For UNLV skeleton crew, trying season comes down to MWC Tourney

UNLV Rebels head coach Kevin Kruger talks with players during the second half of an NCAA basketball game against the UNR Wolf Pack at the Thomas & Mack Center Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. Players from left: forward Jeremiah Cherry, guard Jaden Henley and guard Brooklyn Hicks. Photo by Steve Marcus

This season has not gone as planned for the UNLV men's basketball team.

It started before the first game was played, when senior forward Rob Whaley suffered a back injury in practice that eventually limited him to just two games and 23 total minutes. A lackluster nonconference showing followed, all but knocking the Scarlet and Gray out of NCAA Tournament contention before the midpoint of the season.

An up-and-down conference trek was highlighted by a season sweep of rival San Diego State and lowlighted by a home loss to Wyoming. Rebounds were hard to come by. Star sophomore D.J. Thomas got hurt, and when the team seemed to defy all logic by surging in his absence, starting wing Julian Rishwain also went down in the regular-season finale.

That leaves UNLV with six healthy rotation players heading into this week’s Mountain West Tournament, where Kevin Kruger will need to guide his skeleton crew to four wins in four grueling days in order to get the program back to the big dance for the first time in 12 years.

It starts on Wednesday, as No. 6 UNLV takes on No. 11 Air Force at the Thomas & Mack Center in the play-in round, and despite all the tribulations and backsliding over the past four months, the players still believe they possess all the ingredients needed to whip up a miracle run.

Junior forward Jaden Henley said the team was not shying away from the goal it set at the beginning of the season, before the complications began.

“We want to win the Mountain West Tournament,” Henley said. “It’s right here on our home floor, so why not win it all?”

That would have been a tall task to a completely as a healthy UNLV team. Now with the roster down to its bare bones, it will take a superhuman effort from the six remaining contributors — and it will have to be on the defensive end.

Kruger has preached defense all season, but especially since Thomas went down with a shoulder injury on Feb. 15. As UNLV closed its ranks, it held its final five opponents to 42.1% shooting from the field and went 3-2 to close the year.

Kruger said the shortened rotation has allowed the Scarlet and Gray to play as a cohesive unit.

“When you’ve got guys in and out of the lineup it’s a lot easier to focus on the defensive side and I think get some camaraderie there and some chemistry there,” Kruger said.

The issue UNLV will undoubtedly face in the Mountain West Tournament is fatigue. After Rishwain was injured early in Friday's game against New Mexico, the Scarlet and Gray were able to hang tough — until the final stretch, when New Mexico scored on eight of its last 11 possessions against a tired UNLV defense to pull away for an 81-67 win.

UNLV was outscored, 16-3, over the final 6:28.

With Rishwain out, UNLV will likely start sophomore Brooklyn Hicks and senior Jailen Bedford in the backcourt this week, with Henley and senior Jalen Hill on the wings and junior Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry at center. The only healthy reserve is freshman center Pape N’Diaye; if Kruger wants to give his front court a breather he can call on seldom-used junior center Isaiah Cottrell. Beyond that, the only guards and wings available are walk-ons.

So don’t expect UNLV to morph into the Runnin’ squads of the '80s and '90s this week. Instead, an already leaden team (No. 265 in KenPom’s adjusted tempo) is going to slow it down even more and try to grind it out on defense.

Kruger remains adamant that copious amounts of grit will be the key to advancing.

“There’s a clear understanding that if we want to win games, we’ve got to guard people,” Kruger said. “Defensively the guys are doing what they need to do to help each other out, and we’ve had a lot of really good defensive possessions lately.”

If the Scarlet and Gray are able to beat Air Force on Wednesday, they’ll advance to take on No. 3 Utah State in the quarterfinals. An upset there would move them on to the semis, where No. 2 Colorado State will likely be waiting. UNLV defeated Utah State this season, splitting the series against the Aggies while going 0-2 against Colorado State.

Henley doesn’t consider UNLV to be a Cinderella candidate, even with everything that has gone awry this season.

“We already have enough confidence that we can beat anybody on any night,” Henley said. “People kind of count us out a lot even though we have those marquee wins. We have to continue to go out and prove it.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.