PREVIEW: UNLV vs Cal Golden Bears

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unlv vs cal

NEW HOOPS PREVIEW: UNLV vs Cal Berkley - Game 3 | Franchise Sports Media
Photo Courtesy via Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

After splitting his first two games as head coach of the Runnin’ Rebels, TJ Otzelberger is now preparing the team for their first road game of the season in Berkeley to play against the Cal Golden Bears.

Cal is coached by their own first-year head coach Mark Fox. Heading into this game, Fox has the team at 1-0, after defeating Pepperdine last week, 87-71. Sophomore guard Matt Bradley led them in scoring with his career-high 25 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Cal is another team with a lot of turnover from last season, looking to get things turned around. They finished last season in dead last place in the Pac 12 Conference, with an overall record of 8-23 and 3-15 in conference play.

UNLV will be looking to bounce back from their tough close loss to Kansas State this past Saturday. It was a game that saw their defense make things difficult for the Wildcats, but that was the case for them as well on offense. The Runnin’ Rebels finished the game with 25 turnovers, looking in disarray on particular possessions and forcing bad shots late in the shot clock for most of the game.

They will need to figure this out if they hope to leave Haas Pavilion with a win. Some possible solutions will be figuring out some plays to run that will get more players involved. Otzelberger stayed after the Kansas State loss that he will need to figure out how to get Jonah Antonio, Donnie Tillman, and Bryce Hamilton more involved.

Another significant presence that needs to be felt in this game is by Mbacke Diong, who scored 17 pts in the season opener, but only 4 pts in their last game.

UNLV needs to get those players more involved; they will not be successful if they only rely on one person to carry the load each game. That was the case as Amauri Hardy put the team on his back, on his way to putting up his career-high 27 pts.

This game against Cal is their first of two consecutive road games against Pac 12 opponents. The Rebels will also travel to Westwood to take on the UCLA Bruins on Friday.

You can watch UNLV take on Cal on the Pac 12 Network. The game will take place on Tuesday at 8 pm.

Buy Runnin’ Rebel tickets here

unlv vs cal

Isaiah Torres

Twitter: Isaiah_Torres24

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unlv vs cal

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