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UNLV2001

Pepperdine at UNLV = Canceled

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3 hours ago, Aslowhiteguy said:

We have 11 new players.  Everybody has new players.  It's only vegas who uses it as an excuse.  They do it pretty much every year.  Regardless who is coaching them. 

Vegas will always lead the league in excuses. 

Thats one thing I get irritated about with UNLV fans in general (not talking about 4UNLV who is a great fan). So many seem to be 1,000 times more invested in recruiting than the actual games/ season, and always have the excuses and "it'll be better next year" ready when things inevitably don't turn out as planned. Been hearing the same thing for a quarter century now ever since I became a Rebel fan in '95, probably the main reason i'm not all that interested in recruiting.

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Just now, VincentVegaBond said:

Thats one thing I get irritated about with UNLV fans in general (not talking about 4UNLV who is a great fan). So many seem to be 1,000 times more invested in recruiting than the actual games/ season, and always have the excuses and "it'll be better next year" ready when things inevitably don't turn out as planned. Been hearing the same thing for a quarter century now ever since I became a Rebel fan in '95, probably the main reason i'm not all that interested in recruiting.

The Rebs always win the off season. 

"Don't underestimate Joe Biden's ability to F@*k things up."

Barack Obama

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Just now, Aslowhiteguy said:

The Rebs always win the off season. 

Also funny that by far the most successful period in post-Tark UNLV history (Kruger's last 5 years) coincided with massive whining from the recruiting experts of how bad our recruiting was at the time instead of enjoying the, ya know, games that counted. So many seem to much prefer dreams of a future that never happened rather than the present when the present was dam good.

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3 minutes ago, VincentVegaBond said:

Also funny that by far the most successful period in post-Tark UNLV history (Kruger's last 5 years) coincided with massive whining from the recruiting experts of how bad our recruiting was at the time instead of enjoying the, ya know, games that counted. So many seem to much prefer dreams of a future that never happened rather than the present when the present was dam good.

Vegas never really appreciated Lon until he left.  Things really went downhill for Lon when Charles Barkley called UNLV the "Walking Rebels" to needle Greg Anthony. 

Wasn't Rice's best season was when he had LK's recruits on the floor?  IN the following years, his big, shiny, recruits with all their stars, never really panned out.    

Kruger was always a class act.  Maybe some day Kevin will coach the Rebels.  

 

"Don't underestimate Joe Biden's ability to F@*k things up."

Barack Obama

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2 minutes ago, Aslowhiteguy said:

Vegas never really appreciated Lon until he left.  Things really went downhill for Lon when Charles Barkley called UNLV the "Walking Rebels" to needle Greg Anthony. 

Wasn't Rice's best season was when he had LK's recruits on the floor?  IN the following years, his big, shiny, recruits with all their stars, never really panned out.    

Kruger was always a class act.  Maybe some day Kevin will coach the Rebels.  

 

I was in the minority when I was sad to see Lon go and worried about regression, but I never imagined we would regress so horribly. Rice was a disaster of biblical proportions and set us back decades.

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Just now, VincentVegaBond said:

I was in the minority when I was sad to see Lon go and worried about regression, but I never imagined we would regress so horribly. Rice was a disaster of biblical proportions and set us back decades.

You were one of the wise Rebel's.  Some of the guys here were happy to see him go.  I recall one guy saying "Lon is a good coach.  He's just not a good Rebel coach."  That was back when your fans only wanted a coach who would play up tempo ball and they wanted a coach with a connection to Tark.  

 

 

 

"Don't underestimate Joe Biden's ability to F@*k things up."

Barack Obama

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22 hours ago, quickdraw said:

1 positive within the program and no one plays. Damn equipment manager 'head coach'

While football can play with tens of players down it seems that MBB has a much lower threshold to cancel a game. Once conference play starts this type of thing will cancel 2 games at a time. It’s going to be an interesting season.

 

Post edited for @quickdraw

"Make a mistake once and it becomes a lesson, make the same mistake twice and it becomes a choice."
 

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5 minutes ago, VincentVegaBond said:

Also funny that by far the most successful period in post-Tark UNLV history (Kruger's last 5 years) coincided with massive whining from the recruiting experts of how bad our recruiting was at the time instead of enjoying the, ya know, games that counted. So many seem to much prefer dreams of a future that never happened rather than the present when the present was dam good.

Speaking of games that counted, how was Kruger’s last game at UNLV? Everyone acting like Lon put a great product on the floor but consistency was a problem. Some of Lons recruits were sent packing, most notably Beas Hamgas, a 5 star recruit. That fiasco probably impacted Lon’s outlook on recruiting at UNLV. 

It wasn’t until his son transferred to UNLV did things click. If Kruger jr stayed at ASU, Lon’s days would certainly be numbered. 

There were a lot of WTF moments and lack of adjustments in games that actually mattered. The lack of recruiting was just one facet that led UNLV to not extend Lon. We had a frugal AD, bad recession.
 

Bottom line is, Kruger is a good coach who wasn’t a fit at UNLV but was comfortable in Las Vegas and was building another mansion expecting to stay in town for a long time. He was shocked UNLV didn’t offer much in response to Oklahoma’s offer and let him go, probably served as a wake up call for him. 

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49 minutes ago, Rosegreen said:

Speaking of games that counted, how was Kruger’s last game at UNLV? Everyone acting like Lon put a great product on the floor but consistency was a problem. Some of Lons recruits were sent packing, most notably Beas Hamgas, a 5 star recruit. That fiasco probably impacted Lon’s outlook on recruiting at UNLV. 

At least he played in some games that counted.  UNLV was consistently a top-tier MWC team although we never won the league with Lon were consistently playing meaningful games to decide the conference.  Plus, we actually played in NCAA tourney games nearly every year, something that seems so far out of reach at the moment it's beyond imagination.

Lon's teams weren't Duke or Kentucky, but jeez, compared to the burning dumpster fire Rice induced and continued through Mediocre Marv and into today, he certainly put a "great product" on the floor by comparison.

44 minutes ago, Aslowhiteguy said:

Maybe for vegas too.  They haven't been able to hire a decent coach since he got ran out of town. 

 

Not giving up on TJ yet.  Looks like he made some bad decisions with roster management but I think the COVID f'd us up more than most teams, tbh.  His decision not to have anyone practice together in the offseason is head-scratching to say the least, but can't give him too much heat for it cuz we are in absolutely unprecedented times.  I really liked what I saw from him last year and hopefully he can turn this raggidy-ass ship around.

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1 hour ago, VincentVegaBond said:

At least he played in some games that counted.  UNLV was consistently a top-tier MWC team although we never won the league with Lon were consistently playing meaningful games to decide the conference.  Plus, we actually played in NCAA tourney games nearly every year, something that seems so far out of reach at the moment it's beyond imagination.

Lon's teams weren't Duke or Kentucky, but jeez, compared to the burning dumpster fire Rice induced and continued through Mediocre Marv and into today, he certainly put a "great product" on the floor by comparison.

Such a low bar, was that worth 1.75-2.5 million annually? Think about this, Lon got blown out by Illinois and Dave Rice took the same exact team the following year to beat the #1 ranked Tar Heels ( a blue blood program), destroyed #19 Illinois (yeah that school that embarrassed Lon) and #23 SDSU. 

Not saying the Rice hire was the right one but it’s saying something when Rice comes in and gets better results with the same squad. 

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12 minutes ago, Rosegreen said:

Such a low bar, was that worth 1.75-2.5 million annually? Think about this, Lon got blown out by Illinois and Dave Rice took the same exact team the following year to beat the #1 ranked Tar Heels ( a blue blood program), destroyed #19 Illinois (yeah that school that embarrassed Lon) and #23 SDSU. 

Not saying the Rice hire was the right one but it’s saying something when Rice comes in and gets better results with the same squad. 

Yeah those wins were all fantastic I agree. Too bad they always came early in the year and preceeded massive underachievement in conference and postseason, like that year when they lost to 11th seeded and inferior Colorado team in the 1st round.  

Lon was no world beater, you get no argument from me there. But his teams did generally improve as the season went along and outside that abysmal beat down to Illinois in the NCAA in Tulsa (that remains the only NCAA tourney game i've attended in person, which is a tough pill to swallow) were competitive in the tourney and actually even won some games.

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3 hours ago, VincentVegaBond said:

I was in the minority when I was sad to see Lon go and worried about regression, but I never imagined we would regress so horribly. Rice was a disaster of biblical proportions and set us back decades.

I was around the Rebel-Net boards back then - Remember lots posters saying Lon had reached his peak at UNLV & wasn't getting the big shot recruits & clamoring for Dave Rice like he was the 2nd coming of Tark and then have basically most of the 1990 team return as assistants or in some capacity around the program. The yearning for Tark 2.0 was extremely strong on Rebel-net & anything less was heresy 

Then they got their Rice & he ended up getting fried despite landing top 50 recruits - The boosters were antsy & panicked to get back to glory & they had a short leash when Rice was coming in 7th in the MWC with top 25 recruiting classes............then failed Chris beard fiasco then the bandaid Menzies era, then the AD changes from TKM & here we are. 

I'm not sure if the old boosters still have much say in the program like they used to, but that bunch that had more money than sense really didn't help UNLV at all with their meddling & behind the scenes manipulation.

After Kruger, Rice was the booster, fan base golden boy, who I suppose needed to get his turn, it just seemed inevitable as the over riding hardcore fan & boosters had to have some tie to the 1986-1991 era like that was the magical ingredient needed to return to glory.

Can't blame Menzies because he got the brunt of the Beard, TKM, Boosters clusterfvck machinations...........so here we are with a coach from a small time program who's trying it his way while the reality is, the UNLV of 1977-1991 is 43 to 29 years in the past............so the ties to those days is literally fading from the populaces memory (adding 5 years , you have to be 34/35 years old at minimum to recall UNLV winning the National title) the big $$ boosters from the 1977 final four are all probably in the grave.

 

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12 minutes ago, VincentVegaBond said:

Yeah those wins were all fantastic I agree. Too bad they always came early in the year and preceeded massive underachievement in conference and postseason, like that year when they lost to 11th seeded and inferior Colorado team in the 1st round.  

Lon was no world beater, you get no argument from me there. But his teams did generally improve as the season went along and outside that abysmal beat down to Illinois in the NCAA in Tulsa (that remains the only NCAA tourney game i've attended in person, which is a tough pill to swallow) were competitive in the tourney and actually even won some games.

Was the odd thing about the Rice era.....he'd get some big wins, then finish 7th in the MWC later in the same season :shrug:  ( with a more seasoned team ) 

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38 minutes ago, UNLV2001 said:

I was around the Rebel-Net boards back then - Remember lots posters saying Lon had reached his peak at UNLV & wasn't getting the big shot recruits & clamoring for Dave Rice like he was the 2nd coming of Tark and then have basically most of the 1990 team return as assistants or in some capacity around the program. The yearning for Tark 2.0 was extremely strong on Rebel-net & anything less was heresy 

Then they got their Rice & he ended up getting fried despite landing top 50 recruits - The boosters were antsy & panicked to get back to glory & they had a short leash when Rice was coming in 7th in the MWC with top 25 recruiting classes............then failed Chris beard fiasco then the bandaid Menzies era, then the AD changes from TKM & here we are. 

I'm not sure if the old boosters still have much say in the program like they used to, but that bunch that had more money than sense really didn't help UNLV at all with their meddling & behind the scenes manipulation.

After Kruger, Rice was the booster, fan base golden boy, who I suppose needed to get his turn, it just seemed inevitable as the over siding hardcore fan & boosters had to have some tie to the 1986-1991 era like that was the magical ingredient needed to return to glory.

Can't blame Menzies because he got the brunt of the Beard, TKM, Boosters clusterfvck machinations...........so here we are with a coach from a small time program who's trying it his way while the reality is, the UNLV of 1977-1991 is 43 to 29 years in the past............so the ties to those days is literally fading from the populaces memory (adding 5 years , you have to be 34/35 years old at minimum to recall UNLV winning the National title) the big $$ boosters from the 1977 final four are all probably in the grave.

 

Yeah, I don't blame Menzies at all, for the most part he is what we thought he was.

I'm admittedly bitter about what Rice did to our program though I know he put his heart into it and tried his best. When you have the social skills of a 4-year old, it was always gonna be tough to be a leader of men.

Great post 2001.... in short the old school- die hard fan base just got greedy, Lon just wasn't enough and they still felt our potential was Tark.  

It's so deeply embarrassing that with our top notch arena and practice facilities, location and ties to NBA- USA hoops and AAU, solid local talent, we've mostly had a dumpster fire program the past decade in spite of all that.  But Kruger wasn't good enough.

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7 minutes ago, VincentVegaBond said:

Yeah, I don't blame Menzies at all, for the most part he is what we thought he was.

I'm admittedly bitter about what Rice did to our program though I know he put his heart into it and tried his best. When you have the social skills of a 4-year old, it was always gonna be tough to be a leader of men.

Great post 2001.... in short the old school- die hard fan base just got greedy, Lon just wasn't enough and they still felt our potential was Tark.  

It's so deeply embarrassing that with our top notch arena and practice facilities, location and ties to NBA- USA hoops and AAU, solid local talent, we've mostly had a dumpster fire program the past decade in spite of all that.  But Kruger wasn't good enough.

I think Dave Rice was thrust into a job he wasn't quite ready for just because of who he was, the era he played in & the power brokers wanting it - Rice probably would have been better off to get a HC job somewhere at a smaller program to get his coaching chops & then if he was even moderately successful, maybe UNLV gives him a try.

I also don't put it past the boosters of the Rice days to have picked him as their golden boy so they could gladhand & get cozy with the program like it probably was under Tark - i.e. they could sort of direct Rice to their whims, he was that nubile & new to the position & the boosters still saw him as the "kid" on the end of the bench .......this last part is just my speculation, but I could see that being the case where his hiring gave the boosters the upper hand & sawy they might never have had under Kruger 

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5 minutes ago, UNLV2001 said:

I think Dave Rice was thrust into a job he wasn't quite ready for just because of who he was, the era he played in & the power brokers wanting it - Rice probably would have been better off to get a HC job somewhere at a smaller program to get his coaching chops & then if he was even moderately successful, maybe UNLV gives him a try.

I also don't put it past the boosters of the Rice days to have picked him as their golden boy so they could gladhand & get cozy with the program like it probably was under Tark - i.e. they could sort of direct Rice to their whims, he was that nubile & new to the position & the boosters still saw him as the "kid" on the end of the bench .......this last part is just my speculation, but I could see that being the case where his hiring gave the boosters the upper hand & sawy they might never have had under Kruger 

You might be right that Rice could have possibly been better with HC experience at a smaller program but I just don't see it, don't think he'll ever have those communication, leadership and respect qualities a HC needs.

I'll never, ever be able to un-see his impossibly awkward, deer in the headlights looks as his players and even assistant coaches openly tuned him out or even interrupted him in huddles. Some of those exchanges made me cringe.  It's no coincidence he never got a sniff from anyone to be a HC elsewhere.

At least the boosters had that part right, about directing him to their whims, cuz that's what his assistants and 5-star all-world recruits did with him as well. 

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