LAS VEGAS \u2014 Chemistry can be a complicated thing.<\/p>\n
Especially in this Wild West age of college athletics where roster turnover is fueled by NIL funding, the transfer portal and coaches coming and going.<\/p>\n
Josh Pastner says he was a pretty good chemistry student in high school. But with his second year as UNLV\u2019s head men\u2019s basketball coach underway, he better get good at developing chemistry within his roster.<\/p>\n
Problem is, he\u2019s not sure what his roster will look like. AJ Storr, who would make a major impact on the Runnin\u2019 Rebels, is still ineligible as he tries to get a Tennessee court to clear him to play. Storr, a 6-foot-5 fifth-year senior guard, has previously played at St. John\u2019s, Wisconsin, Kansas and Mississippi.<\/p>\n
Storr was named to the All-Mountain West Preseason team Wednesday along with sophomore forward Tyrin Jones at the conference’s Basketball Media Day at the Palms. But he was not on the court Wednesday night when UNLV hosted Utah at the Thomas & Mack Center in the first of three exhibition games. Neither was Jones, who is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and was just recently cleared for contact.<\/p>\n
UNLV was picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West Preseason Poll behind New Mexico (179 points), Grand Canyon (178) and Nevada (148). The Rebels garnered 125 points.<\/p>\n
But getting back to that chemistry challenge. Pastner when through it last year when he took over for Kevin Kruger and got a late start on recruiting. They got better as the season went on and finished 18-17 overall, 11-9 in conference. And while it was disappointing for sure, it was a lesson learned for Pastner. And to be more successful, it means getting everyone on the same page and working together.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the ways is you have to be up front with everything,\u201d Pastner said when asked to define how to build chemistry. \u201cBe honest and transparent. It\u2019s something you have to work on every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had the entire spring and summer to run at it. There\u2019s only two returning players in Jones and Isaac Williamson, so it\u2019s like virtually starting over for Pastner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re up early,\u201d Jones said of how the team is trying to develop a chemistry from within. \u201cWe\u2019re doing things together as a group. We\u2019ll stay and talk after practice and get to know each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastner said: \u201cTyrin and Isaac are two big keys. They\u2019ve been here. They get it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Storr becomes eligible, it\u2019ll be a huge boost. And if freshman Jackson Kiss can deliver it will certainly enhance their chances for success. Kiss, a 6-8 forward from New Zealand who played at Utah Prep, was tabbed as the MW\u2019s preseason Freshman of the Year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019ll be a fan favorite,\u201d Pastner said of Kiss, who was coached by former Rebel and fellow Kiwi Mark Dickel in Utah. \u201cThe more he plays, the better he\u2019ll get.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the NCAA tries to deal with escalating costs and there\u2019s legislation to provide oversight to dealing with NIL \u2014 both of Nevada\u2019s senators voted yes on the bill \u2014 coaches like Pastner have to deal with the present.<\/p>\n
Back in July, he said in an interview with a local television station that maybe someone would buy the Runnin\u2019 Rebels brand instead of investing billions in an NBA expansion team for Las Vegas and fund it to the tune of $10 million to $12 million or somewhere in the neighborhood. He caught some heat for the comment but if you think about it, it\u2019s not that far-fetched an idea.<\/p>\n
Basically, it already exists where an affluent person can fund a program. Think Mike Repole, who founded Vitaminwater and Bodyarmor and is worth $2.5 billion and is helping his alma mater St. John\u2019s with its NIL needs. \u00a0<\/p>\n
But with the season about to begin, Pastner has to turn his attention to what happens on the court. \u00a0Wednesday night saw the Rebels fall to Utah, 79-69 in the first of three exhibition tuneups and not a whole lot of people were there to witness it. The announced crowd was 3,175 and the actual number was probably a third of that.<\/p>\n
Last year, UNLV averaged just 5,374 a game at home last season. And in an 18,000-seat building like the Thomas & Mack, it makes it seem and look like nobody\u2019s there.<\/p>\n
And when you consider the home-court edge teams like New Mexico, Grand Canyon and Hawaii enjoy and even Nevada outpacing UNLV in home attendance (The Wolf Pack averaged 8,133 at the 11,536-seat Lawlor Events Center), holding serve at home is a challenge right now for the Rebels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to do our part,\u201d Pastner said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to win. We\u2019ve got to be exciting. We\u2019ve got to be thinking outside the box with our in-game presentation. We want a family of five to have such a great experience at our games that they\u2019ll want to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
They might want to return to watch Sebastian Mack. The senior guard from Chicago finished with 25 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Cam Miles had 16 points but neither were efficient with their shooting. Mack needed 22 shots to get to 25 while Miles was just 6 of 14 from the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cSebastian had 12 points in the first half on 13 shots and he was inefficient,\u201d Pastner said. \u201cHe was much better in the second half \u2014 5 of 7.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rebels have struggled at the foul line in recent years and it was more of the same Wednesday. UNLV was 15 of 29 from the stripe for just 51.7 percent. And the perimeter defense was lacking too in the first half. Utah was 9 of 21 from long distance in the opening 20 minutes before UNLV clamped down and held the Utes to just 1-of-11 shooting in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to clean up,\u201d said Pastner, who has 17 days to straighten things out before his team hosts BYU on the 24th and then Missouri on Oct. 29. \u201cBut the more games we can play, the better, so we can see where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Chemistry can be a complicated thing. Especially in this Wild West age of college athletics…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[11824,7,319,217,100676,93287,664,231,772,1544,67,34248,90143,63259,23962,100677,20714],"class_list":["post-853974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-aj-storr","tag-basketball","tag-college","tag-college-basketball","tag-isaac-williamson","tag-josh-pastner","tag-mountain-west","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-news","tag-tst-las-vegas","tag-tyler-harris","tag-tyrin-jones","tag-unlv","tag-unlv-news","tag-unlv-rebels"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117406130765428138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}