO: Fresno State at UNLV

When: Saturday, 7 p.m

Where: Thomas & Mack Center

TV: SSSEN

Radio: KWWN (1100 AM, 100.9 FM)

Line: UNLV -16½; a total of 145½