LAS VEGAS — Chemistry can be a complicated thing.
Especially in this Wild West age of college athletics where roster turnover is fueled by NIL funding, the transfer portal and coaches coming and going.
Josh Pastner says he was a pretty good chemistry student in high school. But with his second year as UNLV’s head men’s basketball coach underway, he better get good at developing chemistry within his roster.
Problem is, he’s not sure what his roster will look like. AJ Storr, who would make a major impact on the Runnin’ Rebels, is still ineligible as he tries to get a Tennessee court to clear him to play. Storr, a 6-foot-5 fifth-year senior guard, has previously played at St. John’s, Wisconsin, Kansas and Mississippi.
Storr was named to the All-Mountain West Preseason team Wednesday along with sophomore forward Tyrin Jones at the conference's Basketball Media Day at the Palms. But he was not on the court Wednesday night when UNLV hosted Utah at the Thomas & Mack Center in the first of three exhibition games. Neither was Jones, who is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery and was just recently cleared for contact.
UNLV was picked to finish fourth in the Mountain West Preseason Poll behind New Mexico (179 points), Grand Canyon (178) and Nevada (148). The Rebels garnered 125 points.
But getting back to that chemistry challenge. Pastner when through it last year when he took over for Kevin Kruger and got a late start on recruiting. They got better as the season went on and finished 18-17 overall, 11-9 in conference. And while it was disappointing for sure, it was a lesson learned for Pastner. And to be more successful, it means getting everyone on the same page and working together.
“One of the ways is you have to be up front with everything,” Pastner said when asked to define how to build chemistry. “Be honest and transparent. It’s something you have to work on every day.”
He had the entire spring and summer to run at it. There’s only two returning players in Jones and Isaac Williamson, so it’s like virtually starting over for Pastner.
“We’re up early,” Jones said of how the team is trying to develop a chemistry from within. “We’re doing things together as a group. We’ll stay and talk after practice and get to know each other.”
Pastner said: “Tyrin and Isaac are two big keys. They’ve been here. They get it.”
If Storr becomes eligible, it’ll be a huge boost. And if freshman Jackson Kiss can deliver it will certainly enhance their chances for success. Kiss, a 6-8 forward from New Zealand who played at Utah Prep, was tabbed as the MW’s preseason Freshman of the Year.
“I think he’ll be a fan favorite,” Pastner said of Kiss, who was coached by former Rebel and fellow Kiwi Mark Dickel in Utah. “The more he plays, the better he’ll get.”
And while the NCAA tries to deal with escalating costs and there’s legislation to provide oversight to dealing with NIL — both of Nevada’s senators voted yes on the bill — coaches like Pastner have to deal with the present.
Back in July, he said in an interview with a local television station that maybe someone would buy the Runnin’ Rebels brand instead of investing billions in an NBA expansion team for Las Vegas and fund it to the tune of $10 million to $12 million or somewhere in the neighborhood. He caught some heat for the comment but if you think about it, it’s not that far-fetched an idea.
Basically, it already exists where an affluent person can fund a program. Think Mike Repole, who founded Vitaminwater and Bodyarmor and is worth $2.5 billion and is helping his alma mater St. John’s with its NIL needs.
But with the season about to begin, Pastner has to turn his attention to what happens on the court. Wednesday night saw the Rebels fall to Utah, 79-69 in the first of three exhibition tuneups and not a whole lot of people were there to witness it. The announced crowd was 3,175 and the actual number was probably a third of that.
Last year, UNLV averaged just 5,374 a game at home last season. And in an 18,000-seat building like the Thomas & Mack, it makes it seem and look like nobody’s there.
And when you consider the home-court edge teams like New Mexico, Grand Canyon and Hawaii enjoy and even Nevada outpacing UNLV in home attendance (The Wolf Pack averaged 8,133 at the 11,536-seat Lawlor Events Center), holding serve at home is a challenge right now for the Rebels.
“We’ve got to do our part,” Pastner said. “We’ve got to win. We’ve got to be exciting. We’ve got to be thinking outside the box with our in-game presentation. We want a family of five to have such a great experience at our games that they’ll want to come back.”
They might want to return to watch Sebastian Mack. The senior guard from Chicago finished with 25 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Cam Miles had 16 points but neither were efficient with their shooting. Mack needed 22 shots to get to 25 while Miles was just 6 of 14 from the floor.
“Sebastian had 12 points in the first half on 13 shots and he was inefficient,” Pastner said. “He was much better in the second half — 5 of 7.”
The Rebels have struggled at the foul line in recent years and it was more of the same Wednesday. UNLV was 15 of 29 from the stripe for just 51.7 percent. And the perimeter defense was lacking too in the first half. Utah was 9 of 21 from long distance in the opening 20 minutes before UNLV clamped down and held the Utes to just 1-of-11 shooting in the second half.
“There’s a lot to clean up,” said Pastner, who has 17 days to straighten things out before his team hosts BYU on the 24th and then Missouri on Oct. 29. “But the more games we can play, the better, so we can see where we’re at.”