Las Vegas Sun

By Taylor Bern

Mon, Nov 23, 2015 (2 a.m.)

The Rebels’ freshmen could barely walk and talk the last time UNLV met UCLA in an official game, yet the two sides are anything but strangers entering Monday night’s meeting in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.

UNLV (3-0) tips off against UCLA (2-1) at approximately 8:30 p.m. on ESPN2. The tournament, one of the most prestigious in the country, features three games in three days, with the winner of this one playing at 7 p.m. Tuesday and the loser playing at 1:30 p.m. All games are played in the 2,400-seat Lahaina Center.

UCLA is 4-0 all-time against UNLV, but the last meeting was in 1998. There are recent connections all over the programs, though, including Bruins coach Steve Alford being a recent Mountain West rival at New Mexico, the teams’ closed-door scrimmage last year in Los Angeles, recruiting battles and the players’ shared experiences in the summer.

In 2012, UNLV went down to decision day for junior guard Isaac Hamilton, who committed to UTEP before quickly transferring to UCLA. Hamilton played grasketball with California-based Dream Vision alongside Rebels freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr., whose host on his official visit to UCLA was Tony Parker, the guy he’ll match up against often Monday night.

UNLV coach Dave Rice sees these connections as the rule these days, not the exception, and it’s part of why he thinks there have been so many upsets across the country. Intimidation isn’t as much of a factor when you’ve already played against, or with, your opponent.

“All of these kids have played against each other since they were 8, 9, 10 years old in the auxiliary gym at Bishop Gorman or whatever tournament it might be,” Rice said. “There’s so much more familiarity with each other.”

The Rebels’ stretch since meeting the Bruins is almost as long as their time away from this tournament. UNLV has two previous trips to the Maui Invitational, the most recent coming in 2000 when it went 1-2 with only a victory against Division II Chaminade.

UNLV’s trip this season really started as soon as Rice took the job more than four years ago. Part of the plan to upgrade the nonconference schedule specifically included this tournament.

“I thought it was important to get our program back to Maui,” Rice said. “I just know the prestige of playing in Maui. It’s always been one of the pre-eminent tournaments in the country. It’s always a star-studded field, and I think this is as good a field as there’s been in Maui in a long, long time.”

This year’s field — featuring UNLV, UCLA, Kansas, Indiana, Wake Forest, St. John’s, Vanderbilt and Chaminade — includes a total of 47 Final Fours and 20 national championships.

“I’ve been watching it since I was little,” senior guard Jerome Seagears said of the tournament. “It’s like a Final Four type of atmosphere.”

Alford has taken UCLA to the Sweet Sixteen each of his first two seasons in Westwood, but this season has gotten off to a rocky start. The Bruins lost their season opener at home to Monmouth and, like UNLV, struggled to put away Cal Poly.

UCLA is actually in a very similar position as UNLV, in that the Bruins like their roster but are looking forward to this tournament as a sort of gauge to see how they stack up. Both the Rebels and Bruins know they’re not teams that have it figured out in November.

“We’re not one of those teams yet, but we can get a good feel in a tournament like this to see what we need to work on,” he said.

Alford’s son, junior Bryce Alford, leads the team with 19.7 points in 37.7 minutes per game, while 260-pound senior center Parker is averaging a ridiculous (and unsustainable) 16.7 points and 16 rebounds per game. While Steve Alford isn’t going to shy away from UNLV’s full-court pressure — “I’ve never been one that doesn’t attack pressure,” he said — he’s also aware of the matchup problems UNLV’s athleticism presents.

“They bring from their bench an awful lot of athleticism, that if things don’t go well they’ve got the athletic ability to make things happen at both ends of the floor,” Alford said.

That depth of capable personnel is something Rice has been working toward for several years. He thinks UNLV has it now, and tonight is the first opportunity to really find out how good the Rebels are or how far they have to go.

They’ve been waiting a long time to play this team and to play in this tournament. Now that the opportunity is here, it’s time to start seeing what UNLV can be.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.

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