I received a technical foul on the first play of a game one year while I was coaching at UNLV, but it was the right thing to do.
It was Senior Day during the 1991 season, and I had six seniors I wanted to start. We were playing UC Irvine and I went to their coach, Bill Mulligan, and told him of my plan.
I didn't want to disrespect the other team because Bill was a great coach and a friend of mine, but I had to get those seniors the recognition they deserved.
The official called the technical after the tipoff. I didn't worry about giving up the point because we were so good that season.
UNLV will honor its seniors Saturday against Wyoming, and it looks like they will give those players one last victory.
They need to win Saturday, and then reach the finals of the Mountain West Conference tournament to get invited to the NCAAs.
I give the Rebels a lot of credit for the way they played last week. Even though they had three easy games, it's always hard to win at this time of the year regardless of what team you play. But they made it look easy.
They have a great chance to win the league tournament, especially since it is on their home court. I think they will be an eight or nine seed in the NCAAs if they can make the conference finals.
UNLV doesn't want to leave their fate in the hands of the selection committee. You never know what they are thinking or who they are going to seed where.
The NCAA tournament is in two weeks and everyone is picking Kansas, Kentucky or Syracuse. But I like Ohio State.
Maybe I should wait until the pairings come out, but Ohio State is playing really well right now. They are definitely a dark horse.
I'll share some of my tournament memories next week, including beating Georgetown when it had Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo in the same starting lineup.
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