What Brandon Mccoy’s departure means for UNLV

As was widely expected, UNLV freshman Brandon Mccoy declared for the NBA Draft earlier this week, bringing his collegiate career with the Runnin’ Rebels to an end after one season.

Replacing Mccoy’s offensive production won’t be easy. The 7-foot-tall Chicago native who was a widely heralded high school recruit out of San Diego was UNLV’S top scorer, and he did it with great efficiency (54.5 percent from the field, 1.011 points per possession).

He also carried a huge load on a nightly basis, registering a team-high usage rate of 27.5 percent. Can the Rebels possibly replace that next season?

One man probably won’t be able to duplicate Mccoy’s statistics. But the combination of Shakur Juiston and Mbacke Diong might be able to assume most of Mccoy’s minutes without much of an overall drop in play.

Juiston was Mccoy’s equal offensively in 2017-18, posting 14.6 points on 63.9 percent shooting, and he finished second in usage rate at 21.7 percent. Given a few more offensive opportunities, Juiston should be able to bump his scoring up to Mccoy’s range as a senior next year.

On the other end of the court, Mccoy was not much of a factor and was sometimes benched in favor of the more defensive-minded Diong in late-game situations. Assuming Diong is able to reduce his foul rate and play more minutes (he committed a team-high 8.6 fouls per 40 minutes late year), the improved defense could help make up for the loss of Mccoy’s offense.

It won’t be easy, but given coach Marvin Menzies’ track record of getting the absolute most out of his big men, it’s reasonable to believe he’ll be able to make a Juiston/diong platoon work for the Rebels.

Scholarship situation

Four Rebels are exiting the program: Mccoy (NBA), Jordan Johnson (graduation), Jovan Mooring (graduation) and