Saturday afternoon UNLV put forth one of its best performances of the season, shooting 61.8% from the field and 12-for-18 from beyond the arc in their 93-67 win at Air Force. Unfortunately for head coach Dave Rice that result came at a cost, as the school announced on Sunday evening that junior forward Roscoe Smith will miss Wednesday’s game against No. 13 San Diego State due to a concussion.
“Roscoe was evaluated today and was determined to have a concussion,” Rice said in the statement. “He will be evaluated on a day-to-day basis, but he will miss Wednesday’s game against San Diego State.”
Smith left the game for good after suffering the injury with 7:15 remaining in the second half. UNLV’s been dealing with health issues at Smith’s position recently, with freshman Christian Wood missing Saturday’s win due to flu-like symptoms.
With this being the case, how will the minutes be distributed on Wednesday night? Taylor Bern of the Las Vegas Sun offered the following:
Smith’s currently averaging 11.0 points and 11.0 rebounds per game, leading the Mountain West in the latter, so this is clearly a critical personnel loss with the Aztecs visiting on Wednesday night. In conference play SDSU is rebounding 36.6% of its missed shots, and UNLV ranks seventh in the conference in defensive rebounding percentage (68.7%).