Questions on future abound following UNLV's end of season

LAS VEGAS — Sometimes, you need only look at the numbers to tell you the story.

Utah State’s Mason Falslev, the Mountain West’s Player of the Year — 24 points.
UNLV’s Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, the conference’s newcomer of the year— 17 points, just two in the first half.

On a day where the team’s best player had to show up for it to have a chance to win, the top-seeded Aggies got what they needed from Falslev. The junior guard had 17 points in the first half and finished with 24 to give Utah State a spot in Friday’s MW Tournament semifinals with an 80-60 win.

Gibbs-Lawhorn? He never seemed to be in it. He started the game 0-4 from 3-point range, never really got going offensively, finishing just 6 of 17 from the field and at times appeared frustrated. UNLV simply does not have the firepower to compensate when its best player has an off-day as was the case Thursday.

As a result, Josh Pastner’s return to coaching after two years in the TV studio resulted in a 17-16 record and plenty of questions moving forward.

For starters, can he keep Gibbs-Lawhorn in Las Vegas? If you heard the junior guard’s comments earlier this week about playing wherever who his coach is appear to be very telling. He sounds like a player who will be heading to the transfer portal and test the NIL waters for a better deal after leading the Mountain West in scoring this season with a 23.5 average in league play.

But he struggled in the second half of the Rebels’ 73-70 win over Wyoming in Wednesday’s opening round of the tournament and it carried over to Thursday against Utah State. Most of his 17 points came after the outcome had pretty much been decided.

Pastner and the Rebels had to make do without a true point guard after Myles Che broke his foot over the summer then re-injured it trying to get back on the court. Is Che committed to returning to UNLV? Or will he too enter the portal?

And of the 13 players he brought in, how many will stay? Or are we looking at a revolving door on Maryland Parkway where we have to deal with multiple players leaving and arriving?

Then there are the on-the-court issues Pastner needs to address. UNLV shot just 69 percent from the free-throw line this year. Only Air Force was worse at 64 percent. Thursday, it was another disaster at the stripe — an 8-of-15 performance good for 53 percent. Is there no one on this staff that can work on free-throw shooting? Or does UNLV need to call in one of those so-called “Shot Doctors” to improve the team’s performance at the line?

The Rebels, despite all their size and athleticism, were ninth in the conference in rebounding margin at +0.16. For this team to not compete better on the glass is puzzling. Thursday, Utah State had a 36-33 rebounding edge. Most coaches will tell you that rebounding is about effort. If that’s the case, does Pastner need to bring in players with more heart and desire to compete on the boards?

Yes, there were injury issues, Che’s broken foot notwithstanding. And when multiple guys are out, it screws with your continuity and forces you to change things up, like make a point guard out of Gibbs-Lawhorn, who is a natural scorer.

Yes, there were positives. Tyrin Jones led the league in blocked shots. UNLV as a team was No. 1 in the conference in blocks. The turnover margin was +0.88, which placed the Rebels in the middle of the pack. And there were some good wins, particularly the roads victories at Utah State and Boise State and the Rebels were 3-0 in overtime games.

But if anyone associated with the program feels good about the situation, that’s a problem. Attendance at home continues to be lacking. UNLV averaged just 5,374 for 16 games at the 18,500-seat Thomas & Mack. That’s a lot of empty red seats. The school’s NIL Collective needs to increase its capacity if Pastner wants to retain players like Gibbs-Lawhorn and bring new players into the program that can make an immediate impact.

He doesn’t have the luxury of recruiting a bunch of freshmen, hope they grow and mature together and stay with him during their entire college careers. That’s not the way it works these days. Pastner has to be able to obtain players who are ready right now. Loyalty goes as far as the numbers on a kid’s NIL deal.

Would things have been vastly different for the Rebels if they had all their players available from the beginning of the season to the end? Perhaps. But we’ll never know. What we do know is that things need to improve for UNLV to be a contender in a revised Mountain West this fall.

San Diego State? Gone. Utah State? See ya. Fresno State, Colorado State and Boise State? Outta here. The conference will look different and it’s up to Pastner and his staff to find the right players to take advantage of it.

Can they hang with and beat New Mexico, Grand Canyon or even Nevada? They’ll have to deal with Hawaii, UTEP and UC Davis as well along with Wyoming, San Jose State and Air Force.

“We made strides on how we want to do things,” Pastner said. “I like where we’re going moving forward. I’m excited about the future. I have a great belief we can get this turned around.

“We’re more prepared for our off-season and what we need to do to get better. Retention (of the roster) is important. I need to get out there and fundraise and hustle to raise money. We’ll see who we can retain and see what we can do the best we can. We need someone with deep pockets and long arms.”

One thing’s for certain — whoever emerges as UNLV’s best player, be it Gibbs-Lawhorn or someone else, better show up when the stage is the biggest and the lights are the brightest.