For all the frustrating fits and starts in his college career, center Luke Nevill has always done one thing pretty well:

Produce in the postseason.

Granted, his team has never accomplished much on the bottom line -- a 2-2 record and not even a semifinal victory so far, heading into tonight's semifinal game against UNLV in the Mountain West Conference tournament.

But Nevill has seldom been the problem.

In his four conference tournament games, the 7-foot-1 junior has averaged 24.5 points and 10.3 rebounds, while shooting 42-for-68 from the field (that's 62 percent) and 34-for-47 (that's 72.3 percent) from the free-throw line -- though he did frighteningly miss a couple of foul shots down the stretch in the overtime victory over New Mexico last night.

Of course, games like the one tonight are the ones that will help establish whether Nevill is ultimately regarded as a true postseason star or just a guy who piles up stats for teams that don't fare very well. After all, while he did blow up in an upset victory over rival Brigham Young as a freshman, his 26 points and 10 rebounds against the Rebels in the tournament last year ultimately didn't mean much in an 80-54 blowout loss.

Tonight, though, that kind of performance would be huge.

The Utes have plenty to play for against the Rebels this time, unlike the quarterfinal match-up that turned into coach Ray Giacoletti's final game to end last season. And the Rebels have nobody in the post who can handle Nevill one-on-one -- their tallest guys are 6-foot-7 Joe Darger of Riverton and 6-8 Matt Shaw -- meaning the Utes should have a chance to either get their outside shooters rolling or have Nevill dominate inside.