UNLV Does Like Winning

UNLV blew a golden opportunity over the weekend to establish themselves as worthy of the Top 25. Instead, they suffered home losses to Cal and Cincinnati. But sometimes you can't measure the true mark of a team until they are faced with adversity.

The Runnin' Rebels went on the road and won at Fresno State on Tuesday night, showing some grit that they failed to show over the weekend. Of course, the win was over Fresno State. Not like it was one of the elite teams in college hoops. But it was still a dangerous opponent playing at home. That's nothing to be ashamed of. You hate to to label a December game as "must win," especially in college basketball. But coach Lon Kruger really need to keep this thing from snowballing and he did.

Former coach Jerry Tarkanian had an interesting take on why the Rebels were struggling -- they have too many good players. Yeah, uh, they were too good.

"I've seen some of UNLV's basketball games, lately, and I think (coach) Lon Kruger is feeling his way right now. He sure has a lot of talent. I never had that many players. I never wanted that many players. Every guy on his team is a player, so that might take you longer. You have to give them all a shot.

"I always went into the season knowing who my top eight or nine players would be. DeShawn Mitchell has looked absolutely super. That kid who transferred from UCLA, Chace Stanback ... I couldn't believe they didn't have room for him at UCLA. He's a big-time player and I can't wait to see him next season.

"Fans will have to be patient. But I believe Lon will have a very good team."

Hmm, you still have to defer to the coach on this one. And he is right. Kruger is going to have to find the right combination of players and establish his substitution patterns. The problem is, we at the 'House are pretty high on UNLV, so there are expectations there. We want to see wins right now.

Some other games of note:

• Utah continues to put together some impressive wins, knocking off Oregon, 95-81. Hard not to like Utah right now, but the true barometer game will come on Dec. 10 when they face Cal.

• Wyoming jumped out to a 5-0 record playing some of the Sisters of the Poor like CS Bakersfield. But the Cowboys earned more respect by hanging tough with defending WAC tournament champion Boise State before losing, 86-85.

• Colorado was smacked around by TCU. Wow, is Jeff Bzdelik enjoying his career jump? He should have stayed at Air Force.

• That was about as much as you could expect out of New Mexico State, who lost at Kansas. Marvin Menzies has a unique situation going at in Las Cruces, but at least he rid himself of Herb Pope. Jahmar Young is better anyway.