a 27 yr. old, an air-conditioning repairman, two walk-ons and a kid named wink
if you like college basketball you will probably like this story, that is unless you are a fan of one of the other teams in the mountain west.
last year unlv went to the sweet 16 and off of that team we lost 4 starters and our 6th man so, coming into this season we were in a rebuilding mode. our roster including a 6'11 kid who was a transfer, a 7'0'' kid from africa and a 6'-10 transfer from houston, which meant we were big up front, we then had two 6-8 kids at forward from last year, a great shooting guard, a 6-6 walk on kid that we didn't have a position for, a big point guard and a great little waterbug-type back up for either of those positions. even though we were young, it looked as if we were deep and big.
but then:
we lost the 7 footer before the season because there were questions about some of his schooling in africa and he is sitting the season and taking classes and will be here next year.
the 6-11 kid was kicked off the team after the very first game. he had a poor attitude and was a distraction in the locker room.
the 6-10 transfer left of his own accord but he was skating on the edge of being kicked off because of his attitude. (he left the univ. of houston because he felt like he wasn't appreciated)
the back up point/shooting guard managed to skip classes, get drunk and roll a car and get kicked off.
so:
now we are not big at all and our two 6-8 kids were getting creamed in the middle but the 6-6 walk on came to the rescue and started playing center going up against 7 footers and other big monsters every night.
we ended up only have ten guys on the roster and we did not play at all one of them, now it is 9 and two those are just not ready for big time college ball and now we were down to 7. we have no height, no presence in the middle, no bench and we only 7 deep.
yesterday, a 27 year old, a airconditioning repairman, two walk ons and a kid named "wink" won the mountain west tournament by beating 23rd ranked byu by 16 points after being down double digets in the first half!
we finished 26-7 and are going to the ncaa's. lon kruger did as good a coaching job as i have ever seen and should be national coach of the year; he was already honored as mountain west coach of the year.
they were great fun to watch, they won by playing a maniac form of defense and scoring off turn overs. everybody on the team can shoot 3-pointers and when we get hot we score in bunches while shutting bigger and stronger and deeper teams out. they won by refusing to lose on their home court and they always won the game they had to win. they could fall behind big and not lose their composure. they were the little team that could.
my season tickets were worth every penny. go rebels.
last year unlv went to the sweet 16 and off of that team we lost 4 starters and our 6th man so, coming into this season we were in a rebuilding mode. our roster including a 6'11 kid who was a transfer, a 7'0'' kid from africa and a 6'-10 transfer from houston, which meant we were big up front, we then had two 6-8 kids at forward from last year, a great shooting guard, a 6-6 walk on kid that we didn't have a position for, a big point guard and a great little waterbug-type back up for either of those positions. even though we were young, it looked as if we were deep and big.
but then:
we lost the 7 footer before the season because there were questions about some of his schooling in africa and he is sitting the season and taking classes and will be here next year.
the 6-11 kid was kicked off the team after the very first game. he had a poor attitude and was a distraction in the locker room.
the 6-10 transfer left of his own accord but he was skating on the edge of being kicked off because of his attitude. (he left the univ. of houston because he felt like he wasn't appreciated)
the back up point/shooting guard managed to skip classes, get drunk and roll a car and get kicked off.
so:
now we are not big at all and our two 6-8 kids were getting creamed in the middle but the 6-6 walk on came to the rescue and started playing center going up against 7 footers and other big monsters every night.
we ended up only have ten guys on the roster and we did not play at all one of them, now it is 9 and two those are just not ready for big time college ball and now we were down to 7. we have no height, no presence in the middle, no bench and we only 7 deep.
yesterday, a 27 year old, a airconditioning repairman, two walk ons and a kid named "wink" won the mountain west tournament by beating 23rd ranked byu by 16 points after being down double digets in the first half!
we finished 26-7 and are going to the ncaa's. lon kruger did as good a coaching job as i have ever seen and should be national coach of the year; he was already honored as mountain west coach of the year.
they were great fun to watch, they won by playing a maniac form of defense and scoring off turn overs. everybody on the team can shoot 3-pointers and when we get hot we score in bunches while shutting bigger and stronger and deeper teams out. they won by refusing to lose on their home court and they always won the game they had to win. they could fall behind big and not lose their composure. they were the little team that could.
my season tickets were worth every penny. go rebels.
posted by Ron Shock | 7:37 PM
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