Maybe Dr. Phil can figure out these Rebels

LARAMIE – Paging Dr. Phil. Do we have a case of split personalities for you.

The 2008-09 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels.

The team that won impressive road games this season at Big East heavyweight Louisville, WAC contender Nevada and BYU in the Marriott Center once again exhibited the dark side of its duo personas on Wednesday night here at the Arena-Auditorium, losing to woeful Wyoming, 77-68.

Thanks to the loss, the Rebels (19-7, 7-5) fell three full games behind Mountain West Conference leader Utah (19-7, 10-2) with just four games to go and completed what before the season seemed like the most unlikely of trifectas — losing road games to MWC bottom-feeders Colorado State, TCU and Wyoming.

Wednesday night’s loss to the Cowboys (15-10, 4-7), who had lost their previous four games by an average of 18.5 points per game, was a microcosm of the season.

The Rebels once again looked uninspired at the start, missed their first 13 3-point tries, and found themselves on the verge of getting blown out by a team they had just handled with ease (83-66) on Jan. 21 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

UNLV trailed by 17 points, 55-38, with 11:11 to go before the light seeming went on. The Rebels, who forced 24 turnovers in the game, went on a 20-6 run and cut the Cowboy lead to just three points, 61-58, on a Joe Darger 3-pointer with 3:37 left.

But that was close as UNLV would get. Wyoming guard Sean Ogirri came right back and drilled a 3-pointer from the right side of the key and the Rebels never got any closer the rest of the way.

Afterward, senior guard Wink Adams, who scored 18 points but was 6-of-16 from the floor, blamed his team’s early shooting woes on the thin air (elevation 7,220 feet). Really.

The altitude certainly didn’t affect Wyoming guard Brandon Ewing. The 6-foot-3 senior, who likely will win his third straight Mountain West Conference scoring crown, torched the Rebels for 29 points, including 5-of-8 3-pointers.

That’s the same Brandon Ewing who scored just 7 points in the first meeting against the Rebels.

“This team is tired of losing,” Ewing said. “We wanted to make a statement. Big-time players step up and in big-time games, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

And that’s what UNLV’s big-time players didn’t do. Again.

The Rebels, looking like a team lacking a true on-court leader in the Kevin Kruger or Curtis Terry mold, were plain awful offensively at the start, missing all 12 of their 3-point tries in the first half while shooting just 30.3 percent (10-of-33). Yet they only trailed by 10 points, 35-25, at intermission because they forced 15 first half turnovers.

“It’s real frustrating seeing that at the beginning of the game that it was there for the taking and we just didn’t attack,” senior guard Rene Rougeau said. “We settled for way too many jumpers tonight. It’s very frustrating.”

“It is very frustrating,” Darger said when asked about his team’s slow start. “Especially at this point of the season. Every game is huge for us and we came out and didn’t play well tonight. We’ve got to bounce back for BYU (on Saturday night).”

That’s what is whacky about this team. It wouldn’t surprise me to see them bounce back and rebound with a big win over the Cougars on Saturday night, then upset Utah in Salt Lake City before losing at home to winless Air Force.

The Rebels are this year’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of college basketball.

Here’s hoping it’s the good Doctor who shows up the rest of the season.