Rebels counting on a miracle now

Well, the folks at the Mountain West Conference don’t have to worry about UNLV fans storming the court at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday now.

That is, of course, unless it is after Kathy Olivier’s overachieving Lady Rebels win the women’s title.

But after a 71-57 MWC Tournament quarterfinal loss to San Diego State on Thursday afternoon, Lon Kruger’s  Runnin’ Rebels (21-10), who looked like a lock to make it to the NCAA Tournament for a third straight year, probably don’t have to worry about taking part in March Madness now.

The Runnin’ Rebels will gather on Sunday afternoon at the Cox Pavilion for their usual team banquet. But don’t look for many of them to stick around to watch the NCAA Selection Show on the big screen afterward. Not with the odds that this team is facing to get an at-large invitation the Big Dance.

“All we can do is hope for a miracle right now,” senior guard Rene Rougeau said when asked about his team’s NCAA chances. “We definitely had some quality wins. Without a doubt we for sure have had some tough losses.  … All we can do is just pray that we can get in.”

The Rebels do have some nice numbers to hang their hat on including a very glossy 4-1 record against Top 25 RPI teams (Louisville, Utah and BYU) and a 7-6 mark against Top 100 RPI teams.

Compare that to some of the schools that ESPN has been touting as bubble teams the last few weeks and the Rebels have a big edge in most cases. But UNLV plays in the Mountain West Conference, not the Big East or Big Ten, so those marks probably will likely be overlooked.

The numbers that are going to haunt the Rebels are 2-4 in their last six games, including back-to-back losses to fellow MWC bubble team San Diego State, and a disappointing fifth place finish in league play.

Obviously, this isn’t what people we’re expecting after won road games at eventual Big East champ Louisville and eventual Mountain West tri-champ BYU in a three-week span three months ago. But the Rebels countered that with lackluster road losses at Colorado State, TCU and Wyoming and were 0-3 against the Aztecs.

“Yeah, I thought we were just up and down all year,” Kruger said. “I don’t know that we ever had a stretch where we say week after week after week we consistently did things better. That’s obviously what you’re looking for every year. We didn’t.”

“At the end of the season you never want to say, ‘I wish I could have did this at the beginning of the season,’” guard Wink Adams said. “That’s what we’re doing now. We think we could have played harder in a lot of games that we lost. I mean, we’ve just been up and down and shaky.

“It’s really tough. Everybody wants to make the NCAA Tournament. But you just have got to wait and see what happens on Sunday.”

Kruger was asked by a reporter to make a case for his team to be picked for the NCAA Tournament.

“I’m not going to give any committee the reason to not select us, but I don’t know that we’ve done the things at this point that you’d sit there on Sunday expecting to be in,” Kruger said.

NIT anybody?

“Whatever happens, whether we do make it to the NCAA Tournament or the NIT, all we can do is just make the most of that basically,” Rougeau said. “It doesn’t matter where we go. We still can make a lot of noise regardless.”