LAS VEGAS — Josh Pastner wants five exhibition games for a rebuilt UNLV team that has already lost the ball 36 times in two. He has one left, against Missouri on Thursday, and a regular-season opener against Northern Arizona coming Tuesday. His argument for more games makes sense. It also leaves him with a coaching problem the schedule cannot fix this week.
Pastner has not had his entire roster together. Returning players will change his combinations again. Getting those groups organized, he said Wednesday, belongs to him.
“That's gonna fall on me,” Pastner said. “I gotta figure that out.”
UNLV has enough evidence to understand the urgency. The Rebels led BYU 42-30 with 3:05 left in the first half Saturday, moving the ball well enough to record nine assists on their first 17 baskets. BYU scored the last 11 points before halftime, then won 89-77. UNLV managed three assists after the break.
Two late first-half giveaways against the press helped BYU pull back into the game. By the end, another promising stretch of basketball had become a lesson the Rebels still needed to learn. They had turned it over 18 times against Utah. They did it 18 more times against BYU.
The NCAA has already given teams one more opportunity to do that work. Legislation effective Aug. 1 increased the preseason allowance from two scrimmages or exhibitions against four-year college teams to three. Those games do not count toward a team’s won-lost record. UNLV has scheduled the full allowance on Utah, BYU and Missouri rather than leaving one of its opportunities behind closed doors.
The NCAA cited new teammates learning one another in its rationale for the added preseason date. Pastner wants two more, with 11 newcomers still struggling to complete routine possessions.
“Games are the best way for you to get better,” Pastner said.
He would trade some practice time for five exhibitions in late September and October. He also pointed to a proposal allowing as many as three summer competition dates, a change that had not been approved. For a program bringing together 11 newcomers, there is a reasonable case for seeing another defense before the games count. Teammates in practice know the calls and tendencies. An opponent can deny the pass UNLV expects to be there and force five players to make the next decision together.
The summer proposal is a separate change. The NCAA’s basketball oversight committees introduced it Oct. 6, with votes anticipated in December and cabinet review by January. It would permit up to three competition dates during the eight-week summer access period. Schools could choose among exhibitions, scrimmages, joint practices and three-on-three or five-on-five formats, either publicly or privately.
Those dates would have to finish at least 30 days before the first on-court practice. The plan also would replace the current allowance for 10 practices before a foreign tour. For men’s basketball, the package proposes increasing weekly summer activity from eight hours to 10. None of that is an approved extra date available to Pastner before Northern Arizona.
The timing would matter even if the proposal passes. A summer game tests the players healthy and eligible then. It cannot give Jones repetitions while his shoulder is recovering or let Storr compete while he is ineligible. A later return still leaves the coach fitting a player into groups that have already developed habits without him.
The proposal also distinguishes practice from competition. A player ineligible for the regular season could participate in summer skill instruction without being enrolled in summer classes, but could not compete on the three proposed dates. More opportunities for a team would therefore not automatically create the same opportunities for every player on its roster. UNLV’s eligibility uncertainty would remain a separate problem from the number of games permitted.
UNLV has already had two chances to answer an opponent’s adjustment. Twice, the turnovers followed it into the second half. Missouri now gets to ask whether the Rebels have learned anything from either night.
Twenty-one of UNLV’s 36 turnovers came after halftime. Pastner estimated the Rebels gave away roughly a quarter of their possessions against Utah. He said the rate improved against BYU, but his target is 12% or less. Playing fast is part of his plan. Letting the other team take the ball before UNLV gets a shot cannot become the price everyone accepts for it.
The guards have to make better passes. Pastner also described mistakes that begin before the throw, with receivers drifting away from an outlet or two teammates occupying the same space. A ballhandler looking for relief cannot make the routine pass if nobody stays available to catch it.
Terrance Ford Jr. and Cam Miles had turnover problems against Utah. Their responsibility is to recognize pressure early and deliver a pass a teammate can handle. The receiver has work to do, too. Moving toward the ball gives the passer a target; wandering away gives a defender room to step between them. UNLV cannot solve that relationship by asking one guard to dribble through every trap.
One BYU possession made the receiver’s responsibility especially clear. Jackson Kiss inbounded to Kota Suttle Jr., then moved ahead instead of remaining behind the ball for a return pass. Pastner explained afterward that Suttle was charged with the turnover, but Kiss had taken away the outlet. The player listed beside the giveaway did not account for everything that caused it.
Kiss has already heard the correction. Against Missouri, he needs to stay available the next time a teammate is trapped. Another game gives him a chance to apply what Pastner explained after BYU.
Freshman Jackson Kiss has nine turnovers through the two exhibitions. Pastner compared his decision-making to a hitter swinging for a home run when a single would do. He believes Kiss can grow into a major role by conference play. In the meantime, the freshman can help the offense by completing the next pass rather than trying to create the entire possession himself. His teammates then have to keep the ball moving so that a modest first play can lead somewhere.
Missouri will put those choices under pressure at the Thomas & Mack Center at 7 p.m. Thursday. Pastner expects Dennis Gates' defenders to play above receivers and deny perimeter passes, using principles Gates learned under Leonard Hamilton at Florida State. Standing and waiting for the ball would let that defense dictate the possession.
UNLV calls its backdoor response a “burn.” When a defender leans into the passing lane, the receiver cuts behind him. The guard must see the move before the help arrives. If the cutter goes while the passer is looking elsewhere, there is no easy basket. If the passer hesitates, a promising opening can become another difficult throw.
The destination matters as much as the cut. After BYU, Pastner said Jeremy Foumena had drifted away from the deep baseline areas where he wanted him available. Foumena scored 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds, so the criticism was not a rejection of his production. It concerned where the next guard could expect to find him.
Jones’ return creates another version of that relationship. The guard needs to know whether Jones is rolling toward the rim, waiting behind the help or moving away to clear a drive. Jones has experience in the system, but the new ballhandler has not played an exhibition with him. The coach can explain the spacing before the game; both players have to recognize it at speed.
Getting behind the first defender will not remove Missouri's size. Bryson Tiller had nine rebounds and five blocks in the Tigers' 71-67 exhibition win over Kansas State. Mark Mitchell adds another physical presence inside. Pastner has been emphatic about how UNLV should approach them.
“Two feet, two feet, two feet,” he repeated Wednesday.
Gathering under control gives a driver a chance to stop, find the help defender and pass if the shot disappears. Charging off one foot makes that decision harder. For a team already losing possessions, a drive into traffic cannot keep becoming a desperate play in the air.
“We are a paint team,” Pastner said. UNLV has made 14 of 46 attempts from 3-point range in the two exhibitions. Tyler Harris and Issac Williamson, two shooting options, have been unavailable. Their absences limit who can punish a defender for leaving the perimeter. The available Rebels still have to recognize when the lane closes and get the ball to a teammate before the defense recovers.
Pastner's preferred defense adds another demand on the same players. “When in doubt, press,” he said. Only eight Rebels played against BYU, and the work of pressuring the ball, recovering and doing it again wore on the rotation. Asking for sustained pressure with a short bench carries a cost the coach has to manage.
Miles played 36 minutes against BYU, Mack and Dontrez Williams 33 each and Kiss 32. Those four carried 134 of the available 200 player minutes. Pastner wants to press, develop reserves and establish combinations, all while leaning on the same tired group. Five games would give him more room to work. They would also give those players two more nights of chasing, recovering and handling the ball unless he finds someone else he can trust.
A reserve needs enough time to learn where he fits. The regulars need enough time together to stop throwing the ball away. Pastner has to find minutes for both, then live with what happens while the less experienced group is out there. An additional date would give him room to make those choices, without making them easier.
Tyrin Jones is expected to return from shoulder surgery Thursday with a 20-minute limit. His presence can give the press an experienced defender behind it and another rebounder to finish a stop. Ford, Harris and Williamson remain out; AJ Storr was still ineligible Wednesday. Pastner expects to use eight or nine players regularly, possibly 10, once the roster permits it.
He remembered struggling to organize an 11-man rotation during an injury-driven stretch last November. A deeper bench offers rest, but each substitution also puts another combination on the floor. Jones' return will require guards to learn when he is available near the basket and defenders to trust his calls behind the pressure. Those details need repetitions, and Pastner has to decide which groups get them.
Five exhibitions might make that work easier. UNLV has three, and the third has to produce something the first two did not: reliable possessions after the opponent adjusts. Tuesday's turnovers will count.
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