don’t bet on it

    If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me, “How do you go to school in Vegas?,” I would be rich. But being a student-athlete here, has kept me out of the casinos, even now that I’m 21. NCAA athletes are not allowed to bet on any professional sport that is a NCAA championship sport. But surprisingly, the percentage of college athletes that gamble and bet are high. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education Daily Report, male college athletes are more likely to gamble on sports than their female counterparts. The NCAA’s 2003 National Study on Collegiate Sports Wagering and Associated Health Risks surveyed 21,000 male and female college athletes. The survey found that almost 35 percent of male athletes participated in some type of sports wagering, compared to just 10 percent of female athletes.

      I’m not sure why more male college athletes gamble compared to women athletes, but I thought this study included some very interesting facts!

oh great…here comes reno

    UNLV baseball will host Reno tomorrow at 4:00pm at Earl E. Wilson Stadium. The Rebels return home after dropping all three games at Fullerton this past weekend. Even if you don’t like baseball, you hate UNR, right? Come out and cheer the guys on. Hopefully they can get back on the winning track. Good luck Rebs

no matter

    Unfortunately the men’s basketball team loss on Saturday to the number one seeded Kansas Jayhawks.  Even though the run is over for them, the tournament is still going on, with the Sweet Sixteen starting this Friday. Stay tuned! I’m sure you’ve heard of the success Davidson College is having and how they’re being referenced to as this year’s George Mason University. The lower seeded teams are knocking off basketball powerhouses such as Duke University, Georgetown University, and the University of Conneticut, who are all out of the tournament. This is why it’s called, “March Madness.” It’s when no name schools become the talk of the tournament, and where what you did before doesn’t matter now.

help during the madness

    The Journalist Toolbox on the American Press Institute website had a link to http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/. The website allows you to plan ahead for coverage of events and other important dates and times. For most sports fans, March Madness is one of the most exciting things about college athletics. There are up to five games a day sometimes. If you want to keep your bracket up to date, you don’t want to miss any of the action.

   With 65 teams, and one final champion being crowned, there’s going to be a lot of basketball games going on throughout the month of March. You can put the games and times into the calendar so you won’t miss any of the madness! Check it out

let’s dance!

     The madness has begun! The men’s basketball team is going dancing!!! The Rebs defeated Brigham Young University http://www.byucougars.com/basketball_m/ in the MWC championship game to clench an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Rebels are in the Midwest bracket as the eighth seed. They face Kent State Thursday at 11:55am in Omaha, Nebraska. I spoke with a few Rebel fans that were suprised with the seed the Rebels received. There were other fans that thought our strength of schedule may have hurt us.

   The NCAA tournament is a new season though. The seedings and rankings really don’t matter because in the end, only one champion will be crowned.

don’t forget about us!

    The UNLV Women’s Basketball team will face Colorado State University tomorrow night at six in the Thomas and Mack Center. The Lady Rebs are seeded 8th and the Rams are seeded 9th. The Rebels faced CSU a little over a month ago, and beat them by ten points.

    It’s been a up and down season for the Lady Rebels, but hopefully they will be able to put the regular season behind them and focus on post-season play.

Coach of the Year

    Men’s basketball coach Lon Kruger was named the 2007-08 Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year. Kruger has led this year’s Runnin’ Rebels to a 23-7 overall record and a second-place finish in the MWC with a 12-4 league mark. He has led UNLV to back-to-back seasons with at least 23 wins for the first time since 1990-91 and 1991-92. UNLV loss four starters from last year’s NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 team, and their 2006-07 MWC Defensive Player of the Year. UNLV is without 62 percent of the scoring, rebounding and minutes played from last season’s team and is competing with just a 10-man roster after the loss of three players from the program during the season. Additionally, UNLV is winning with a lineup that averages just 6-feet, 4.5-inches and whose tallest starter is only 6-foot-7-inches.

    The MWC Tournament starts Wednesday at 6pm for the number 2 seeded Rebels. They will face the number 7 seeded Horned Frogs of TCU.

March Madness Part 2

    Is there a more exciting time in college sports than March Madness? The upsets, the buzzer beaters, filling out brackets, and the crowning of a new national champion. There’s certainly going to be a new champion this year considering last years champion Florida Gators probably won’t even make the tournament this year. They loss just about all of their starters to the NBA, and head Coach Billy Donavan has spent more time teaching the freshman his coaching style than winning basketball games.  

   So who will be the new champion? North Carolina is number one right now but that doesn’t mean anything during the month of March. March madness is unpredictable and full of surprises. Let the madness begin.

march madness

     The Runnin’ Rebels finished up the regular season with a record of 23-7, 12-4 in the Mountain West Conference. The Mountain West Conference is the league that they are a part of. They finished second in conference behind Brigham Young University.

   Next Sunday the Rebels will be tuned in to the NCAA tournament Selection Show. They are hoping to be one of the 64 teams to make the NCAA tournament. They have a good record and their strength of schedule isn’t bad either but the Rebels are still a bubble team. The strenght of schedule is an important factor because it’s what the selection committee will look at. The ”strength” of the schedule is referring to the teams that the Rebels have played during regular season. If they beat a nationally ranked school such as UCLA or North Carolina, our strength of schedule numbers would be good.

    The best thing for them to do is win the Mountain West Conference tournament which starts Thursday night at six for the Rebels. They play the seventh seeded Texas Christian University Horned Frogs. Winning would give them an automatic bid to the national tournament. BYU will most likely go to the tournament since they’re ranked 25th in the country right now.

   There are only 64 teams that make the NCAA tournament!