Runnin' Rebels Open Tuesday Night: Northern Arizona at the Thomas & Mack, a First Meeting in a Decade, and a Las Vegas Native on the Other Bench
UNLV's second season under Josh Pastner starts for real on Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Northern Arizona — the teams' first meeting since 2016. The Rebels were picked fourth in the Mountain West, Tyrin Jones and AJ Storr made the preseason all-conference team, and NAU's leading returner, Ryan Abelman, is a Bishop Gorman graduate coming home.
The exhibitions are done — UNLV closed them Thursday by rallying from nine down in the second half to beat Missouri 90-81 — and the season starts Tuesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, where Northern Arizona visits for a 7 p.m. tip streamed on MW+. It is a series with a long pause in it: the programs last met in 2016, when UNLV won 110-71 for its fifth straight win in the matchup. The Rebels lead the all-time series 19-9, including 15-2 at home, and the Lumberjacks have not beaten UNLV since 2003.
The Rebels UNLV fans get first is a picked-fourth Mountain West team coming off an 18-17 season, an 11-9 league record and an NIT second-round run — the program's fifth straight winning season, and Josh Pastner's second at the helm. The preseason honors map the rotation's top end: Tyrin Jones, the leading returning scorer at 11.9 points a game and a Mountain West All-Defensive pick who led the league at 2.2 blocks, and transfer AJ Storr, who led Ole Miss in scoring at 15.5 a game, were both voted Preseason All-Conference, and four-star recruit Jackson Kiss was named Preseason Freshman of the Year.
Northern Arizona arrives as the underdog with a hometown thread. The Lumberjacks went 10-22 last season and were picked 11th in the Big Sky under eighth-year head coach Shane Burcar, but their most experienced player starts his final college season where he grew up: guard Ryan Abelman, a Las Vegas native and Bishop Gorman graduate, averaged career highs of 10.5 points and 5.1 rebounds last year and led NAU with 52 three-pointers. Sophomore Chris Komin, the team's assists and steals leader as a freshman, joins him in the backcourt. Tuesday night is Election Night in Las Vegas; by the time the polls close at 7, the ball goes up at the Mack.
