Cal welcomes UNLV to Haas Pavilion
On Tuesday at 8:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks, Cal men’s basketball will welcome UNLV to Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, California. Cal comes into this game at 1-0 overall while UNLV comes in at 1-1.
Last time out: On Tuesday, November 5th, Cal defeated Pepperdine 87-71 behind a career-high 25 points and 5 rebounds from Matt Bradley and a double-double from Andre Kelly (16 points and 10 rebounds).
RECAP: Cal rolls past Pepperdine in regular season opener
ANALYSIS: Cal Downs Pepperdine Behind Hot Second Half Shooting
On UNLV: UNLV won their opening game against Purdue Fort Wayne by a final score of 86-71 and lost their second game against Kansas State by a final score of 60-56 in overtime. Both games were at home.
UNLV is led by junior guard Amauri Hardy, who is averaging 21.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game on 51.5% shooting from the field, 42.9% shooting from 3-point range, and 1.000% shooting from the foul line (2 attempts). In the post, junior big man Cheikh Mbacke Diong is holding his own quite nicely, averaging 10.5 points, 14.0 rebounds, 2.5 blocks, and 1.5 steals per game. Senior guard Elijah Mitrou-Long (10.5 points) and junior guard Jonah Antonio (10.0 points) are also scoring in double figures, rounding out a solid UNLV scoring punch.
As a team, UNLV is averaging 71.0 points per game while giving up 65.5 points per game for a +5.5 scoring differential per game. UNLV is shooting 42.9% from the field, 31.1% from 3-point range, and 76.2% from the foul line while opponents are shooting 42.7% from the field and 22.2% from 3-point range. On the glass, UNLV is averaging 43 rebounds while holding opponents to 28 rebounds per game for a solid +15 rebounding differential.
Via The Associated Press: UNLV has the current NCAA-record streak for most consecutive games with at least one 3-point field goal made. UNLV has made a 3-pointer in every single game since the NCAA adopted the 3-point line back in the 1986-87 season (1,072 games).
Keys to the game: Against Pepperdine, Cal won the rebounding battle by +8 (38-30), but they didn’t have a big like Diong to go up against. If Cal can keep Diong and the rest of the Runnin’ Rebels off the glass and win the rebounding battle, they’ll put themselves in a good position to win this game. Don’t be surprised if freshmen Lars Thiemann (11 minutes) and D.J. Thorpe (DNP) see more minutes than they did last week. Cal is going to need all the help they can get inside.
The second key to this game for Cal will be to keep the hot shooting going from beyond the arc. Against Pepperdine, Cal shot 10-19 (52.6%) from 3-point range, doing a fantastic job of lighting the Waves up. Perimeter defense is a calling card of this UNLV team judging by their opponents’ 3-point percentage. Cal probably won’t have the same level of success that they did against Pepperdine, but if they can shoot around 40.0%, they should be in good shape.
Lastly, Cal needs to move the ball. Cal had only 12 assists against Pepperdine, which is a pretty low assist total. If they want to beat UNLV, they’ll have to get a higher assist total and do a better job of creating open looks for each other. Cal is already worlds better in this department than they were a year ago, but they still have a lot of room for growth. 20+ assists should be the target every night. Especially since they have Paris Austin and Joel Brown.