By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
A UNLV junior named Jack hung around Thomas & Mack Center after the basketball team’s ugly 61-50 loss to Loyola Marymount Saturday night and ticked off a couple of reasons why the Runnin’ Rebels draw so few students to Thomas & Mack Center.
The student, one of five UNLV students who failed to come close to sinking a half court shot during a halftime contest, said the university lacks school basketball spirit because so many students live off campus and that UNLV does not promote and publicize the basketball games well enough to students except for email blasts. Plus, the basketball team doesn’t appear to be a top club, he said.
“There’s not the atmosphere on campus to rally students to the games,” said Jack, who declined to give his last name.
While coach Marvin Menzies said the Runnin’ Rebels looked out of sync on offense by scoring only 25 points in each half in a disappointing loss for UNLV, local Las Vegas radio personality Chet Buchanan faces the challenge of juicing up the basketball games’ off-court entertainment.
Buchanan, who returned to UNLV hoops games as the in-game emcee after serving that role for the WNBA Aces during the Aces’ first season in Las Vegas, tried his best to stir a crowd that appeared to fill only half of the arena’s bottom bowl — and that’s being generous.
While many universities known for their basketball traditions have hundreds of students attending games, UNLV had tried everything to lure students to its basketball games such as giving away free tickets to serving free pizza and sodas to students before games. And two days ago, UNLV Athletics issued a media release outlining 20 initiatives that will be rolled out for 2018-19 basketball games. (Having Buchanan on hand as the in-game emcee is one of those.)
Buchanan, God bless him, did all he could at the season-opener to pump up the crowd. At halftime when five students each heaved up a shot from half court in hopes of winning Raising Cane’s chicken fingers and french fries for a year, Buchanan tried to use humor to get the fans going. After one student’s half court shot came up short, Buchanan quipped, “That looked good — for a second.”
At least the new scoreboard looked sharp at Thomas & Mack Center. Boyd Gaming donated the money to UNLV so that the new center-hung video board could be purchased and installed.
LVSportsBiz.com talked to two UNLV cheerleaders after halftime to find out why more students don’t attend basketball games. One cheerleader said her fellow students are “lazy,” while the other said many students don’t have “school spirit” to come to Thomas & Mack.
The Rebellion, which is the organized UNLV student section at the arena, did have its student fans holding signs during the game. But its size for Saturday’s season-opener was smaller than past Rebellion sections in previous years.
One Rebellion member, a student wearing a classic Larry Johnson jersey, agreed with the other student’s assessment that UNLV needs a better marketing and promotion effort to inform students of home games and noted there isn’t “a big buy-in by the students.”
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As for the game itself, UNLV played poorly, committing 24 turnovers and shooting two of 16 from three-point land against the West Coast Conference team.
Menzies said after the game: “Obviously, very disappointed with the outcome. I felt like we played really hard, but incredibly careless. I thought that our guys were just really out of sync offensively and just playing too rushed. Our seniors are going to be our backbone and all three of them struggled tonight. When that happens we are going to struggle as a team.”
UNLV senior forward Shakur Juiston led the team with 12 points and seven rebounds.
UNLV continues its season-opening homestand with a game Tuesday at 7 p.m. when UC Riverside visits Thomas & Mack Center.
UNLV’s football team enjoyed a stunning victory Saturday night, defeating San Diego State, 27-24, in a major upset to win its first Mountain West Conference game of the season. UNLV’s football team is 3-7.
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