Runnin' Rebels' Year?
Get your tickets now, because this promises to be an exciting season
Last year, in what was supposed to be a transition year, the UNLV Runnin' Rebels stormed the Mountain West conference tournament to capture the automatic NCAA bid before getting clobbered by the #7 seed Arizona Wildcats in the first round.
Watchers weren't sure what to expect out of this year's team, with the loss to graduation of seniors
Charlie Schubert,
Emmett Mayes, and
Edward Heisler, all starters on last year's NCAA squad.
But after training camps, it appears this just might be the single best UNLV squad of head coach
Izulde Jestor's tenure. It looks to be the deepest, most talented unit yet and expectations are higher than they've ever been.
Projected Starting Lineup
PG David Upton (Fr)
The first 4* recruit of Jestor's career generated a lot of buzz just by signing, but now the noise surrounding the true freshman is deafening. "He's easily the best point guard the Rebels have had in years right now", one writer commented. "The scary part is, he hasn't yet reached his ceiling." That's a lot of weight for a freshman to carry, but Upton's energy and determination in practice wowed the coaching staff and he locked down the starting spot with ease.
SG James Nall (Jr)
Nall's come a long way since refusing to redshirt his freshman year. After splitting between starts and the bench last season, he showed enough offseason improvement that Jestor's first ever recruit at UNLV will be starting. Terrific rebounder at the 2 spot. Showed renewed focus in camp.
SF Daniel Duda (Sr)
Surprised to not see a certain other DD here? We were too, but Duda put in a lot of work over the summer and is now arguably the Runnin' Rebels best all-around shooter. That's enough to have him win the starting spot, at least to begin the year.
PF Darrell Jenkins (Sr)
Jenkins played PG/PF/C last year and was terrific as a do-everything man. But playing three positions wasn't enough. He studied the game intensely in the offseason, learning the nuances of the swingman spots as well, and as a result,
he is now one of the few players in the country who has the skillset and size good enough to play all five positions on the court. Although penciled in as the starting PF, his versatility might see him moved to the 6th man spot later in the season.
C Val Gavin (RS Sr)
Four year starter did amazing work on his post shooting over the summer, the end result of which is that he should be more than just a rebounding force this season. That's bad news for the rest of the Mountain West, who already got headaches from his ability to attack the boards.
Last year's Mountain West Freshman of the Year,
Dominique "Dart Gun" Dugardin, still the team's best 3 point shooter, will come off the bench as the 6th man.
Cristian Pardo, also a sophomore, will be the backup PG and true freshman big man
Ken Elias will serve as a reserve big along with
Chris Champlain, the latter of whom might be moved to the starting PF spot at some point.
As for the third freshman in UNLV's #45 class,
PG Merlin Hargrove, he's decided to take a redshirt in order to work on his game. Scouts say he has amazing potential as a perimeter defender, but still needs to develop more in that area in order to reach that ceiling.
"The bench is very young", one scout noted. "But that's a battle-tested starting lineup surrounding Upton and almost all of the key players on this team were a part of last year's tournament appearance. The Runnin' Rebels probably won't beat Air Force or BYU for the Mountain West regular season title, but they should finish with a winning record in conference play for the first time since Jestor got there, and they should finish third or fourth."
High expectations, indeed, with all of Sin City dreaming of a return to the NCAA tournament, and this time, advancing beyond the first round.