I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[PointGuard]

Your team is stepping up with some big wins in the conference. Nice going.

[CoachC]

Thanks, PG

[CoachC]

Trying to keep the 7 game win streak alive on the road against the Walkin' Rebels. We struggled against their zone at home, but won by playing solid defense and turning them over. As we come onto the floor in front of a huge crowd, I see the Shark sitting a couple of rows behind the UNLV bench. He nods at me and I nod back.

Not only do we struggle with the zone in the first half, our half court defense isn't very good, and to make matters worse, the referees are rooting for the home team. we are fortunate to only be down by 7 at the half, 39-32.

As usual we play much better in the 2nd half, and eventually overtake them. They sink a 3 pointer at the buzzer though to tie the game and take it into OT.

End of Regulation 70-70

We play even in 1st OT. TIme for another

End of first OT 77-77

2nd OT more of the same. Wilson fouled out

End of 2nd OT 85-85

FINALLY! They miss a pair of freethrows with :06 left in the 3rd OT and we win by 1! I'm exhausted. I think my players are a little tired too.

We turned the ball over too many times after the first half, which is probably the only reason it took an extra 15 minutes to decide this one. Our point guards have certainly had better games.

Wilson had a forgettable game, 4 pts, 4 asts, 1 stl, but 8 turnovers and fouled out after just 22 minutes.

Martin was terrific against the zone tonight and led us with 25 pts, 7 rebs.

Stetson is a steady influence even on nights when he's not scoring, and tonight was no exception. That being said, his only points came at a crucial time in the 3rd OT and were huge. 6 pts, 6 asts, 2 rebs, 4 stls.

Madic had 13 pts, 4 rebs, 4 stls

Jackson had 6 pts, 4 rebs, 1 stl.

Off the bench Taylor was a MAN: 22 pts, a career high 19 rebs; Conley had 7 pts, 7 asts, but turned the ball over 5 times. Tatum added 6 rebs, and Thompson had 8 pts, 1 asts, and was the only point guard to take care of the ball tonight with just one turnover in 13 minutes, and was at the helm for most of the overtime.

Final:

UNM 97 UNLV 96 3 OT

[CoachC]

Feb 4: Air Force won on the road last night to go back in sole possession of 2nd place 2 games back. Wyoming lost at home again to TCU, so UNLV remains in sole possession of 3rd.

[CoachC]

Feb 5: The road win over UNLV pushes our RPI up to 21 and we are ranked for the first time at #22 in the AP, #21 in the USA Today coaches poll. Hopefully we don't let that go to our heads, because there is a lot of basketball to play yet. Our Bracket Buster opponent Gonzaga is ranked #10 in the AP, #8 in the coaches poll. Have mercy! It does give us another chance to add a big win to our resume, however, and fortunately for us it does come after the conference season has ended. Somehow, Taylor is overlooked again as conference player of the week.

[CoachC]

Going for our 9th straight. Hopefully the emotional win from the other night, coupled with our ranking doesn't cause us to overlook the Mr. Potato Heads.

We played pretty well in Boise, and won with TO differential, and rebounding advantage.

For once we come out of the gate hot offensively, but too many turnovers (11) and spotty defense prevent us from running away with it. At the half we lead 40-30.

This was a good old-fashioned butt-kicking. Although I wasn't too happy with our 14 turnovers, we shoot 59.3%, hold them to 35.8% and dominate the boards 39-17,11-4.

Wilson had 6 points, 4 asts, 3 Reb
Martin was in a groove again with a team high 19 pts
Stetson added 10 pts
Mad Dog had a strong game with 8 pts, 3 asts, 11 rebs, and 2 stls.
Inyo had 6 pts, 3 rebs, but played just 18 minutes.

Off the bench Taylor had 5 pts, 8 rebs in just 16 minutes, Durham added 9, Conley had 11 pts, 4 asts in just 14 minutes, Tatum had 4 pts, 5 rebs in just 9 minutes, Guy had 4 pts, 2 asts, 2 rebs, 3 stls,

A total team effort as we get a chance to play the deep bench some minutes.

Blowout FInal:

UNM 86 Boise St. 45

[CoachC]

Feb 8: The Falcons defeated the Rebels at home last night, clinching no less than the 2nd seed for us.

[Wayne23]

Kicking butts! Way to go, Coach!!!

[CoachC]

it was nice to shoot well once... i think for the season we are only shooting about 43% and winning with defense and rebounding, which always is scary

[CoachC]

Feb 8: We continue to be ranked nationally in a number of categories. 2nd in assists, 2nd in forced turnovers, 3rd in steals and 12th in turnovers. We are also 22nd in scoring which isn't a bad for a club without much of a perimeter game. When our guards score, it's usually moving towards the basket. Depth is still a strength for us with 11 guys averaging double digit minutes. We never know on a nightly basis which of those guys is going to come through for us but usually 3 or 4 of them do. Martin leads us in minutes with just 23.4/g which underscores the importance of our bench