The UNLV men’s basketball team is preparing for their first-round game in the Mountain West tournament, against the 10th seeded Air Force Falcons. The game tips off on Wednesday at 1:30 pm on the Mountain West Network.
Despite only having a 5-19 record for the season, the Falcons gave the 7th seeded Runnin' Rebels some trouble back on February 8th. UNLV eked out a 69-64 victory at the Thomas & Mack Center, for a season sweep. If they get past the Falcons, the Rebels would meet No. 2 seed Utah State in the quarterfinals on Thursday at 6 p.m.
"We’re excited to have the opportunity to have the chance to play for the conference tournament, especially on our home floor,” Head Coach T.J Otzelberger said. “We know that with Air Force we had two hard-fought games not too long ago. We know guarding the Princeton offense and their match-up zone defense posed unique challenges, but we’ve been hard at work these last few days.”
After tying for second place in the Mountain West regular-season standings last year, UNLV entered the 2020-2021 season with an almost entirely new roster. Ten out of 13 scholarship players had yet to play in a game for the Runnin’ Rebels.
Players that returned this year included senior Mbacke Diong, and junior guards Marvin Coleman and Bryce Hamilton. Coleman was lost for the season on January 16th, after suffering a stress fracture in his right leg.
Junior transfer guard David Jenkins Jr., sophomore transfer forward Moses Wood, and walk-on junior guard Trey Hurlburt, also returned for this season. Seven out of the nine new faces on this year’s team are freshmen, including Mountain West preseason newcomer of the year, David Jenkins, Jr.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Runnin Rebels went 33 days between games, before they were able to resume their season against Colorado State on January 7. Since resuming play, they have competed in a total of 20 games in a 58-day span.
UNLV closed the regular season with a home split series against Fresno State and lost two make-up games last week against San Diego State at home and on the road to Wyoming.
"I think they have had that sense of urgency and I think for most of them we talked a lot about- we know where we’re at,” Coach Otzelberger said. “We are on our court, even though it doesn’t have the same logos on it, it’s a chance for us to play our best basketball and really take that step and build some momentum even though it’s towards the end.”
Tomorrow’s opening round game can also be heard live on ESPN Radio 1100 in Las Vegas, and all streaming links and live stats will be available at UNLVRebels.com.
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