This isn’t your grandfather’s college basketball. Or your father’s. Or even your older brother’s.
Things move lightning fast now. Here today, portal tomorrow.
Coaches barely have time to scan a box score before contemplating how best to rebuild their roster each season.
Which means you better know who your coach is going to be.
Which brings us to UNLV.
If it’s true the status of coach Kevin Kruger’s future remains uncertain — and only those making such a call really know — then a decision needs to come much sooner than later.
Like now.
Transfer portal calling
Coaching today with the transfer portal adding new names daily once it opens means a different type of recruiting. You first have to ensure those on your team are committed to returning.
You first have to ensure, say, a Dedan Thomas Jr. is set on being UNLV’s point guard for a third season or be enticed to play elsewhere. Maybe depending on who the coach will be.
Fact: You’re recruiting your guys first, at least the ones you want to return.
It’s why a coach such as Jai Lucas leaves his assistant’s role at Duke to take over the Miami program before the NCAA Tournament starts. There’s no such thing as starting too early now.
UNLV athletic director Erick Harper has a decision to make. It already might have been made.
I’m not sure the Rebels will announce if they keep Kruger. They didn’t even do so when extending his contract by a year following his first season as coach. Not a single word. Bizarre.
You can’t overstate how important it is for programs to make the NCAA Tournament, which UNLV hasn’t done since 2013. You can’t overstate how much such a drought and really a nonexistence of many truly important games over that time has led to the dwindling of a once proud fan base. Believe me. I have the emails to prove it.
It boarded on embarrassing, the amount (and sounds) of Utah State fans as opposed to those from UNLV for a Mountain West quarterfinal game Thursday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
So it goes that locals have made their opinions known about what they feel for the Rebels given the state they have existed in for some time now.
Whether the Rebels keep Kruger or not — and they should for a fifth season — they need to make the call fast. Every second is critical in these ever-changing times.
There is enough talent on the roster that the Rebels could contend for the conference championship next season with the right transfers mixed in. That’s assuming all the current players return.
UNLV’s season ended in that quarterfinal of the tournament, which has become an annual conclusion for the team, with a 70-58 loss to the Aggies.
The Rebels again played short-handed because of injury, as three players logged all 40 minutes. It’s certainly not the most ideal way when trying to compete.
“I don’t think Coach Kruger is given enough credit for what he has done,” Utah State coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “He has done a masterful job of rallying his team. They battled the last several games of the season, and that’s not easy to do with that many injuries. That’s coaching, That’s leadership. That’s obviously a buy-in from his group.”
Best position possible
It was. The team adjusted accordingly when Thomas was lost to a shoulder injury for the final seven games. It required specific players to perform different ways than usual. And they did.
Kruger got the most out of a depleted group. He put players in the best possible positions to compete.
Whether or not that will be enough to save his job is anyone’s guess. But it needs to be resolved.
“(The season) was a learning experience in a lot of ways,’ Kruger said. “Just like any coach after any game or practice or any situation we’re going to pick apart mentally what we’d do differently next time. As much as anything, it’s tough to finish this way, because we were feeling so good.
“It was just such a fun group to be around. Yeah, there’s a little bit of a what-if from a learning experience as a coach. There’s a lot of things I’ll be able to take with me for the rest of my career.”
We should known soon if that will include more time at UNLV.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.
