LAS VEGAS – Since the long cold war between Jerry Tarkanian and Lute Olson ended decades ago, UNLV and Arizona have resumed their regional rivalry seven times, all since 2006-07.
But Saturday’s game is the last of a current four-game series that was signed in 2011, and played out in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16, with a skip last season at UNLV’s request.
Arizona basketball operations director Ryan Reynolds said there are no curent talks about extending the series, though UA would have an interest in resuming the series at some future point. The Wildcats usually have Gonzaga and/or at least one Mountain West team in its schedule rotation at any one time.
Second-year UNLV coach Marvin Menzies said he’d like to see the series resume, too.
“I think it’s a good game to play,” Menzies told the Star. “We are always in negotiations with scheduling so that’s definitely an option to look forward to and see if dates will work. For their program and ours, we’d like to keep it.”
As head coach at New Mexico State, Menzies agreed to a home-and-home with Arizona in 2010-11 and 2011-12, plus a one-time guarantee game in 2013-14.
His Aggies lost all three of those games, but the UA-UNLV series has been much more competitive.
UNLV beat the Wildcats in double overtime at McKale Center during Sean Miller’s first season at UA in 2009-10, the final game of four straight seasons the teams met as part of a previous series, while the teams have each won on their home courts during the first three games of the current series (including a 71-67 UNLV win in 2014-15.
A big reason Menzies was offered the UNLV job in April 2016 was his recruiting ability, and he delivered Scout’s No. 15 recruiting class in 2017. That class has helped UNLV assemble a 6-1 mark so far this season.
Included in that class, of course, was five-star seven-footer Brandon McCoy, who also considered Arizona, Oregon and Michigan State.
“So far, so good,” Menzies said of his recruiting at UNLV. “We have a good group of kids. Lot of talent. We’ll go through the challenges and hopefully keep getting wins along the way.”
Betting sentiment has pushed Arizona to a 4.5-point favorite against UNLV, even as the game opened at 3.5. Kenpom has the Wildcats winning by seven.
Ed Graney’s column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal suggests the Wildcats are distracted by the FBI investigation and Book Richardson’s absence.
The Rebels are trying to rebound from an overtime loss at Northern Iowa.
Our advance coverage, including a look at UA's Las Vegas history under Sean Miller and a scouting report, is attached to this post.
