In Las Vegas sports betting parlance, you could call it a “trap game.”
A date with UNLV just two days before Christmas? Just before Arizona Wildcats players can go home for the first time since August, after six weeks of grueling preseason practices and some often-hard-fought nonconference games?
In Las Vegas? On UNLV’s homecourt?
Danger, normally. But, maybe not for UA and coach Sean Miller.
The No. 3 Cats, after all, have one big motivating factor: A win tonight would polish off a third straight unbeaten nonleague season — sending them into Pac-12 play again as the team to beat, even with Utah, Washington and others improving behind them.
“There is” a lot of motivation, Miller said Monday. “I don’t look at our team as looking forward to Christmas at the expense of UNLV. All of our guys are excited to go home. Most of them have been on campus since the end of August. But we’re really focused on this game for all the right reasons.”
People are also reading…
Here’s five other reasons why UA could escape the Thomas & Mack Center with a 13-0 record:
1. The finish line isn’t there yet.
Ever since Arizona was blown out by Jimmer Fredette and BYU on Dec. 28 of Miller’s first season in 2009-10 — a game Miller inherited on his schedule — Miller has made it clear he prefers to stack all the Wildcats’ nonconference games before Christmas and then give his players a decent three- or four-day chunk of time off before preparing for the Pac-12 season.
Knowing a fair break is ahead gives Miller leverage to implore his players to keep their minds on the court until then.
“Having a chance to go home to family and friends over the holiday is one of many reasons why we don’t schedule a game between start of Pac-12 and the end of nonconference play,” Miller said. “It gives our guys a chance to really focus.”
This year, Miller is giving the Wildcats off from Wednesday until Saturday, with practices scheduled to resume on Sunday.
2. UNLV is rebuilding.
The Rebel team that gave the Wildcats a 63-58 scare at McKale Center bears little resemblance to the current bunch. In fact, UNLV returns just one starter from that game.
“UNLV is a very talented but very young team,” Miller said Monday at McKale Center. “You can see with a team that’s as youthful as they are, you work through some things in November and December.
“But where they could be in January and February — and for that matter (tonight) — they have the type of team that can get better.”
Among the things UNLV is doing well, he said, is the production the Rebels get from guard Rashad Vaughn, the one-time UA recruiting target from Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nevada.
But part of the reason for that is that the Rebels basically needed him to be the leading scorer, right away, starting two freshmen and a sophomore.
“I think one of the things about having so many new guys is that guys have to grow up quicker,” UNLV coach Dave Rice said. “Guys like Rashad want to grow up. It’s forced them to be better sooner even against the non-marquee teams.”
3. Going to Vegas is no big deal.
For the Wildcats, and many Western-based college players, the potential distraction of Las Vegas should not be a factor.
Not only do virtually all high-level players spend much of their spring and summers there during high school, to play in big recruiting showcases, but the Wildcats spend up to four days there every March for the Pac-12 tournament.
Arizona is 3-2 in Las Vegas in Pac-12 tournament games, which are played just a few blocks to the west at the MGM Grand Garden. The Wildcats are 1-1 in games played against UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center in the past decade.
4. UNLV’s offense is even more raw than UA’s.
After averaging 89.3 points during their previous three games, Miller was bummed to see the Wildcats put up only 60 at UTEP on Friday — in part because of their usual free-throw struggles.
“We learned a lot from the UTEP game,” Miller said. “We got away from a fast-push pace and a lot of the things that we practice every day and have done regularly.
“With UTEP, because of their changing of their defense, and they way they play man-to-man, we started to be more of a halfcourt team. Our execution wasn’t as good.
“We had (17) turnovers, and a lot of them were a function of not doing the things we normally do. And when you start to get in that foreign territory of running an offense or putting players in positions they’re not normally in, that’s when either bad shots or turnovers follow.”
But compare that to UNLV: The Rebels scored just 46 points against Utah in a 13-point loss Saturday, prompting Rice to complain about their offensive efficiency. They are averaging just 67.5 points over their 10 games.
“I like going to practice every day and I feel like this group is going to be very, very good in our future,” Rice said.
“Everything we’ve gone through has been brand new. But they are talented and coachable.”
5. UNLV would struggle in the Pac-12.
In fact, the Rebels already are. They lost to Stanford by 29 points in New York City, at ASU by 22 points, and 59-46 to Utah on Saturday at the Grand Garden.
“It’s been good for us,” Rice said of his schedule. “We didn’t set out to play Pac-12 teams, just good teams ... and Arizona is the best of the best. It’s been very challenging.”
It will help for the future, possibly even during this year’s Mountain West schedule. But maybe not tonight against the Wildcats.
Not yet.
