Tag: UNLV Rebels

12 hours and 1,760 miles away after PGA Tour debut, this golfer teed it up in college event

“I probably slept two days straight after the adrenaline kicked out.”

Caden Fiononi’s body still aches. He’s taking a few days off from touching his golf clubs, and for good reason.

The senior at UNLV had a wild journey last week. He made his PGA Tour debut at the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas, battling insane wind conditions in the second round resulting in a missed cut. About 12 hours later, he was about 1,760 miles away in Mississippi, running on less than two hours of sleep and set to tee it up for the Rebels in the Fallen Oak Collegiate.

While it would have been an easy choice for others to not scramble halfway across the country, Fioroni never wavered.

“Most selfish golfers, especially with rankings and PGA Tour (University), you would probably have sat it out,” Fioroni said. “But this is my last year, and I care a lot about this team. I care about the program, and I want them to succeed.”

Fioroni’s round finished close to 7 p.m. at TPC Summerlin on Friday evening, and he was exhausted. Before prepping for his PGA Tour debut, the UNLV men’s golf team returned from a college tournament in Dallas, so he was on the go non-stop.

There was a ton of prep time and grinding on the range, playing practice rounds with pros like Rickie Fowler picking up on tips and tricks. Add in Friday’s wind conditions, which he played his entire second round in, his tank was empty when is final putt dropped.

After talking with his father, however, Fioroni called UNLV coach Jean-Paul Hebert and asked whether he could play.

The next step was finding a flight. Southwest Airlines had one to New Orleans, Louisiana, but it was scheduled to leave at 7:50 PT. Thankfully, it was delayed an hour and a half, giving Fioroni time to make it to the airport.

He scurried home and threw together a bunch of clothes into a bag. “I didn’t really know what I threw in,” he said. And it was off to the airport.

He didn’t have a ticket when he got to the airport, but after going to the counter, he was able to get a seat on the flight.

A three-and-a-half hour flight later, Fioroni was wheels down in New Orleans, where Hebert was waiting at 3:30 a.m. CT to pick him up. Only there was a problem. His bag with his clothes in it didn’t come out on the baggage carousel.

He was still in the clothes he played his round in at TPC Summerlin, and that’s all he had.

“I waited another hour to talk to this lady that probably wanted to leave, too,” Fioroni said,” but she tried to help me out because the bag said it got there, and they didn’t know where it was.”

Eventually, the bag was secured, and Hebert and Fioroni got in the car and headed toward the hotel in Mississippi, where they arrived about 6 a.m. CT.

Less than two hours of sleep later, Fioroni was up again and ready to tee it up for the Rebels.

“I was really excited actually just be in my bed all day, the next day,” Fioroni said of his plans before flying to Mississippi. “So I just kind of tried pushing through it. And, you know, my body’s not, I mean, I’m trying to be in better shape, but I don’t know who can get used to that.”

Fioroni tied for 41st, shooting 7 over for the 54-hole tournament. He said the second round was one of the worst breaks he has ever gotten on a golf course (a plugged lie in a bunker that led to an opening double), “but I guess that’s just what golf does, right?”

“I thought it was the right thing, even though that, you know, I probably wasn’t giving myself the best chance to play my best in that college event, but I still helped the team,” Fioroni said, “which that was my kind of purpose.”

Fioroni teed off at 11:20 a.m. CT, a little more than 14 hours after his final putt dropped at a PGA Tour event in Las Vegas. A mad dash to the airport, flight and car ride later, he was teeing it up with his teammates.

It’s a week and stretch of golf he’ll never forget, but he knows testing himself will benefit him down the road, even if he’s not touching his clubs for a while.

“When I turn pro, not everything’s perfect,” Fioroni said. “And you’re gonna have to travel the day after a tournament and trying to play in something else. So that was my first time doing that.

“I probably slept two days straight after the adrenaline kicked out.”

Matthew Sluka redshirting at UNLV over lack of NIL payment

UNLV has not honored an NIL payment to starting quarterback Matthew Sluka, who now plans to redshirt after the team’s 3-0 start.

UNLV starting quarterback Matthew Sluka took to social media on Tuesday evening to announce he is redshirting the rest of the 2024 season.

“I have decided to utilize my redshirt year and will not be playing in any additional games this season,” Sluka wrote in his post. “I committed to UNLV based on certain representations that were made to me, which were not upheld after I enrolled. Despite discussions, it became clear that these commitments would not be fulfilled in the future.”

Marcus Cromartie of Equity Sports, who represents Sluka, told ESPN Sluka was promised a minimum of $100,000 by a UNLV assistant coach to transfer, and that none of that money was paid. Cromartie says no effort was made by UNLV’s collective to formalize a contract once Sluka arrived on campus, and that all he has received to date is a $3,000 relocation stipend.

Sluka’s decision was the talk of the SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday, with both Brian Kelly of LSU and Kirby Smart at Georgia advocating for revenue sharing to help alleviate issues like this one.

“The NIL, because it becomes a third-party piece, you lose control,” Kelly said. “And that’s why the revenue sharing piece is so important and getting that legislation passed now puts that back through the universities. And now those contracts can be written a lot differently. When you’re dealing with a third party and collectives and NILs, the universities are at arms length.”

“Unless there’s a set contract where Person A has to stay a certain amount of time or they’re going to have to pay back this contract, we’re never going to get to where we want to get to,” Smart added. “There’s probably going to be more and more of this going on, especially as the year goes on, November, December. Athletic departments are going to struggle to be able to make their commitments come to fruition and I think we’re going to see some really tough times in college football when all this is said and done.”

For UNLV, losing Sluka when the program is not only competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff, but in the midst of a tug-of-war between the Pac-12 and the Mountain West, is a disaster timing wise.

The Rebels will call on backup Hajj-Malik Williams to step into the starting role. Williams has yet to attempt a pass this year, but the five year vet from Campbell has rushed 10 times for 88 yards and has a history as a dual-threat quarterback.

Is UNLV QB Matthew Sluka’s cryptic redshirt announcement about NIL money?

Is the UNLV QB asking for more money or getting it elsewhere?

Well, this is something.

UNLV’s football team is 3-0 for the first time in program history, and QB Matthew Sluka has thrown six touchdowns in six games, plus run for one more to go along with 253 yards on the ground.

… And now he’s leaving?

In an announcement on social media, Sluka talked about redshirting and how he won’t play the rest of the season.

“I committed to UNLV based on certain representations that were made to me, which were not upheld after I enrolled,” he said. What does THAT mean? Is that a subtle implication about NIL money? We have no idea.

Hmm.

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UNLV strengthens case for Pac-12 membership with win on Friday

UNLV was left out of the first wave of Pac-12 additions, but could a huge win over Kansas help get them accepted?

The Pac-12 conference began the process of rebuilding earlier this week, securing membership from four Mountain West programs: Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, and San Diego State.

The UNLV Rebels were not among the four programs accepted into the Pac-12, although the conference will need to get to at least eight programs by July of 2026 in order to compete at the FBS level.

While a lot of attention is on schools in the American conference, like Memphis, Tulane, or Tulsa, UNLV remains a compelling target for the Pac-12 – and it doesn’t hurt the football program is off to a 3-0 start with two wins over Big 12 programs after defeating Kansas on Friday evening.

The Pros

Few media markets are more coveted right now than Las Vegas, which has aggressively rebranded as a sports hub over the past decade or so – adding an NHL team, a WNBA team, and snagging the Raiders from Oakland.

College football and basketball games are frequently played in Las Vegas, including this year’s massive matchup between LSU and USC in Week 1 and multiple conference basketball tournaments, including the Mountain West, WCC, WAC, and the Pac-12.

UNLV gives the Pac-12 a steady footprint in Vegas, and that alone is a huge selling point for the program.

It also doesn’t hurt the team looks good right now under coach Barry Odom, going 9-5 last year and 6-2 in conference play before losing to Kansas in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl – a loss they got revenge for on Friday.

Additionally, while the men’s basketball program hasn’t been great the past decade, the Rebels have a rich history of success in that realm – including a national championship back in 1991. Last year’s team went 21-13 overall and 12-6 in a very deep Mountain West conference, so there’s reason to believe they can compete at the Pac-12 level right away.

The Cons

UNLV is 12-5 in the Barry Odom era dating back to the start of the 2023 season, but the football history prior to his arrival is, to put it lightly, not good. The Rebels made just one bowl appearance between 2001 and 2023, a loss to North Texas in the Heart of Dallas bowl in 2013.

From 2014-2022 the Rebels went 29-74 overall and 19-51 in conference play, a stretch that included the final year of Bobby Hauck’s tenure and the entirety of coach Tony Sanchez and Marcus Arroyo’s time in Vegas. Odom has been great, but when (not if) he gets scooped up by another program, who’s to say the program won’t go right back to being a doormat – which is not what the Pac-12 is looking for in the early stages of rebuilding.

Plus, while the allure of Vegas as a market remains, UNLV doesn’t have its own football stadium which likely gives the Pac-12 some pause. The program currently plays at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, but not having a home arena curtails fan interest – especially in an area that is dominated by tourism traffic.

Lastly, it is possible the two Nevada schools, UNLV and Nevada, are expecting to be a package deal which almost certainly isn’t appealing to the Pac-12. Nevada is in a much smaller market and doesn’t have much track record for football, making them a very low priority for the conference at this time.

Verdict

Las Vegas is a huge media draw for a rebuilding conference like the Pac-12, and UNLV’s current hot start to the season and success in men’s basketball make it a bit of a surprise they were not added in the first wave of poaching via the Mountain West.

However, the poor history on the gridiron, lack of a home stadium, and potential tie to Nevada-Reno is plenty reason for the Pac-12 to look at other schools – namely Memphis, Tulane, or Tulsa – before making the Rebels a priority.

5 schools the revived Pac-12 should add next to reach maximum weirdness

The college landscape is much more interesting than what the Mountain West has to offer

The Pac-2 is officially growing again.

On Thursday, the surviving conference members of last year’s 10-team mass exodus announced four new schools will be added to the conference beginning in 2026-27.

Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State join Washington State and Oregon State in the revamped Conference of Champions.

It’s a net positive for college sports to keep the Pac-12 alive — even if it comes at the likely destruction of the Mountain West Conference. The Group of Five league gave Wazzu and Oregon State a lifeline via a scheduling alliance only to watch their own conference get raided by their guests. It’s a tough hang, but that’s the reality of college sports in 2024. And the Pac-12 almost assuredly isn’t done yet.

https://twitter.com/pac12/status/1834217156432855110

The conference still needs at least two more schools to meet the minimum eight required for league membership under NCAA rules for the Football Bowl Subdivision.

So who should the Pac-12 add next? In the college football spirit of keeping this conference as weird as possible, we’ve got some ideas that would make the league endlessly entertaining.

University of Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s start with the layup of all layups.

There is nothing college football fans want back more than Pac-12 After Dark. The final FBS games of the week always deliver the weirdest and wildest outcomes and there’s nothing like the camaraderie of posting through it together as the rest of the world goes to bed.

Bring Hawaii into the fold, promise fans it will kickoff no earlier than 10 p.m. ET each week and enjoy the ratings surge for the new America’s Team.

University of Wyoming Cowboys

Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports

Speaking of weird late-night games, there’s really no reason the Pac-12 shouldn’t invite Wyoming (aside from the incredibly small TV market).

The altitude in Laramie is 7,165 feet — nearly 2,000 feet higher than Boulder, Colorado. That does tremendous things to the football when it’s in the air, to say nothing of what it does to visiting players.

Let’s look at some of the big wins the Cowboys have pulled off at home in the last decade: No. 24 Fresno State (24-19), Texas Tech, Mizzou and No. 13 Boise State.

Get this team in the Pac-12.

UNLV Rebels

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY

UNLV isn’t a bad team by any stretch — and there’s certainly a growing TV market out in the Nevada desert — but we can be honest about this. Las Vegas is one of the weirdest cities in the world. Every league wants a foothold for a major event along The Strip. The Pac-12 shouldn’t think twice about this. It’s a perfect fit.

Simon Fraser Red Leafs

Tell me with an honestly straight face that you don’t want the only Canadian school in the NCAA to join the Pac-12. You can’t do it.

Look, Simon Fraser might have a ways to go before it’s FBS ready, especially since the former D-II Lone Star Conference team gave up the sport in 2022. Sure, a 186–321–2 all-time record isn’t great. But to that I say first, it’s nothing a little TV/NIL money can’t fix. And second, Maple Leafs on football helmets!

Think outside the box, Pac-12. Go north and stake a claim to the Vancouver television market. Go get the Red Leafs.

Pomona–Pitzer Sagehens

LOOK AT THAT MASCOT.

Before I tell you anything else about this school, just take it all in.

Ok, now, can I interest you in a program that’s actually a joint venture by two schools: Pomona College and Pitzer College? Yes, the Sagehens are currently D-III. We’ll worry about that later. Their program clearly knows how to produce winners.

Gregg Popovich coached the basketball team from 1979-86 and won three straight SCIAC titles. Mike Budenholzer also came through Pomona College.

But this all goes back to the Sagehens mascot, Cecil. He’s got one eye on the field of play, and one eye on the enemies all around. He never sleeps. You will never catch him off-guard. Stealing from him is a death sentence.

He is the new face of the new Pac-12. Embrace it.

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Duke basketball has good history with T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas

The Blue Devils played in T-Mobile Arena’s first collegiate game in 2016 and battled the top-ranked team in the country there in 2021. They’re 2-0.

The Duke basketball team must have smiled when it confirmed they would play the Kansas Jayhawks at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on November 26.

The Blue Devils have played in the new Vegas stadium twice. They played UNLV in the arena’s first collegiate basketball game back in 2016, and they played No. 1 Gonzaga there back in 2021.

Duke won both games.

Coach K and his team throttled the Rebels for a 94-45 victory the first time around, 25 years after his iconic upset of UNLV in the 1991 Final Four. Grayson Allen, in one of the first games of his junior season, scored 34 points after he shot 12/16 from the floor. Luke Kennard added 16 points, and a freshman named Jayson Tatum came off the bench for 13 of his own.

In the fall of 2021, during Krzyzewski’s final season at the helm, the Blue Devils handed Gonzaga its first loss of the season. Four Bulldogs scored at least 15 points, including Drew Timme and Chet Holmgren, but 20-point games from Paolo Banchero and Wendell Moore Jr. proved to be enough.

Duke fans need to wait until November to see if the good vibes continue in Vegas.

UNLV vs. Colorado State: Preview, How to Watch, Odds, Prediction

The UNLV Rebels head to Fort Collins to face the Colorado State Rams in Mountain West play. Here’s what to look for in this matchup.

UNLV vs. Colorado State: Preview, How to Watch, Odds, Prediction

The Rams and Rebels face off for momentum

Contact/Follow @J0shFr3d & @MWCwire

Can the Rams open conference play strong?

WHO: UNLV Rebels (9-7, 2-2 Mountain West) vs. Colorado State Rams (14-3, 2-2 Mountain West)

WHEN: Friday, January 19th — 8:30 p.m. MST / 7:30 p.m. PST

WHERE: Moby Arena; Fort Collins, CO (8,083)

TV: Fox Sports 1 (Stream FS1 on Fubo and click the link here for a free trial)

SERIES RECORD: This will be the 65th all time matchup between the two schools. UNLV leads the all-time series 43-21

LAST MEETING: UNLV won 83-71 in Fort Collins last year

ODDS: Colorado State -7.5

It’s hard to call this early of a matchup a must win, but it feels like a must win for both teams. Colorado State needs to get back into their early season groove. And UNLV needs to continue riding their momentum if they want to make it to the NCAA Tournament.

CSU is hosting their annual Orange Out game coming off a double digit comeback win over Air Force. UNLV is heading to Fort Collins coming off a four point road win over Boise State. Both KenPom and the NET rankings have a similar distance between these two schools, but in conference play anything can happen.

Players to Watch

G Dedan Thomas Jr – UNLV

The Rebels floor general who seems like an even keeled player. Never too up and never too down. Even when Dedan is having a down game, he’s helping in other areas. Incredible vision on the court for the freshman and his teammates surely appreciate it.

F Joel Scott – Colorado State

The big man down low for the Rams. Joel Scott is another D2 transfer for the Rams who is playing a big part. He has a tendency to disappear at times and the Rams need him to step up tonight to keep the lengthy Rebels in check. Scott has shown he can play at a high level and the Rams need him to play like that tonight.

Keys to the Game

UNLV

Play physical basketball is the main key for the Rebels. The Rams have a tendency to play soft and forcing their hand can yield results. The Rebels also need to take advantage of the CSU misplays. CSU throws an unnecessary amount of skip passes and all UNLV has to do is pay attention and they can jump the pass.

On offense, keep the Rams switching. They’ll get tired and eventually miss a switch or recover too late. Getting down low needs to play a big part of the plan for UNLV. The Rams aren’t that big and if you can back them down, lay ups and passouts for open threes will be there.

Colorado State

Play your game. That’s what the Rams need to do tonight. They can’t let UNLV dictate the pace or action of the game. Take over the game and force the Rebels to play to you. CSU has a tendency to let the other team dictate how the game goes, but the Rams need to force it tonight.

The bench, other than Joe Palmer, needs to step up. Palmer gets his off the bench and he needs someone else to join him. If the Rams bench can take a little pressure of the starters, CSU is going to have a smooth day.

Predictions

This is a matchup of two similar teams. They have very similar stats. And the only real difference is the overall records. Basketball is a game of runs and both teams will go on big runs tonight. The back and forth battle will go the full 40 minutes before the Rams take it in the end.

Final Score: Colorado State 87, UNLV 81

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Georgia adds transfer quarterback to 2024 roster

Georgia picks up another transfer, this time from UNLV.

A team that was already set to return starter Carson Beck next season, the Georgia Bulldogs have now dipped into the transfer portal to add another quarterback to their 2024 roster, securing a commitment Monday night from Jayden Maiava.

A former three-star prospect in the 2022 class out of Liberty (Nevada), Maiava is coming off a stellar 2023 freshman season in which he helped lead UNLV to a 9-5 season, which was the Rebels first winning campaign since 2013. Across 14 games, Maiava would post a 63.5% completion with 3,085 passing yards and a 17-10 TD-INT ratio, while also rushing for 277 yards and three more scores on 73 attempts.

Named the 2023 Mountain West Freshman of the Year, Maiava also led the Rebels offense to an average of 34.4 PPG to rank No. 22 nationally, as well as 412.7 yards of total offense per game. Maiava himself also led the MWC with a 147.1 passing efficiency rating and 8.7 passing yards per attempt, while also ranking top five in the conference passing yards, completion percentage, and multiple other statistical categories.

The addition of Maiava is Georgia’s sixth of this transfer portal cycle so far, joining wide receivers London Humphreys (Vanderbilt), Colbie Young (Miami), and Michael Jackson III (USC), running back Trevor Etienne (Florida), and defensive lineman Xzavier McLeod (South Carolina).

Maiava will now join a Georgia 2024 quarterback room that includes the aforementioned Beck as the returning starter, backup Gunner Stockton, and freshman Ryan Puglisi. The Bulldogs have also had one quarterback transfer out of Athens so far this offseason, as former five-star prospect Brock Vandagriff transferred to Kentucky.

Kansas outlasts UNLV in Guaranteed Rate Bowl behind Jason Bean’s dominant day

The Jayhawks quarterback finished with a career-high 449 yards and six touchdowns, including three in the fourth quarter, on 28 attempts.

Kansas outdueled UNLV in an offensive showdown on Tuesday, coming away with a 49-36 victory in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl after senior quarterback Jason Bean tossed six touchdowns in a career day.

Bean, who threw for 1,681 yards this season, passed for a career-high 449 yards on just 28 attempts for the night. He finished the game averaging 16.0 yards per attempt, and four of his touchdown passes came on completions longer than 40 yards.

The Jayhawks’ scoring game in waves. After not putting any points on the board until the final two minutes of the first quarter, Kansas scored three touchdowns in the next nine minutes to fly out to a 21-7 lead.

The Rebels tried hard to pull back into the game, holding Kansas scoreless in the third quarter and scoring two touchdowns to make the deficit just four points, but Kansas ripped off another heater on offense. Bean threw three touchdowns in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, with all three touchdowns longer than 40 yards.

Jayhawks receivers Luke Grimm and Lawrence Arnold shouldn’t go unmentioned, either. The two combined for 292 yards on just 10 receptions, and they split Bean’s passing touchdowns with three apiece.

Here are the best photos from the crazy Kansas victory.

Former LSU linebacker re-enters the transfer portal

Zavier Carter totaled 14 tackles in his one year at UNLV.

After one season at UNLV, former LSU outside linebacker [autotag]Zavier Carter[/autotag] is back on the market.

A former four-star recruit from Atlanta coming out of high school, Carter signed with LSU in 2021. In two years with the Tigers, he appeared in 18 games as a rotational player and totaled nine tackles, a sack and a forced fumble.

He joined Barry Odom in Las Vegas this season, and while he was a part of a successful team overall, he was a rotational player once again and started just two of the 11 games he appeared in. Carter finished the 2023 season with 14 tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble.

Carter will now join his third team as he heads back into the transfer portal for the second offseason in a row.

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