Rebels can punch their NCAA ticket with a win tonight

SALT LAKE CITY — It says here that UNLV can begin making preparations for a third straight NCAA Tournament if the Runnin’ Rebels can knock off first place and well rested Utah (19-7, 10-2) tonight here at the Huntsmen Center.

UNLV (20-7, 8-5) is up to a No. 8 seed in this week’s Bracketology by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi following their big 75-74 win over BYU, completing a rare regular season sweep of the Cougars. Lunardi, who is usually within a team or two correctly predicting the 65-team field each year, has the Rebels playing Georgetown in Kansas City in a West Regional pod this week with the winner probably playing No. 1 seeded Oklahoma and Player of the Year shoe-in Blake Griffin.

Lunardi has four Mountain West teams in including BYU and Utah, which started the week with the No. 11 RPI in the nation according to collegerpi.com. If the Rebels win tonight, that would give them six wins against teams in the collegerpi.com Top 50 and three against teams in the Top 12 – 2 against No. 11 Utah and one against No. 12 Louisville on the road without their top player, Wink Adams. The Rebels also swept No. 30 BYU and knocked off No. 42 Arizona at the Thomas & Mack in December.

That’s a pretty impressive resume. UNLV also would have swept two teams from the Mountain West currently projected to be pretty good seeds in the NCAA Tourney in Utah and BYU.

The Rebels can expect the best shot from Luke Nevill and company tonight. Utah has had a full week off to prepare for this one since defeating Colorado State in overtime in Fort Collins, 89-79, on Feb. 18.

The headline in today’s Salt Lake Tribune also is bound to garner attention: “Murderers’ row.” It features pictures of Wink Adams, BYU’s Lee Cummard and New Mexico’s Tony Danridge, the top three players for Utah’s next three opponents. Both BYU and New Mexico are on the road. The Utes finish up with slumping TCU at home.

“We know everybody’s coming out, and they’re gunning for us,” Utah guard Lawrence Bohra said. “We have to be ready to take everybody’s best shot, and I think we are ready.”