UNLV Rebels guard Justin Webster (2) attends practice at the Thomas & Mack Center Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022.
Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Rehearsal time is over. All scrimmages are in the books and there are no exhibition games left on the preseason schedule, so the next time UNLV takes the court against live competition, it will be for the 2022-23 season opener against Southern University on Monday.
Second-year UNLV coach Kevin Kruger thinks his squad is ready.
The Scarlet and Gray went through their second closed-door scrimmage on Saturday, taking on Southern Utah eight days after hosting Cal State Northridge in another scrimmage. Kruger said he saw improvement on the defensive end in the second game, and a more focused performance overall.
“I was really happy about the way they adjusted and they played and they were talking to each other,” Kruger said.
After practicing Tuesday, UNLV has three more sessions remaining before the opener. Kruger said they would be used to fine-tune the playbook, with an emphasis on amplifying the communication among the players.
Seniors Justin Webster and Luis Rodriguez and sophomore Keshon Gilbert are the loudest voices on the team, but the idea is to get everyone constantly calling out opponents’ offensive actions in order to stay on the same page defensively.
“We’ve just got to get the other guys to step up and confidently say their piece,” Kruger said. “You don’t always need five guys in a huddle talking, but you need five guys on the floor talking.”
Webster was happy to hear Kruger include him among the team’s most vociferous players.
“It’s something I take pride in,” Webster said. “My job is to communicate with the guys and have high energy every time I step on the floor, and that’s what I try to do.”
The opener should go into the books as a fairly easy win for UNLV. Southern is largely considered a pushover opponent (No. 269 in the preseason KenPom.com ratings), while the Scarlet and Gray have a roster comprised mostly of experienced transfers from power conferences.
Of course, UNLV only has to go back to August — when the team traveled to Canada for an exhibition series and lost its first game to the University of British Columbia — for an example of what can happen when you overlook an inferior opponent.
Based on what he saw in scrimmage No. 2, Webster is confident UNLV won’t slip up again.
“I think we’re ready,” Webster said. “Against Southern Utah we made some big strides. We figured out what we have to do better as a team. This … week is about locking in on those few things we have to do and being prepared for that first game. Obviously everybody is expecting us to go out there and win, and we can’t look past anybody.”
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
