Rebels’ first step forward needs to be self-awareness

Tfinal horn sounded Thursday and an admirable UNLV effort had been squelched by a better opponent, meaning it was again time to assess another basketball season.

Meaning a certain mindset continues to hold the Rebels back: UNLV believes it’s something that it hasn’t been in decades.

The Rebels view themselves above certain aspects within college basketball.

They’re not above anything right now, and if they truly think so, they’re kidding themselves.

The only thing that comes close to the 1990s around here are those banners hanging from the rafters.

UNLV showed up enough to make a game of it, but ultimately fell to UNR 79-74 in a Mountain West tournament quarterfinal at the

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pected to receive a bid to the National Invitation Tournament, and coach Marvin Menzies indicated a lesser tournament was out of the question.

“I don’t have the zeal to play in those tournaments for a host of reasons,” Menzies said.

UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-francois confirmed that the Rebels would not accept an invitation to a lower tournament.

UNR (27-6), which two years ago won the College Basketball Invitational, took another step toward its second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. The MW tournament appears to be a matter of improving its NCAA seeding, but coach Eric Musselman isn’t taking anything for granted.

“Until you see your name Sunday, you’re not in,” he said. “I keep telling the guys every day that, my wife, my two sons, my daughter. We’re not in. I don’t want to hear it. We’ve got to keep winning.”

The Wolf Pack won Thursday after falling behind by 12 points early in the second half. But UNLV starting guards Mooring and Jordan Johnson each collected four fouls, forcing Menzies to juggle his lineup with almost 14 minutes remaining.

Menzies also lost track of timeouts, calling his final one with 9:52 left. He said he probably mistook the number of fouls on the scoreboard for the number of timeouts remaining, and an assistant coach alerted him too late about the error.

“I messed up,” Menzies said. On the other end, Musselman switched 6-foot-7-inch Cody Martin to guard the 6-2 Mooring in the second half. Mooring made three 3-pointers in the first half and scored 13 points, evoking memories of his 31-point performance in UNLV’S 8678 victory Feb. 7 in Reno.

With Martin guarding him in the second half, Mooring took only four shots and went scoreless.

“Not often you can put a four-man and tell him to now guard a combo guard,” Musselman said. “I thought he forced Mooring into some really, really difficult shots, especially late in the game.”

Kris Clyburn picked up the slack,