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Runnin’ Rebels

Jeremy Foumena Gives UNLV a Chance to Protect Tyrin Jones’ Minutes

By Mike Cooper

LAS VEGAS — Josh Pastner needs to be able to sit Tyrin Jones without asking a smaller Rebel to do a center’s job. UCF transfer Jeremy Foumena gives him a 6-foot-11, 250-pound candidate for those minutes behind the returning sophomore.

Jeremy Foumena poses in a black UNLV uniform.
UNLV Athletics (UNLV Athletics)

Foumena has played in the Atlantic 10, SEC and Big 12, but he has spent those seasons coming off the bench. UNLV is adding an experienced reserve who still needs to establish a dependable role.

Foumena appeared in 26 games for UCF in 2025-26, averaging 3.5 points and 2.3 rebounds on 54.8% shooting. His games against Quinnipiac and Cincinnati showed what he could do with different workloads.

Against Quinnipiac, he scored a career-high 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds in 18 minutes. That production came in a game UCF had to rescue. The Knights trailed 52-47 at halftime before winning 102-91 on Nov. 25. Foumena’s offense arrived while the outcome still required somebody to change it.

UCF’s game account described consecutive Foumena dunks during the second-half surge. Themus Fulks finished with 13 assists, Riley Kugel scored 16 points and fellow center John Bol added 13 points and six rebounds. Foumena led the scoring, but the Knights also had a guard distributing the ball and another big producing inside. UNLV should notice the company his best night kept.

His Jan. 11 game against Cincinnati carried a different demand. Foumena played a season-high 30 minutes and scored 12 points on 6-for-8 shooting, with eight rebounds, in a 73-72 victory. An 18-minute burst against Quinnipiac suggested immediate offense. The Cincinnati game asked him to stay involved through a close Big 12 game that remained unsettled until the final seconds.

Fulks assisted on a Foumena dunk during a 6-0 run, and a Foumena jumper gave UCF a 51-50 lead. Fulks eventually made the deciding jumper with 13 seconds left. Kugel scored 19 and Jamichael Stillwell had 15. Foumena supplied offense in the middle of the fight without having to finish it himself.

For UNLV, the attraction is being able to ask him for either kind of night. Some games may require a short shift while Jones rests. Foul trouble or a difficult matchup could require more. Cincinnati is evidence that Foumena has handled an extended assignment against major-conference competition. One game cannot make 30 minutes his new baseline, but it prevents the discussion from reducing him to emergency size.

His route here also deserves an honest reading. Foumena redshirted at Rhode Island before averaging 5.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in 28 games as a reserve. He then appeared in nine games at Mississippi State before moving to UCF. UNLV will be his fourth college program. The move to Las Vegas will ask him to establish a role that has changed considerably from school to school.

At Rhode Island, the production came early enough to create expectations. In his second collegiate game, he had 14 points, six rebounds and four assists against Fairfield. He followed with 16 points and seven rebounds against Wagner and later recorded 12 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks against New Hampshire. The Rams’ record also includes 13 points and two blocks against Fordham during conference play.

Those games give his development some shape. Foumena was capable of contributing beyond catching a lob before he ever reached the Big 12. The Fairfield assists, in particular, belong in a discussion of how a center can keep teammates involved. They do not make him a primary playmaker. They do suggest that UNLV can ask for a sensible pass when a second defender takes away his shot.

Mississippi State interrupted that progression in playing time. The Bulldogs’ season totals list 26 minutes for Foumena, compared with 523 for center Michael Nwoko. Nwoko had a regular assignment while Foumena rarely got the chance to build one of his own. Being on an SEC roster is experience, but those nine appearances cannot be sold as a season of SEC rotation work.

UCF restored more opportunity. It also reunited him with Kugel, another Mississippi State transfer, as the Knights noted when they announced Foumena’s arrival. His subsequent production gives UNLV more recent evidence than the year in Starkville. For Foumena, the next task is to make a rotation place last, rather than have another encouraging game become the main exhibit in the next transfer discussion.

The offensive job can begin near the basket. A guard who draws the opposing center needs a target behind that help. Foumena’s size gives Terrance Ford Jr. someone to look for inside, while his UCF games supply actual examples of scoring alongside a productive passer. Now Ford and Foumena have to find that timing together.

There is also a limit to how far the offensive projection should stretch. By March, Foumena was 40-for-73 from the field, with one 3-point attempt, and 12-for-24 at the foul line. The field-goal percentage belongs beside a small workload. It should not become a promise that he can produce the same efficiency if UNLV starts asking him to create twice as many shots.

The free throws could affect a different decision: who stays in late. A center can finish well in open play and still give Pastner something to weigh when an opponent is fouling. Foumena will have to make opponents pay for sending him to the line. Earning a second-half shift and earning the final two minutes are separate steps.

His background reaches beyond those three college leagues. Foumena came through Tony McIntyre’s Orangeville Prep program near Toronto before Rhode Island, after growing up in France. The route has already demanded several basketball adjustments. Las Vegas now offers a particular one: fitting his experience around a younger center whom the Rebels have chosen to keep developing.

Screening is part of that exchange. If Foumena can delay the guard’s defender legally, Ford may have time to reach the lane before a second defender arrives. If Foumena leaves too early or never makes the defender change course, the guard has less of an advantage to use. That is a prospective job for him here, and a far more useful test than counting how many dunks make a summer montage.

At the other end, Pastner needs the center and the guards to solve the same possession. If Issac Williamson is chasing over a screen, Foumena may have to slow the ballhandler while Williamson recovers. Committing fully to the ball can expose the rolling big. Staying too far back can leave the guard with a comfortable shot. His college experience does not settle how well he will handle those decisions in UNLV’s defense.

Nor should Jones’ return turn every frontcourt addition into a projected starter beside him. Jones and Foumena can compete at the same position while helping the roster in different stretches. Playing both would require Pastner to decide which one defends away from the rim and whether the offense has enough shooting around them. Their combined height would not excuse giving the opponent two defenders who can wait in the paint.

Incoming forward MJ Thomas brings another interior finisher into that discussion. Thomas should have a chance to earn his work rather than be moved around simply to fit every newcomer onto the floor. Foumena’s clearest route is to establish that he can handle center when Jones sits. A larger lineup can follow if the actual combinations justify it.

Tyler Harris has a different part in those decisions. A forward who makes an opponent respect him away from the basket can leave more room for the center and the guards. UNLV would have to get that shooting in games before relying on the effect. Foumena’s finishing and Harris’ perimeter work should complement each other; neither player can complete the other’s assignment for him.

The addition of Cam Miles also gives Pastner another guard to evaluate with the new frontcourt. Chemistry has to include the less glamorous possessions: where the center wants the pass, how long the guard needs the screen and who gets back when a shot goes up. Those relationships are part of why retaining Jones and Williamson helps. UNLV has returning players around whom new combinations can be tested.

I would judge Foumena by what happens during Jones’ rest: whether UNLV finishes defensive possessions, keeps its guards attacking and avoids bringing Jones back before Pastner intended.

Foumena has already had the big scoring night and the long night in a close win. What his career still needs is a stretch of nights that belong to him. UNLV has a returning center worth building around and a vacancy in the work behind him. Foumena can make this move count by giving Pastner a reason to leave Jones on the bench when the next possession gets difficult.

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