UNLV/Utah matchup

[rebelover]

full disclosure: I’m born and bred in LV and a die hard Rebel fan. 

How do you think these teams match up?

We have 2 good bigs- Juistin and McCoy. McCoy was a five star and Juistin was the POY I’m JC last year. After that our bench drops off a bit. 

Collette was a tough when he was in our conference at Utah st. He did have a tough game last night though. Seems like all your bigs can shoot and pass. Edge to the Utes probably. 

Our PG is a 5th year Sr. Transfer and he can ball. I like Bibbins but I think after watching up close last night ours might have a strength/size advantage. 

Wing players- not sure. Both teams look good to me. 

Coach- tough to say. Our guy has been taking teams to the NCAA’s consistently and Kristowiak is excellent too- I was impressed just by the way the team warmed up. Much more disciplined than Ole Miss. 

anyway? Whatcha think?

[Tony (admin)]

Thanks for stopping by. I don’t know much about UNLV but sounds like the Utah advantage could be depth. We have 2-3 pretty good guys that come off the bench.

[gUrthBrooks]

Home court advantage favors UNLV and Donnie Tillman! What a great pickup Tillman is for Utah, LV native and true frosh. The Utes are much tougher and more upper classman team than they were a year ago – IMO. Suprises have been Rawson defensively (much stronger than last year) and Donnie Tillman.  Bibbins adds a spark definitely.  I guess it’s early to say what this Ute team will be, but so far, they have played tough. I’m hoping for a competive game that the Utes can build on. Hopefully no blowout either way. 

[Staples]

I only saw a little of the UNLV/Rice game but I thought the Rebels looked really athletic. Rice looked horrible and I’m not sure how much of that was the Rebels are good and how much of that was the Owls are bad. Either way, I’m glad the Utes won to setup an old MWC matchup even if it’s probably a tossup game as opposed to a closer to certain victory. Competitive games are always more fun to watch and even more so when there’s a history with the opponent. Really wish Utah would schedule more games with the old MWC teams but such is life.

[rebelover]

We aren’t sure it’s the opponents we’ve played or if we’re really good. For me this is the best the Rebs have looked in about a decade. We beat Eastern Kentucky right after they beat Stanford- but The Cardinal look a little weaker than usual.

[Matthew Thomas Castleton]

You mean Eastern Washington.

[rebelover]

Yes. Eastern Washington.

[PlainsUte]

Strictly objectively Sagarin predictor calls for a 3 pt win by the Utes if you award 3 point home court advantage to UNLV.  Crowd will obviously be for UNLV though its not their usual home court (different lighting, sight lines and such).

For the Utes to win Collette will have to stay out of foul trouble and the Utes find some scoring help from the bench, something they’ve been able to to so far.  Coach LarryK has them playing in a disciplined fashion which helped them defeat the more athletic Mizzou Tigers.