Being the head coach of a basketball team is not always about the X’s and O’s. Sometimes it’s about managing personalities, delivering a strong message and holding a team together through adversity.
Those intangible elements are going to be Kevin Kruger’s top priority in the coming days after UNLV lost its fifth straight game against Division I competition on Saturday, getting blown out at San Francisco, 83-62.
The 21-point defeat had the entire team out of sorts. The normally even-keeled Kruger spent much of the night admonishing the referees. The postgame scene turned explosive, as senior guard Mike Nuga yelled in frustration and pounded on the walls outside the locker room. Inside the locker room, Kruger kept his team sequestered for 45 minutes—more than twice as long as usual—before coming out to meet the media.
For the suddenly below-.500 scarlet and gray (4-5), tensions are obviously running high.
“They’re a little frustrated,” Kruger said. “They play hard. They just weren’t quite able to get over that hump tonight.”
The game began with a shake-up before the opening tip, as Kruger made sweeping changes to the starting lineup. Out were senior guard (and the team’s leading scorer) Bryce Hamilton, senior guard Mike Nuga and junior wing Donovan Williams; in were junior guard Justin Webster, junior guard Josh Baker and sophomore forward Reece Brown.
It didn’t yield immediate dividends, as the scarlet and gray went scoreless on their first six possessions and San Francisco jumped out to a 12-4 lead. The move did seem to spur Hamilton into better shot selection, however, as he came off the bench and drove repeatedly for close-range attempts to help UNLV claw its way back into the contest. Hamilton scored 15 points in the first half to trim USF’s lead to 40-35 at the break.
The second half was a demolition. San Francisco shot 50% from the field over the final 20 minutes and guard Jamaree Bouyea scored 15 of his game-high 30 points in the period to help the Dons pull away.
The final minutes got ugly, with San Francisco recording dunk after dunk en route to a 42-24 advantage in points in the paint.
It was a loss that left UNLV players visibly upset.
After his lengthy postgame address to the team, Kruger said he doesn’t anticipate doing anything drastic to keep his players on the same page.
“The first thing is, we’ve got to do, not talk or meet or anything of that nature, but continue the habits of the team,” Kruger said. “The daily habits, the practice habits. They’ve got to take a breath and trust in it and trust that their process is the right one."
While his players may be agitated—either due to their starting status or playing time or the recent run of losses or any number of reasons—Kruger believes it’s something that can be cured with a win.
UNLV will next get a chance to notch that victory on Wednesday, when they return to Las Vegas to take on Seattle at Michelob Ultra Arena.
“There’s a lot of season still left,” Kruger said. “Before we played Michigan we were feeling pretty good. But that’s the way sports works.
“We’ve got another one Wednesday,” he continued. “[If] we go and we play hard and play together and win it, I’m sure we’ll feel pretty good. As low as we feel right now, and our confidence might be a little shook, we’ll be happy on Wednesday night.”
Senior center Royce Hamm said the most important thing for UNLV right now, when everything is seemingly going wrong, is to stay the course.
“I believe what we have to do as a team is come together, believe in ourselves, believe in each other, believe in coach Kruger’s plan and what he wants to do,” Hamm said.
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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