For the third time in as many years it certainly looks like the UNLV Runnin' Rebels entrance to the NCAA Tournament is going to have to take the route to get there by winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
The Rebels dropped their second straight overtime loss, this time to the New Mexico Lobos at "The Pit" today, 73-69, in front of a sellout house of 17,407. This follows on the heels of Tuesday's overtime home loss at home to the San Diego State Aztecs 68-66.
The Rebels played probably their best first half during conference play by jumping out to an early 12-4 lead thanks to two 3's from Tre'Von Willis. They continued playing effectively at both ends of the court going into halftime with a six point lead.
In the second half after holding the Lobos leading scorer, Daniel Faris, to just two points in the first half, senior forward Tony Dandridge exploded with his finest game of the season. Dandridge finished with a game high 26 points shooting 10-13 from the floor and 6-7 from the charity stripe.
The Rebels were led by Wink Adams and Rene Rougeau. Wink started slow but like Dandridge, he too exploded in the second half keeping the Rebels in front for most of the way. Wink finished with 18 points but shot only 6-16 from the floor. Rougeau, who put up a double/double with 12 points and 13 rebounds, played his typical hell bent for leather game. However, his fifth personal foul where he objected to, rather heatedly, resulted in a technical foul and a four point turnaround that put the Lobos up by four.
I report on Rebels games because I have been a big fan since the mid 80's and I have tried to be objective in my reporting. I have pointed out Rebels strengths and weaknesses and have made countless suggestions that Coach Kruger, at times, makes me feel like he reads these reports.
I have however never taken issue with the referees and their calls. It's always been my feeling that poor calls work both ways over the course of a game and certainly for the entire season. These calls even themselves out. This game however, I will take an exception to and say that this was perhaps one of the worst cases of "home cooking" that I have ever witnessed. There were no fewer than six blatant obvious mis-called fouls on the Rebels that weren't even close. Two players, Rene Rougeau and Tre'Von Willis, each had numerous ridiculous calls that frankly changed the outcome of the game.
No doubt Coach Kruger and the Rebel team are very disappointed about the outcome of this game. With seven games left in the conference play, the Rebels appear to need to win out to be a contender for the No. 1 seed in the tournament. With road games still left at Utah and San Diego State, this doesn't seem likely to happen.
Therefore, as mentioned earlier, it will probably take a third straight Mountain Conference Tournament title to go dancing again this year.
Good luck Rebels, you're going to need it.
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