Good news on the UNLV basketball recruiting front. Mojave High School guard Anthony Marshall, rated one of the nation’s top 75 prospects by Rebel Nation recruiting guru Bob Gibbons of Lenoir, N.C., today was named the Nevada state player of the year by Gatorade.

Since 1985, The Gatorade Company has recognized high school athletes in various sports, based on athletic and academic achievements. On Tuesday, the Boy’s Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year awards were announced.

The National Gatorade Player of the Year has yet to be announced.

Marshall signed a national letter of intent with UNLV during the early signing period in November and is expected to battle for immediate playing time on Lon Kruger’s squad next fall.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It was a fitting ending to a season of “almosts.”
The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (21-11), who almost made it three trips to the NCAA Tournament only to come up short because of a late season slide fueled by poor shooting, almost rallied from a 20-point second half deficit before eventually falling 70-60 to the Kentucky Wildcats in their first round National Invitation Tournament game on Tuesday night at famed Memorial Coliseum.
UNLV, behind some inspired bench play by senior Mo Rutledge (10 points, 5 rebounds) and Kendall Wallace (6 points), put together a 19-4 run midway through the second half to cut Kentucky’s lead to just three points, 60-57, with 4:02 remaining.
But thanks to some sloppy ball handling and poor shooting, the Rebels were outscored 10-0 down the stretch before senior guard Rene Rougeau ended the game — and UNLV’s season — with a meaningless 3-pointer with just 16 seconds to go.
Still, considering how badly things were going after 30 minutes, the fact the Rebels didn’t toss in the towel and had the sellout crowd of 8,327 squirming in their seats at the end could at least go down in the category of moral victories for Lon Kruger’s squad.
“It was an opportunity to make one of two choices, and our guys fought like crazy,” Kruger said.
“Give credit to Mo Rutledge and Kendall Wallace,” Rougeau said. “They really came off the bench and gave everyone some fire. Everyone was hustling and getting on the boards. That is how we should have been playing.”
Future NBA guard Jodie Meeks scored six of his game-high 19 points to key the late Kentucky spurt while all-SEC sophomore forward Patrick Patterson added a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
“We cut the lead down to three but we never quite got over the hump,” Kruger said. “We didn’t get the looks we wanted to and they did a good job of converting their free throws like good teams do. Meeks and Patterson are really good players. The more you watch them on film the more you grow to appreciate how hard they work and how tough they are.”
In what became an all-too-familiar pattern during the final two months of the season, UNLV once again dug itself too big of a hole to climb out of thanks to poor markmenship.
The Rebels shot below 40-percent (21-of-54, 38.9 percent) from the floor for the sixth time in seven games and were especially inept en route to a 36-24 halftime deficit.
UNLV, which actually jumped out to an early 9-2 lead, shot just 33.3 percent (10-of-30) from the floor and connected on just 3-of-17 3-pointers (17.6 percent) in the first half. Even worse, the Rebels were a dreadful 1-of-6 (16.7 percent) at the free throw line. UNLV also missed 11 straight treys after Joe Darger connected from behind the arc to give UNLV a 3-2 lead with 17:47 to go.
The Rebels bounced back to sink 7-of-8 foul shots in the second half but finished at just 57.1 percent (8-of-14) for the game.
“The whole season has been up and down,” senior guard Wink Adams, who led the Rebels with 14 points, said. “We have been struggling shooting the ball.”
Still Adams, who finished his career No. 6 on the all-time UNLV career scoring list with 1,875 points, was happy his team scrapped till the bitter end in his final game as a Rebel.
“I’m proud of my team for the way we fought,” Adams said. “We did all we could do to try to win the game. It always feels bad to lose, but at least you know in your heart that you played 100 percent.”

LEXINGTON — It would have been quite easy for UNLV to toss in the towel on its season early in the second half here after Kentucky took a 20-point lead, 50-30, on back-by-back dunks by Perry Stevenson and Patrick Patterson with 16:00 left.

But the Runnin’ Rebels, behind a pair of 3-pointers by both Wink Adams and Mo Rutledge, have rallied to cut the Wildcat lead to six points, 60-54, with 7:03 left, thanks to an 18-4 run.

Adams (14 points) and Rutledge (10 points), who missed Sunday’s team banquet because he was sick, have led the Rebel comeback before a noisy sellout crowd of 8,327 at Memorial Coliseum.

LEXINGTON — UNLV’s shooting woes, a major reason for the team’s late-season slide, have continued in the first half of tonight’s first round NIT game with Kentucky here at Memorial Coliseum.

The Rebels trail the Wildcats at halftime, 36-24.

UNLV has played well defensively for most of the game holding Kentucky’s two all-SEC performers, guard Jodie Meeks and forward Patrick Patterson, to seven and six points respectively. And they did it without first team all-MWC defender Rene Rougeau for most of the half after Rougeau picked up his second foul at the 13:30 mark.

But the Runnin’ Rebels, who jumped out to an early 9-2 lead, shot just 33.3 percent (10-of-30) from the floor and connected on just 3-of-17 3-pointers (17.6 percent).

Even worse, the Rebels were a dreadful 1-of-6 (16.7 percent) at the free throw line.

The Rebels missed 11 straight treys after Joe Darger connected from behind the arc to give UNLV a 3-2 lead with 17:47 to go.

Kentucky ended the half with a 17-6 run over the final 7:05 with UNLV’s only points coming on a pair of treys by Kendall Wallace and Darger.

Darger has 8 points to lead the Rebels.

LEXINGTON — If Kentucky head coach Billy Gillespie is to be believed, the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels can expect a “great” effort from the Wildcats in their first round NIT game at Memorial Coliseum here tonight.

That even though many Kentucky faithful were none too happy with how the season ended for their beloved Wildcats, who lost nine of their last 13 games and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991.

“Exiled to the Elba of college basketball,” is how Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader put it.

But Gillespie said that he believes his team “not very far away from being a great team, a special team. I wouldn’t doubt that it’ll happen in this tournament.”

Gillespie didn’t identify which game in the NIT but its win or go home tonight.

Speculation is that Gillespie, brought in to beef up the talent after the school forced out Tubby Smith, could be on the hot seat after just two years.

The fans are fired up for tonight’s game, the first played in 7,800 seat Memorial Coliseum since the team moved into Rupp Arena after the 1976 season. Rupp is hosting the state high school tournament this week and was unavailable. But the game sold out quickly despite the fact many people had to line up in the rain on Monday morning to get tickets.

These fans come early, too. The parking lot was filled about 75 minutes before tipoff. So expect a wild and crazy atmosphere tonight.

The fact that UNLV, one of the top seven or eight teams not to make the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, got only a No. 5 seed in the Creighton Bracket of the NIT later that day was a big surprise for many around the Thomas & Mack Center who were hoping to host a game Tuesday night.

The top four seeds in each region get to host a first round game. The Rebels? They have to fly all the way to Lexington, Ky., to play Tuesday night against perennial SEC heavyweight Kentucky. The game will start at 6:30 PST and be televised by ESPN.

But some Rebels, including team MVP Rene Rougeau, knew before the bracket was announced they would be headed east.

“It’s funny,” Rougeau said Sunday night. “I was with Chace (Stanback) and Matt (Shaw) got a text from Derrick saying that we were playing at Kentucky. And this was before the TV show had even started.”

Derrick is guard Derrick Jasper, a two-year starter for Kentucky who sat out this season at UNLV after deciding to transfer closer to his Paso Robles, Calif., home.

Obviously Jasper still has some pretty good sources back in the Bluegrass State.

“He’s going to be our best scouting report,” Rougeau said.

The Rebels, who will barely have time to get in a morning practice on Monday before making the long flight over three time zones to Kentucky, will face a Wildcats team that has two first team all-Southeastern Conference players in guard Jodie Meeks and 6-foot-8 forward Patrick Patterson.

“Meeks is a big-time scorer,” UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. “And Patrick Patterson is a tough inside player. They’re very long and athletic and they obviously have a lot of other very good players.”

Meeks ranks fifth in the nation with a 24.7 average and made national headlines when he scored 54 points in a January game at Tennessee, breaking Dan Issel’s 29-year-old school record in the process.

Patterson, one of the nation’s top 10 prep prospects two years ago who turned down schools like Duke, Florida and UConn to sign with the Wildcats, was the only player in the SEC to rank in the top five in both scoring (18.4 ppg) and rebounding (9.2 rpg). So it will be a tough matchup for UNLV, especially with little practice time and a lot of travel.

“We’re definitely glad to get the chance to play again,” Rougeau said.

Sunday afternoon began nicely enough for UNLV guard Rene Rougeau when he nudged out good friend Wink Adams for team MVP honors during the team’s awards banquet at Cox Pavilion.

“For sure I was surprised,” the 6-foot-6 senior, a member of the Mountain West Conference all-defensive team as well as a third team all-MWC pick, said of the honor voted on my his teammates. “Wink is my MVP without a doubt. But he was very happy for me.”

Then Rougeau and his teammates settled in to watch the NCAA Tournament Selection show. And even most in the crowd of about 1,000 knew it was a real longshot that the Rebels might land at-large berth, hopes rose a little when Louisville, which lost at home on New Year’s Eve to UNLV, was named the No. 1 overall seed for the tourney and MWC tri-champ Utah landed a little better than expected No. 5 seed.

But in the end, the Mountain West Conference landed only two teams in the Field of 65. BYU, a team the Runnin’ Rebels swept during the regular season, was a No. 8 seed in the West Regional.

“I can’t lie, I did,” Rougeau said of holding out hope until the last team, Temple, was revealed. “I was hoping that maybe the last bracket would come down to it. But that is how it goes sometimes. I even thought that San Diego State had a good shot. All we can do is cheer on Utah and BYU. Hopefully they can make a real good run for our conference and show people that our conference is really underrated.”

Now Rougeau and his teammates are waiting until the NIT bracket is announced at 6 p.m. on ESPNU.

“I’d love to see us, New Mexico and San Diego State all do a lot of damage in the NIT,” Rougeau said.

UPDATE: UNLV plays at Kentucky in the first round on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m on ESPN. The Rebels were the No. 5 seed in the Creighton bracket. The winner of the UNLV-Kentucky game will play the winner of Creighton-Bowling Green.

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.”

UNLV’s NCAA Tournament hopes could be half-gone.

The Runnin’ Rebels trail San Diego State, 42-27, at halftime of today’s Mountain West Conference Tournament quarterfinal matchup at the Thomas & Mack Center in what most view as a must-win game for Lon Kruger’s squad if they hope to take part in March Madness for a third straight year.

The Aztecs are simply overpowering the smaller Rebels inside. San Diego State holds a huge 22-4 edge in points in the paint and has repeatedly carved the Rebels up with drives to the basket.

UNLV fans can be thankful that senior guard Wink Adams finally emerged from his late-season slump or it would be a whole lot worse. Adams, who scored just three points in a season-ending 57-46 loss at San Diego State last Saturday night, already has 17 points at intermission. However, no other Rebel has more than three points and all-MWC guard Rene Rougeau, who played just eight minutes because of foul problems, is scoreless.

Ryan Amoroso and Lorrenzo Wade each scored nine points to lead San Diego State which also nailed 6-of-11 3-point tries.

It looked like a good omen for UNLV Thursday when slumping Wink Adams hit a 19-footer to give the Rebels a quick 2-0 lead against San Diego State in their Mountain West Conference Tournament quarterfinal.

But San Diego State answered with an 8-0 streak and Rebel star Rene Rougeau went to the bench with two fouls at the 16:31 mark and the Aztecs are dominating early at the Thomas & Mack, 26-14, with 7:30 remaining.

Fourteen of San Diego State’s 26 points have come on layups as the bigger Aztecs have dominated the Rebels in the paint. Senior center Ryan Amoroso already has 9 points to lead San Diego State.

The 2:30 tipoff for today’s Mountain West Conference Tournament quarterfinal game with San Diego State won’t hurt UNLV’s home court advantage too much.

Of the 9,000 or so fans on hand, only about 500 are from San Diego State. Another 1,000 or so are wearing BYU blue and no doubt will be rooting for the Aztecs, a team the Cougars swept this season. UNLV, meanwhile, swept BYU during the regular season.

The rest of the crowd — about 7,500 or so — cheered loudly when the Rebels took the floor.

One lineup change for today’s game. Green Valley High product Billy White returns to the starting lineup for the Aztecs for the first time in four games after suffering hyper extending his knee in a game at New Mexico. White came off the bench against UNLV last Saturday at Cox Arena.

If you think Saturday night’s loss at San Diego State knocked UNLV off the NCAA Tournament bubble, think again.

ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi, who usually comes within a team or two of predicting the NCAA Tournament’s field of 65 each year, still has Lon Kruger’s squad in his bracket that he released today.

In fact, Lunardi has four Mountain West teams in the tourney with a fifth — San Diego State — as his first team out.

Five MWC teams in the NCAA Tourney? Don’t count on it. But going by Lunardi’s calculations, that pretty much makes Thursday afternoon’s MWC Tourney quarterfinal rematch between the Rebels and Aztecs an NCAA Tourney elimination game.

Lunardi has both Utah and BYU comfortably in the tournament as No. 8 seeds while he has UNLV and New Mexico as No. 11 seeds. He has the Runnin’ Rebels playing Syracuse in Greensboro, N.C., as part of a Midwest Regional pod.

No doubt UNLV’s 56-55 upset of Big East champ Louisville still carries a lot of weight. Lunardi has Rick Pitino’s Cardinals as the No. 1 seed in the West Regional.

Lunardi’s last four teams in the tournament this week are New Mexico, South Carolina, Penn State and Arizona while San Diego State, Creighton, Florida and Miami are his first four teams out.

Of course, a lot of juggling can happen depending on how conference tournaments play out this week. But if the Rebels can at least get to the MWC Tourney finals, I’d like their chances to still go dancing for a third straight year. And they still might make it with just a win over the Aztecs on Thursday afternoon, especially if New Mexico should be upset by Wyoming later that night.

SAN DIEGO — While once again watching UNLV struggle to hit the 46-point mark for the second straight game  in Saturday night’s 57-46 loss to San Diego State, I couldn’t help but think: “Whatever happened to the Rebels team that won at Louisville and BYU earlier this year?”

While Rick Pitino’s Cardinals won an outright Big East title and Dave Rose’s Cougars celebrated a share of the Mountain West championship on Saturday night, Lon Kruger’s Rebels boarded a bus for a long five-hour trip home to Las Vegas with fifth place all wrapped up in the Mountain West Conference.

That’s right, fifth place. This for a team that was the consensus preseason choice to win the Mountain West Conference championship.

Instead, UNLV (21-9, 9-7),  which looked like a lock for an NCAA Tournament berth two weeks ago, limps into the Mountain West Tournament having lost five of its last nine games including both contests against quarterfinal opponent San Diego State (21-8, 11-5).

“Who knows man?” senior forward Rene Rougeau said asked where the UNLV team that defeated Louisville and BYU has gone. “We’ve just got to get better basically. The conference tournament is coming up. That’s all that we can worry about right now.”

Ah, the MWC Tournament. UNLV has won it the last two years at the Thomas & Mack and that has always been the team’s ace in the hole while it’s struggled to the finish line. But unless the Rebels can start hitting some shots with regularity, they won’t be around long enough to make it three in a row.

In its last five games, UNLV has shot 33.3, 30.0, 34.5, 44.4 and 35.5 percent from the floor. Ouch

“We’ve been inconsistent shooting the ball all year,” Kruger said. “Sometimes you just can’t afford to do that. This time of year you have to make plays.”

The Rebels played good enough defense again to win here, compiling 12 steals and forcing 20 turnovers while holding the Aztecs to just 35.5 percent (15-of-42) shooting. But UNLV’s offense once again was plain painful to watch as the Rebels shot just 33.3 percent (15-of-45) from the floor including 3-of-17 (17.6 percent) from 3-point range.

“I think I missed way too many shots tonight myself,” Rougeau, who was actually a respectable 5-of-11 from the floor en route to 12 points, said. “I have to really focus and lock in there. You’ll definitely see a better Rene Rougeau next time.”

UNLV fans can only hope they’ll see a much better Wink Adams on Thursday afternoon at 2:30.

Adams, the preseason conference co-player of the year, was pretty much invisible once again on the offensive end scoring just three points on 1-of-9 shooting. He didn’t score a point until 7:03 remained in the game on a free throw.

Adams has scored a total of 23 points in UNLV’s last three games, an average of just 7.8 points per game.

“They did a good job on me,” Adams said. “I didn’t really get a good look.

“We’re playing defense pretty good,” Adams continued. “That’s always a good thing. … If we shoot the ball well, play defense and get rebounds, we’ll be okay.”

Some mighty big “ifs” judging by recent performances.

“Everyone’s zero-zero now,” senior forward Joe Darger added. “We’ve got to go out and look at game film and the things we didn’t do very good in this game and get better.”

“Anything can happen in the conference tournament,” Rougeau said. “We’ve just got to keep our heads up.”

And hit a few more shots. Make that a lot more shots.

SAN DIEGO — Assuming UNLV can win its quarterfinal rematch with San Diego State on Thursday afternoon at 2:30, and assuming BYU knocks off Air Force as expected tonight in Provo, tonight’s UNLV-San Diego State game here at Cox Arena will decide the No. 1 seed as well as the No. 4 seed for the MWC Tourney.

The winner of the Rebel-Aztec game will be the No. 4 seed and the home team Thursday. The loser is locked into the No. 5 seed.

But a lot of eyes in Utah will be focused on the outcome. If UNLV wins, Utah will get the No. 1 seed in the tourney by virtue of its regular-season split with the Rebels while BYU was swept by UNLV. If San Diego State wins tonight, BYU will be the No. 1 seed by virtue of its sweep of the Aztecs during the regular season while Utah split with the Aztecs.

Barring an upset, the No. 1 seed will play the 4-5 winner at 6 p.m. on Friday night.

So Rebel fans, would you rather have a semifinal game against Utah or BYU?

I’d say Utah because that would mean UNLV will have won tonight’s game and taken a step closer to an NCAA at-large bid. And I’d rather go into the tourney off a good road win than off a loss.

–

Injury Update: San Diego State’s Billy White, who has missed the past three games after hyper-extending his knee at New Mexico, warmed up with the Aztecs tonight. It will be interesting to see if he plays, though, because he still appeared to have trouble bending the knee during pre-game stretching.

SAN DIEGO — UNLV is really playing for nothing more than what color jersey and what locker room it gets to use for Thursday’s 2:30 p.m. Mountain West Tournament quarterfinal when it faces San Diego State here tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Cox Arena.

Win or lose, Lon Kruger’s Rebels (21-8, 9-6) are locked in the 4 vs. 5 seed matchup with Steve Fisher’s Aztecs (20-8, 10-5). If UNLV wins, it will end up in a tie for fourth place with San Diego State in the final MWC standings but the Rebels would get the No. 4 seed … and the home uniforms … because they own the tiebreaker with the Aztecs by virtue of their regular season sweep of BYU.

BYU, Utah and New Mexico enter Saturday’s finales deadlocked at 11-4 at the top of the MWC standings and will likely end up in that order if all the home teams win tomorrow. New Mexico plays at Wyoming (18-11, 7-8) while BYU hosts winless Air Force (9-19, 0-15) and Utah plays slumping TCU (14-15, 5-10), which is just 3-9 on the road this season.

The bottom six teams are all locked into their slots for the tournament with the exception of UNLV and San Diego State who will play in the 4-5 game regardless. Wyoming is the No. 6 seed followed by TCU, Colorado State and Air Force.

So will be the No. 1, 2 and 3 seeds? Here are the scenarios.

BYU will get the No. 1 seed if it beats Air Force and San Diego State defeats UNLV at home. The Cougars would get the edge over Utah because they defeated the Aztecs twice during the regular season and seedings are based on who beat the higher-placed teams in the final standings.

However, if UNLV wins, it would be tied with the Aztecs but holds the tiebreak over the SDSU. Then Utah, if it defeats TCU, would be No. 1 because it beat UNLV once, while BYU was swept by the Rebels

Both the Utes and Cougars have the edge over New Mexico in any tiebreakers — BYU on the basis of its sweep of San Diego State and Utah on the basis of a higher RPI ranking, the next criteria when two teams have identical records of which teams they defeated.

If BYU, Utah and New Mexico all lose and San Diego State wins to create a four-way tie at 11-5, San Diego State would be the odd team out because of its two losses to BYU, which would be No. 1.