Make him the hero. He had a nice game, and keep in mind if he can have a good season, average similar to last year the rest of the way (12 and 7 or something), then it helps at the end of the season a lot. Go something like 11-3 in the 14 games with him and the committee will seriously look at the games we didn't have him (and UNLV) and upgrade us at least one spot in seeding. The committee looks at games lost without a team's best player (or players) all the time and in the past has often pretty much disregarded them.
Granted, going 11-3 the rest of the way will be really tough.