Tickets please! A comparative analysis of Rebel basketball ticket prices

UNLV Runnin’ Rebels basketball at the Thomas and Mack Center – often called the greatest show on the strip, and the only one that will never end its run. Being a fan of our beloved Rebels will cost you $0, but game attendance is another matter.

It is important to compare and evaluate what the price of admission to a game at the Thomas and Mack Center is, not necessarily to criticize – but to put things in perspective.

Before talking about dollars and cents, the spectacle and event of going to a Runnin’ Rebels game is something that can’t be quantified by money. The Thomas and Mack area supplanted the UNLV Men’s Basketball team playing at the convention center. The facility opened in 1983, and has since been renovated both inside and out. Before every game the lights are dimmed, a spectacle is created with pyrotechnics, music, and the red carpet. And once the players are introduced, hopefully the Rebels are off to victory in thrilling fashion. Sure, you could watch it on TV, but you would miss the introductory spectacle, the half-time show, and the experience of being there.

The same questions are asked every year of a team people have high hopes for – will UNLV return to the Final Four? Will the three point-streak stay intact? The answer to those questions really rest with the coaches and players. The questions the fans have to answer are “Am I going to renew, upgrade, or downgrade my seats this year”?, or to the non-season ticket holder – how many games am I going to attend, or will I attend games.

A large crowd is part of what makes going to a game at the Thomas and Mack Center fun. Without a large crowd, the cheering is not as loud, the fight song loses some of its meaning, and the energy is decreased. Teams are given home-home-advantages because it's their fanbase and their facilities.  Luckily for the Rebels, attendance numbers have not been the problem. In a city with much more to see and do than anywhere outside of New York or Los Angeles, UNLV regularly does as well as any event in town. While UNLV had previously been an attendance leader not only in the Mountain West, but in the West in general, sadly that title has fallen.

The NCAA has recently released its numbers for the past seasons attendance, and in the top 10 is BYU averaging 18,714 people per home game ranking 6th, sandwiched between Tennessee and Wisconsin. The top attendance school is Kentucky, which averaged 23,603 per home game in 2010-11. Looking at the Mountain West alone, 4 teams cracked the Top-30.

In descending order, here’s how things breakdown:

(1 ;6^th Nat’l;) BYU with 18,714;

(2 ;16^th Nat’l;) New Mexico with 14,570 per game;
(3 ;23^rd Nat’l;) UNLV with 13,253; and
(4 ;30^th Nat’l;) San Diego State with 11,668 per game.

Space limitations certainly hampered San Diego State University’s attendance figures as they pushed the limits of their facilities time and time again this past season (capacity is 12,414). Most impressive among the bunch is New Mexico besting UNLV by more than 1000, given that New Mexico was not seriously in contention for a shot at the big dance, their most meaningful accomplishment was having “newcomer of the year” in Drew Gordon, and beating BYU twice (one time w/o Davies).

Back to the money, here is how UNLV Basketball ticket prices stack up to the competition in the MWC, one prominent team, and an NBA franchise.

Booster funds

Most collegiate programs carry a booster fund, which uses donations from fans to fund scholarships, facilities, and other things. Programs have tied these booster programs to the ability to purchase choice seating at basketball and football games, among other sports.

University athletic budgets take a lot of money to keep the scholarships funded, here is several nice charts provided by Wyoming about the MWC.

While UNLV is middle-of-the-pack when it comes to the ability to raise money, the most interesting statistic in these graphs is that we are DEAD-LAST in number of contributors to the fund. Clearly, there is room for improvement in that department. Perhaps that should be a topic of inquiry in a future article.

What do UNLV Runnin’ Rebels tickets cost?

The UNLV website does an OK job of giving a breakdown of costs, but you have to do some math to get true figures. The more ‘premium’ seats require a donation to the Rebel Athletic Fund, a fund that pays for scholarships for many of the athletes that play college sports at UNLV. Since there’s some addition and then division, I’ll do the math for you after we talk about single game tickets:

Single game tickets:

UNLV has tiered tickets into bad teams, ok teams, and great teams. For example, here is bad and great:

Vs. bad teams,

aka Wyoming

Plaza $103, $87, $35

Dugout $22

Balcony $10

Endzone Balcony $10

Vs. great teams

Wisconsin; BYU

Plaza $103, $87, $38

Dugout $25

Balcony $20

Endzone Balcony $20

Some are not too expensive -- if you can land decent seats. Many/most of those are in the hands of season ticket holders. 

On "Pack the Mack" days (usually 1-2 a season) there is quite a few $10 tickets available. Usually a free shirt promotion as well - good time to go.

Rebel Kids Club

Rebel Kids club is an incentive where for each child a year membership is $30 per year per kid. Members (the children) get free admission to any UNLV sporting event (minus ultra-premium matchups like Wisconsin).  Along with that privilige, comes up to 4 half-price adult admissions. Additional benefits are Rebel Kids Club events, a t-shirt, and a birthday card from Hey Reb! on your child's birthday. I am not familar with the program other than this information, if anyone has used it I'd love to know what kind of seats you got. Other considerations - this sounds like a "yearly" program, and we all know the college basketball season straddles 2 years through the winter months. SO, it is likely the shell-out would be $60 to see a season (but you would still get the following fall, so that's cool).

Student Tickets

Additionally, as is the norm, if you are a student you are eligible for free admission to all home games (not the MWC tournament). You must be a student with an active classes, and you have to go through the website and use your Rebelcard to 'buy' your free tickets. This is a policy change from years past, where all you had to do is show up at the T&M with a Rebelcard and your in. Plus side to student section - good seats, high energy, downside - there won't be a ton of sitting unless its a blowout. 

Season Tickets

-          Includes all exhibition and home games, does not include neutral site games played at The Orleans when the NFR is in town.

-          Quoted prices do not include RAF required contribution in some cases

The only real price there are the $175 and $90 endzone balcony tickets, others mostly require RAF donations. 

Because of the required RAF donation, which granted is a tax deductible charitable donation, here is the real cost of season tickets at UNLV.

Season                                                                                                Per game breakdown

Plaza – Courtside (Gucci Row)$3000+ $485= $3485                        $205

Plaza – Close to court sidelines $1650 +$485 = $2135                      $125

Plaza – Close to court endzones $1025 +$485 = $1510                     $89

Plaza – Mid level mid court $775+$485 = $1260                               $74

Plaza – Mid level corners $525 + 485 = $1010                                  $59

Plaza – High corners  $275 + 485 = $760                                          $43

Dugout selected or $295+$275 = $570                                              $33

Plaza – Endzone above the tunnel $175+$485 = $660                        $39

Dugout – Non-mid-court $100 +$295 = $395                                   $23

Limited no. of plaza non-RAF endzone = $485                                   $28

Balcony Non-endzone = $175                                                            $10

Balcony endzone $90                                                                         $5.29

Additionally, while some of these prices look less daunting when pieced out into single games, many of the RAF seats are unavailable to purchase under single game prices.

UNLV vs. local sporting events

There are sports in Las Vegas, minor league or alternative league sports. The prominent competiton are AA – Las Vegas 51s and Wranglers Hockey (sorry Locos, no time to evaluate your team).

The Las Vegas 51’s 72 home game season ticket package

2011 FULL SEASON TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE IN FOUR PRICE LEVELS

Season Ticket Prices Dugout Seats $936 Field Level $576 Plaza Seating $504 Reserved Seating $432

The math dividing those dollar figures gives you a per-game figure of

Dugout = $13/per game

Field = $8 per game

Plaza = $7 per game

Reserved = $6 per game

Want to buy single games, here are the prices

Dugout = N/A

Field = $14 per game

Plaza = $13 per game

Reserved = $10 per game

They also offer many great mini-plans to entice people who want to see more than a few games, but know an entire season is too big of a commitment. Added bonus -- fireworks shows periodically occur and are worth the price of admission.
Comparison: 51s baseball is cheaper, but less exciting and lets face it -- its minor league baseball.

Las Vegas Wranglers ECHL Hockey

Season Tickets

Glass - $999
Select Circle - $799-  Youth $216
Premium - $599 Youth - $216
Mardi Gras - $499 Youth - $216

Very nice of the Wranglers to give a youth discount, classy. I couldn’t figure out how many home games the Wranglers play but the following is their single game ticket prices:

Single game prices

Glass $38.00
Select Circle $28.50
Premium $21.00
Mardi Gras$17.50
Youth -$10.50

Comparison: Good idea with the youth pricing, really makes this a family outing. Although not the NHL this can be great entertainment for a good price. Still lacks the sense of urgency due to it being somewhat of a minor league. Less expensive than UNLV basketball, if you are a hockey fan go watch!

UNLV vs. Shows

Not a fair comparison, you wouldn’t go see the same show 17 times in a row, unless you might be a rabid Cher, Manalow, or Santana fan. A front row ticket to the best shows are known to run $300-500 a pop. Besides, there’s no winner or losers – what’s the fun in that?

UNLV vs. the MWC

 The data that goes into this chart follows, but essentially this is a breakdown of UNLV vs Several MWC teams in terms of season ticket pricing. The blue line represents all ticket prices added together divided by their number, giving an 'average' ticket price. The red line represents taking out of the equasion the courtside ultra-expensive tickets and then comparing the numbers again.

There is no perfect way to really compare one program's ticket prices vs. another, but without really doing a ton of analytics on each venue, these numbers are interesting for several reasons that I will talk about in the indiviudal team sections.

Let’s take a look at the competition:

Wyoming

Season Packages

Note: Includes 18 home games and all lower level seats require a Cowboy Joe Club donation.

Public Reserved          $176.00

UW Faculty/Staff Reserved (Limit two)        $146.00

Family Plan (4 @ $94)

Sections A1, A2 and E1 only - two adults, two children       $376.00

Courtside        $400.00

Adding the “Cowboy Joe” required contribution here’s the real cost of season ticket membership:

Season (18 home games)                                                                     Per Game

Courtside = $400+$5000 = $5400                                                      $300

Premium (mid-court lowers) = $176 +$750 = $926                             $51

Premium (mid-court higher-low) $176 + $500 = $676                         $37

Scholarship (end-zone mid) $176 +$250 = $426                                 $27

Scholarship (end-zone high) $176 +$125 = $301                                 $17

Cowboy Joe (best 2^nd level) $176+$100 = $276                                 $15

General = $176                                                                                    $10

Single Game Tickets

 Public         Youth (3-18)       Faculty / Staff     Student Guest

All Home Games        $16.00            $8.00                $12.00                $10.00

Additionally, Wyoming has put together mini-plans such as the “Cowboy Weekender” which allows people to purchase all the Saturday home games (8 of them) for a reduced price. That, with the family pack and reduced youth prices – good deals. The only anomaly here is the extremely high price for courtside season tickets. I believe there are two reasons behind this 1) They have less available top-tier seating than most teams, so its supply vs demand; 2) There is a lot of oil and gas money in Wyoming – those guys have to spend it somewhere. Plus, there is literally nothing else to do in Wyoming, except ski in Jackson Hole. Wyoming on the whole (minus the oil price'd ticket) is affordible and makes many accomoditations to families and those not willing to go the distance on a season ticket plan. Most of their tickets are less expensive than UNLV's.

BYU (leaving the MWC)

Season Tickets (* = requires Cougar Club donation)

Prime Lower Chair      $337/$269*

Lower Chair(sec 1-5, 13-17 row 25 & higher)            $269

Prime Upper Chair      $142

Upper Chair    $95

Upper Bench   $75

BYU Faculty/Staff     $149

* = cougar club payment; Bronze = $200

BYU’s website does not specifically say what level of donations equal what seating level, but their plans are similarly tiers to other universities. That said, It appears on the whole BYU tickets are cheaper, and there is the added benefit that because these programs, such as the Cougar Club translate to all sports, you get great seats for a usually great football team.

Subtracting the hard to compare Cougar Club seating, we get the following comparable numbers. Note, some of the seating is long benches rather than stadium chairs.

BYU also offers mini-packages, and assigns priority to buy those packages based upon level of Cougar Club giving as well.

Air Force

Going to an Air Force Falcons game at Clune arena presents on of the best values in the land. Here is the pricing structure:

Season Tickets                                    Single game breakdown

Courtside VIP $600*                          $33
Center Court Club $305*                   $17
Lower Level $180                               $10
Upper Courtside $155                        $9
Lower Baseline $115                          $6
- Family 4 pack $325                         $4.50 per pers
Upper Baseline $100                           $5.50
- Family 4 Pack $245                         $3.40 per person

• Courtside VIP and Center Court Club seats include $75 per season ticket in retail value stored in the barcode on each ticket.  The retail value can be used at all AFAAA concession and retail locations as well as select vendors inside Clune Arena.  The value can be used throughout the men’s basketball season.  Stored value expires at the conclusion of the regular season. 

This is a ridiculously good deal, even if you aren’t a fan of Air Force’s brand of basketball. The Air Force has two booster clubs, the ‘Blue and Silver club’ and ‘Falcon Pride’ but appears seat priority only is applicable to the football games, so you needant donate to get the better seats for basketball.

How is this possible? The Air Force is funded by the federal government. All students have free tuition in exchange for military service after graduation. Therefore, there is no need for boosters to fund scholarships because there isn’t any. Additionally, there is no real need for the Air Force academy to make a profit on their athletics, therefore there is likely very little profit margin, if any, on the tickets. This may be one of the least expensive tickets in all of college basketball - any they usually aren't terrible either. Clearly, less expensive than UNLV.

Colorado State University

Values galore are available to watch the Rams play. However, I could not obtain specific season ticket information.

Here are some examples of single game ticket prices:

New Mexico (Orange Out & Premium game)           

Saturday, Feb. 12        7:00 PM          Adult Reserved - $15 Youth - $8      

UNLV (Premium game)

Saturday, Feb. 19        5:00 PM          Adult Reserved - $15 Youth - $8   
Utah

Wednesday, March 2  7:00 PM          Adult Reserved - $12 Youth - $8      

Rams Club seating gives better seats, dontation level start at $100. Specifically, I found that to get courtside seating, whatever the seats cost + a $2000 donation is required.

CSU offers many other flexible ways to enjoy the Rams games:

Pepsi 4-Packs are back! For the following home games: Drake, Air Force, San Diego Utah receive the following for only $32:

•           4 tickets

•           4 sodas

•           4 hot dogs

Pepsi 4-Packs are available for the NEW! Ram Club Mountain West Plan (only available to Rams Club Members)

•           Receive tickets to four marquee Mountain West Conference home games for $52.

•           Plan includes two premium home games: Jan. 15 vs. TCU, Jan. 22 vs. BYU, Feb. 2 vs. San Diego State and Feb. 12 vs. New Mexico.

Pick 6 Plans

Fans can receive tickets to six games of their choice* for one low price of $60, that's $10 a game!

•           *A limit of two premium games can be chosen as part of the six game selections.

•           Seats are located in the non-premium seating areas (non-Ram Club areas).

Colorado State has an unusual venue for basketball, and their pricing is designed to bring people into the stadium and root for the team. As we all remember, those crowds were particularly loud rooting on their tourney-hopeful team that fell short. Hard to say what the real numbers are without the season ticket data, but I would predict it is less expensive than UNLV.

University of New Mexico

Although New Mexico’s seating plan is much more chaotic than UNLV’s, its worth breaking down because they bested us this year in attendance.

First the single game pricing:

2010-11 Men's Basketball Single Game Ticket Pricing
Adult/Youth   Seats   Single  Single - Premium Games (Arizona State, NMSU, BYU, Utah; UNLV)

            Benches (rows 1-10)  $15 Adult/$10 Youth $17 Adult/$14 Youth

            Benches (rows 11-25)            $20      $24

            Benches (rows 26-33)            $26      $31

            Benches (rows 34-45)            $29      $35

Doing the math

Season tickets                         Per game breakdown

Row 1 - $3075                        $171

Rows 2-4 -$2865                    $159

Chairbacks Sec C-G

Rows 22-32 - $1826               $101

Rows 20-21- $1772                $98

Rows 11-19 - $1522               $85

Row 10 - $1432                      $79

Rows 5-9 $932                        $52

Chairbacks (A-B)

Rows 30-34 $1826                  $101

Rows 26-29 $1576                  $88

Rows 22-25 $1326                  $74

Rows 20-21 $1272                  $71

Rows 11-19 $1022                  $57

Row 10 $932                          $52

Rows 5-9 $682                        $38

Benches (Sec H-Q, U-Z)

Rows 41-45 $1468                  $82

Rows 36-40 $1218                  $68

Rows 34-35 $968                    $54

Rows 26-33 $896                    $50

Rows 21-25 $574                    $32

Rows 16-20 $424                    $24

Rows 11-15 $324                    $18

Rows 1-10 $252                      $14

Benches (Sec R-T)

Rows 34-38 $1468                  $82

Rows 30-33 $1396                  $78

Rows 26-30 $1146                  $64

Rows 21-25 $824                    $46

Rows 16-20 $574                    $32

Rows 11-15 $424                    $24

Row 10 $352                          $20

Rows 1-9 $252                        $14

I told you it is archaic! So many different potential prices for season tickets!

As you can see by the graph, once you subtract the high-dollar courtside tickets, you still have some darn expensive ticket prices - the highest in the MWC. Likely, though that many do not buy season tickets and opt for the per-game option. Normally you would expect to see steep discounts between per game season tickets and piecemeal tickets -- I'm not seeing it here.

Comparison: New Mexico is more expensive, and has more attendance. I have no idea why this is but it is not a good thing for UNLV.

San Diego State University

Season Tickets (only 16 games last year)     Per game breakdown

             

Courtside $3000                                             $188

Low mid-court $916                                       $57

Mid mid-court $615                                        $38

More mid and endzone $465                          $29

Endzone mid $255                                          $16

Enzone and corners mid $205                         $13

Reserved high seating $109                            $7

General admission (high) $99                         $6.18

Single game tickets are represented in this graphic.

SDSU is right on par with UNLV for the overall average price, but is slightly cheaper excluding the front row price. The Aztecs have a lot of competition from other activities in San Diego - Chargers, Padres, and USD. They lack youth pricing as well, and are hampered by a smallish venue.
Comparison: Tied with UNLV

UNLV vs.other big time college basketball teams

Unable to find season ticket data, here is what data I could find on Kansas:

Single games

11/2/10 Washburn $35.00 $20.00 October
25,
2010

11/9/10 Emporia
State $35.00 $20.00 October
25,
2010

11/12/10 Longwood $50.00 $35.00 October
25,
2010

11/15/10 Valparaiso $50.00 $35.00 October
25,
2010

11/19/10 North
Texas $50.00 $35.00 October
25,
2010

11/23/10 Texas
A&M
–
CC $50.00 $35.00 October
25,
2010

12/2/10 UCLA $75.00 $50.00 October
25,
2010

12/11/10 Colorado
State $50.00 $35.00 October
25,
2010

12/18/10 USC $75.00 $50.00 December
6,
2010

12/29/10 Texas‐Arlington $50.00 $35.00 December
6,
2010

1/2/11 Miami
(OH) $50.00 $35.00 December
6,
2010

1/5/11 UMKC $50.00 $35.00 December
6,
2010

1/15/11 Nebraska $75.00 $50.00 December
6,
2010

1/22/11 Texas $90.00 $75.00 December
6,
2010

1/29/11 Kansas
State $90.00 $75.00 December
6,
2010

2/7/11 Missouri $90.00 $75.00 January
24,
2011

2/12/11 Iowa
State $75.00 $50.00 January
24,
2011

2/19/11 Colorado $75.00 $50.00 January
24,
2011

2/21/11 Oklahoma
State $75.00 $50.00 January
24,
2011

3/2/11 Texas
A&M $75.00 $50.00 January
24,
2011

Comparison: Clearly for this perennial 1-seed they have higher ticket prices - NBA style ticket prices in fact. Obviously more expensive than UNLV, and in Kansas, probably worth it.

UNLV vs. the NBA

I've selected one team to compare with, we're not talking the Lakers. We'll go with my beloved bottom dwelling Golden State Warriors. Here are their season tickets:

As you can see, their prices aren't extraordinarily higher than UNLV's.
Comparison: UNLV is going to win a championship before the Warriors will, but you're not going to see Kobe, Lebron, or Durant play against the Rebels, so there's always that.

Final words
The proof is in the pudding, if Rebel basketball weren't worth watching then average attendance of 13,253 would not be that high. People aren't going to the games and walking out saying they've been ripped off - its a fun atmosphere that likens more to an NBA game than a college game in terms of theatrics. 


There is always room for improvement, and having viewed what other teams are doing and charging - there are some glaring examples. 


1) Encourage families to go - UNLV lacks family pack pricing, and youth ticket discounts. Before you say, WAIT - they have the Rebel Kids Club -- it's a mysterious program that works for the overall NCAA athletics but is not specifically tailored to UNLV Basketball. Why not reduced youth prices for season tickets? Where is the "pepsi 4-packs" where people get hot-dog, drink, and ticket for a reasonable price?


2) Lower ticket prices - it will be interesting to see whether Las Vegas's massive unemployment (and underemployment) will hurt ticket buying and attendance next year. There is certainly no reason to raise prices, but there is a good reason to lower them. Probably in the grand scheme Dave Rice's lower salary isn't helping the bottom line much - but there's some money there.


3) Mini-plans - Most of the other teams offer season ticket type plans with flexible offerings. Instead of 18 games, how about 10, 8, 6 or 4? Also, give people who buy mini-plans some reward above and beyond single game purchasers, like a parking benefit. Obviously these tickets would be better seats and lower prices than single game tickets. 


4) Expand the Alumni reach - Try something experimental, push the alumni discount on season tickets out to 10 years instead of the 2 or 3 years it currently is. Additionally, make a starter RAF fund donation something like $25 for this level. This would increase attendance by alumni, and get these people in the habit of donating to the RAF fund. 


5) Better marketing - Billboards seem to be the weapon of choice for UNLV, expand it to web-advertising, twitter advertising, maybe even a groupon type of deal. People who are not die-hards need another reason to come to the games, its pretty easy to stay at home and watch in high def for nothing. 

I hope you've enjoyed this comparison, it took a lot more time than I expected but I believe it shines a little light on a not often considered subject. If you have any ideas or breakdowns of your own, please share.

Sources:

Offical websites of UNLV, Wyoming, CSU, Air Force, BYU, SDSU, New Mexico, Golden State Warriors, Kansas.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/resources/latest+news/2011/april/mens+basketball+attendance+tops+32+million+again

http://www.themwc.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/042611aae.html

Interview with Coach Anthony Brown - Las Vegas Prospects

 Results from LV Easter Showdown:

- LV Prospects 15U team wins championship over Houston Hoops 58-57, they are 15-0 with 3 tournament titles

- LV Prospects 16U team loses to Oakland Kings by 8pts in championship game

- LV Prospects 17s lost to Louisiana Future by 10pts in the semi-finals

Anthony Brown Interview – Coach of Las Vegas Prospects

Coach Anthony Brown sat down with me for an interview covering many subjects, UNLV Basketball, AAU basketball, Coach Kruger leaving, the hire of Coach Dave Rice, his assistants, Anthony Marshall, Karam Mashour, Dantley Walker, and many other things. The following is a full transcript of the interview:

R = RebelReign

AB = Anthony Brown

R. April 1, 2011, Coach Kruger announces he’s leaving to go to Okalahoma, what did you initially think?

AB: Wow, well I was actually in Houston for the Final Four when I heard about it because of all the college coaches down there. When I heard about it initially I called the assistant coach Lew Hill, who I had a pretty good relationship with and I asked him if it was true, and he said “yeah”. Later on, I started to think about, I have kids there that played for me, what do they think, what’s going to happen. But it’s double the salary, so..

R: Right, we’re talking millions of dollars

AB: Exactly. Initially shock, but it’s the business of basketball  and he needs to do what’s best for him.

R: What current players for the Rebels were on your team, the Las Vegas Prospects?

AB: We had Anthony Marshall, Karam Mashour both played for me, and are now at UNLV.

R: What kind of relationship did you have with Coach Kruger’s staff prior to his leaving?

AB: The relationship was mainly with Coach Kruger and Assistant Coach Lew Hill, both of them and I hit it off, primarily those two. So in July, they would come out and watch us play, they would watch Anthony Marshall play at his high school and then summer AAU circuit. Karam Mashour was playing at Impact academy on Las Vegas BLVD. They saw him play over there, I got word that he was there, we brought him in with us, and they followed him all July with us.

R: Were they both on your team when they made their commitments to UNLV?

AB: Yes, Anthony Marshall played with me from the 9^th grade to his senior year. Karam just played his senior year with me.

R: In the case of Karam, that’s mainly because he was only here his senior year, he was in Israel otherwise?

AB: Right

R: He did pretty good in a couple of tournaments as well?

AB: He did great, he started to get phone calls from Florida, Louisville, UCLA, Stanford; he started getting a lot of inquiries.

R: And your team, who do you guys play?

AB: We’re a traveling team, we play more of a national schedule. In the spring we stay local, Las Vegas is a basketball paradise. You’ll get a lot of teams from Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Washington, etc. In the summer, we do a lot of traveling such as going to Indianapolis for 4 days, Milwaukee for 4 days, come home for the Adidas super 64, then we go to Anaheim for 4 days. In those national level tournaments you see teams from all over the place.

R: What funds all the travel, is that paid by the athletes and their families?

AB: Actually, the athletes have to come up with very minimal amount of the cost. We’re a non-profit organization and we try to get people to donate as a tax write-off,  do a lot of fundraising. Adidas chips in as well. Mainly, the expense that the athletes ad their familes have to come up with is their food when they are out of town.

R: How do kids get to be on the Las Vegas Prospects, do you select them or are there tryouts?

AB: Try-outs, no. For me there is a couple of different things. I have a good relationship with high school coaches in town and they’ll tell me about kids who are good. Also, I was born and raised here and people will call me and tell me about various kids. We have two coaches on staff, Deshawn Henry who is the head coach of Durango and Teral Fair who is over at Cheyenne, they see kids all the time and then we go out and we watch. One of the big things, you’ve heard the expression “soccer parents” who are over-involved running out on the field, etc. We don’t want the soccer parents. If you give us the respect and let us coach them for the 30-32 minutes during the game, 2 hours at practice, just let us coach. We don’t need parents who are over-involved causing fights in the stands or arguing with the refs – that’s not the kind of image we have. There is a lot of factors involved with why we pick a kid to be on the Prospects.

R: Are they just local products, or do you get kids who reside in other states and areas?

AB: The rules state that we can have 3 kids from a neighboring state. We had Craig Brackens, who plays for the Philadelphia 76rs now, he was from Palmdale, CA. We had Luke Babbitt from Reno who plays for Portland right now, Olek Czyk who went to Duke first and now transferred back to UNR, Austin Morgan was also from Reno, and is now at Yale. He was first team all conference in the Ivy league. So they were out of the area players who came to the prospects.

R: Any reason why these Reno players would come down to Las Vegas, is it due to lack of AAU ball in Reno, or why not somewhere closer like Sacramento.

AB: Its an interesting story, we first started with the Reno kids with Luke Babbitt. He was a freshman and was playing in a game in The Orleans. We were watching the game thinking, “oh he’s pretty good”. Then we found out he was a freshman and I thought, we’ll then he’s damn good. So, I mailed him a letter. I didn’t know much about what was going on in Reno. He called me, came down for a workout. We got to meet his parents, and the rest is history. He ended up playing with us from then on.

R: Didn’t he end up being a McDonalds All-American?

AB: Yes, our first one – hopefully not the last (laughter)

R: Do you ever get kids from Findlay Prep?

AB: We don’t, most of those kids are already attached to other AAU teams. Already part of the fold of something else. We haven’t been fortunate enough to get a kid from Findlay Prep yet.

R: Does your team ever play teams with kids from Findlay prep on them?

AB: We would play them, but we seem to never to get matched up in tournament against one of them. I don’t think we’ve ever played a team with Findlay prep players. There’s just too many teams in these tournaments, and the odds aren’t there.

R: I would assume the most frequent visitors regarding recruiting would be UNLV because of the local nature of your program, very easy for them to come observe. What good and bad can you say about how Coach Kruger recruited?

AB: The good, was once they recognized a kid, they go all-in. Keeping the kid on campus, staying in touch with him, building a relationship with him and his family. The bad – they waited so late. What I mean by so late, some of these kids you can recognize by the 9^th or 10^th grade. If you waited till the 10^th grade on a local kid, if he’s really that good chances are someone else already recognized him and started building a relationship and now they would play catch up. The kid may have a chip on their shoulder, why did UNLV wait so long, they’re late to the party. Kind of like Johnny-come-lately.

R: One of the major criticisms against Coach Kruger and his staff was that he regularly lost out on local talent. He really relied a lot on transfer kids, those for whom UNLV was originally a second-option.

AB: I think a lot of kids would like to stay at home. A lot of kids will stay at home and I think Vegas kids are a little different than other kids from other parts of the country. In Vegas everything is open 24 hours, there’s always something to do if you want to do something, it’s a 24 hour town. Even if you don’t go to Jack-in-the-box at 3 in the morning, you could. Our gas stations are open 24 hours, I’ve been to places where they close. Our kids would like to stay because there’s nowhere like Vegas. I think the new Coach, Dave Rice will have a good shot at keeping local talent.

R: Do you coach all the age level teams of the Las Vegas Prospects?

AB: I don’t. We have 17 and under, 16 and under, 15 and under, and 14 and under. So I coach the 17 and under team. Coach Deshawn Henry coaches 16 and under. Derrick Brown and Teral Fair coach the 15 and under. Coach Chris Cook coaches the 14 and under.

R: When it comes to AAU ball, especially the older teams –they are looking to get on D-1 teams, I mean this isn’t rec ball.

AB: Definitely, they are trying to get a free education, be it NCAA division I or II.

R: Most people don’t see it, but you’re in the unique position of seeing these kids through the recruiting period. Would you say if the option is between JUCO or DII which do they choose?

AB: I would say they go JUCO, looking to eventually go D-I. The transfer requirements are different.  Once a JUCO player transfers in they can play right away.

R: How often do you see problems with academic ineligibility?

AB: It happens quite often. The requirements to graduate from high school aren’t the same as what’s required to get into college. And the requirements to get into college aren’t the same as what the NCAA clearinghouse requires to play D-I basketball. So some of the high schools have staffs that are pretty well informed on it, some don’t. Prime example, we had a kid who was going to high school here and we saw his transcript as a freshman and told him you’re going to need to take this math class before you graduate to be eligible. His counselor told him he didn’t need to take the math class, so he didn’t take it. Well, it came down to that math class that hurt his NCAA eligibility.

R: What about prep-schools, do they play on a different circuit?

AB: They play like a high level AAU, they travel the country. Most of  them are boarding schools and are located in the northeast of the country. They can be beneficial to a lot of kids if they are in the right situation.

R: Back to the Rebels, how do you believe Anthony Marshall has improved since he’s left your program?

AB: His knowledge of the game has changed, he has expanded his basketball IQ. His body physically has changed, but his motor is the same. The difference is I am a school teacher. Coach Kruger is an NBA coach, he definitely can teach a lot more than I can. His game has changed and improved in all facets.

R: When Tre’von Willis was suspended / injured Anthony Marshall took the roster spot as a starter and got a lot more playing time. We got to see a lot of what few other players besides maybe Justin Hawkins on the UNLV roster have - ability to create his own shot, drive past defenders to the hoop and finish above the rim. Should that play a lot better in the Dave Rice running offense rather than the Coach Kruger half-court set?

AB: Definitely, more transition will benefit him and his style. That said, when you play that pace and are running up and down for 40 minutes, you have to play more players because its very hard to play that kind of tempo for more than 25 minutes a game.

R: On Karam Mashour, he opted not to take the red shirt his freshman season, and he played sparingly during the season but we were able to see some good things. As a fan, we haven’t seen a lot from Karam - but you have. What can we expect to see next season from Mashour?

AB: A lot of highlights. That kid can fly, he’s a gym rat, loves to work on his game, he has a chance to be really really good. He’s 6’6” 210-215 lbs, runs well, jumps well, plays the game well. I think once he’s overcome the language barrier he’ll do very well - that’s one of the things I dealt with him.

R: How did you handle the situation.

AB: He understands English, but he didn’t understand basketball English. We got him to advocate for himself, it was a good system worked out where he would let me know if he didn’t understand something, as opposed to just running around not knowing what he’s doing. I would pull him aside during a free-throw or time out I’d pull him aside and let him know what I expected out of him, and he understood. The benefit of taking a red shirt season is he would have more time to learn the basketball English, because its different from just learning English, it’s another language.

R: I believe he played for the under 18 Israeli national team, had you seen any of his highlights or know about him before having him play for you?

AB: I got a call about a kid in town who is 6’6” 200 lbs, really athletic; you may want to take a look at him. I said OK.  I go into the gym, and he’s standing under the rim, and he jumps up and does a 360 or windmill dunk, just from standing on the ground. I said, “we’ll take him”.  If  that’s all he can do, and he can do that a couple times a game, we’ll take him (laughs).

R: What’s his vertical leap?

AB: At least 40”. At least. He can fly. And he plays so hard

R: Is there anything he did back in Israel he did to get like this?

AB: I think he’s the only member of his family who plays, he has that Israeli national team experience and he loves to be in the gym, he wants to become better. He’s a pure example of what hard work does, if you love it can keep working at it – it’ll work out for you.

R: As far as upcoming Rebels, I know you also have experience with Dantley Walker.

AB: Yes, he played on our teams his 9^th, 10^th, 11^th grade year, and then in the middle of that year he played on a team closer to his home in Lincoln county.

R: What’s your evaluation of him?

AB: He can shoot the lights out. Another kid who lives in the gym, works hard, getting better at his craft. He can do all of the intangibles you would want of a player.

R: Is he a shooting guard or point guard?

AB: He has a high basketball IQ so I believe he can play point guard at the next level. That said, it’s a lot different from what he’s into now in Lincoln county, passing to his teammates there vs. passing to a Anthony Marshall or Justin Hawkins. I don’t think he’ll be called on to score as much as he does now. He could definitely play point guard.

R: When you have someone like him, who passed Luke Babbitt’s scoring record, most points scored in Nevada in high school – why do you think a lot of D-1 programs were taking a pass on him?

AB: Primarily, his height. He’s 5’10”, and the teams he’s playing against – level of competition.

R: Was he scoring similar type of numbers when with the prospects?

AB: No, in order to score 30 you have to take a lot of shots. Within the Prospects, there’s 10 other kids who can score 20 pts a game as well, so he played more as a team player and distributor as well.

R: Shot percentage-wise, since he didn’t take as many shots, how was he?

AB: Shooter in the building - that kid can shoot it. Dantley played well for us, he’s a good kid.

R: How much scouting goes on in AAU, do people know to guard him from 30+ feet out?

AB: Well you don’t get to see as much in the AAU, because it’s a different level of play. It’s like Jimmer Fredette, everyone went Jimmer crazy. I don’t remember Jimmer as a freshman shooting 30+ foot jumpers. But as he got older, and as the talent around him improved you got to see more of that. As kids get older in the program they get a little more free-reign at things and Jimmer is a prime example, Dantley is a prime example. As a senior on the team my coach entrusts me to shoot that 30 foot jump shoot, as long as you are making them, you can take them. Look around the country, how many kids get to shoot 30 foot jumpers?

R: You’d usually get benched for doing something like that?

R: You’ve paid attention to the Rebels this past season. They had that extremely bad slump in shooting, games where the percentage was 20-30 % and then some games where 3 point shooting was even down to single digits. Did you have any communication or ideas on what that happened?

AB: I think Kendall Wallace was injured, and he figured to be a big part of their plan this season from three. He was going to play a huge roll. And Matt Shaw as well, he had shot it well, you lose him and you’ve lost the two guys who shot it pretty well. So now you have guys like Anthony Marshall and Tre’von Willis who shoots it decent, but Willis was suspended for some time and that played a roll in it. He had a hard time getting his legs back when he recovered. Matt Shaw was 6’8” and he could shoot the three, and with Kendall Wallace, imagine how wide the lanes would have been with two shooters on the court for Anthony Marshall, Derrick Jasper, Tre’von, or Hawkins to run the lane? Those lanes become huge because they can take the 3’s. Without them, instead of buckets we had attempts.  Kendall being healthy this year helps them out.

R: Do you have players on your teams that are giving a good look to UNLV?

AB: Well, it’s like we talked about earlier, people just need to recognized by UNLV at an early age. We have some talented kids. For instances, Julian Jacobs, a 6’3” guard at El Dorado. Plays above the rim, high basketball IQ. He’s starting to get a national buzz about him, so I assume Dave Rice will get in there soon so UNLV’s not 3^rd or 4^th to the table. The University of Utah has already made an offer to him.

R: When Dave Rice was at BYU, he was known for his recruiting. When Justin Hutson was at SDSU he was also know for recruiting, did you have relationships with them?

AB: I’ve known Justin since he was actually at Cal Poly – the Mustangs, I knew him since back then. I’ve known him for some time so I have a good relationship with Justin. Dave, I know a lot about Dave, I probably know his brother Grant a little better but I am familiar with Dave.

R: Didn’t you have Billy White on your team?

AB: Yes, and Justin recruited Billy, so we definitely had a relationship there.

R: How do you feel about the combination of Rice and Hutson for the Rebels, even without the addition of other potential assistants?

AB: Recruiting, the future looks bright. Definitely will get some players, may not have to get as many transfers anymore, might be able to get these kids on the first go around. But, if you look at SDSU, they also had a lot of transfers on their roster. So it’ll be interesting on how it all works out.

R: With Hutson getting the new title of Associate HC, and getting the bigger paycheck, will he be as much involved with recruiting as he was under Coach Fisher?

AB: I don’t know what responsibilities Justin will have, but a guy who recruits is always busy. Off season, everyone is recruiting so that job never ends. It’ll be interesting to see what Coach Rice does as far as responsibilities.

R: They had talked about whenever the Nuggets finish the season bringing Stacey Augmon in. What’s your thoughts on that?

AB: I was just talking with a couple guys about that the other day, its an interesting hire. Not sure how many kids will be familiar with Stacey Augmon, his time with the Rebels came before all of them were born, but their parents will surely remember Stacey. It will be an interesting move, he’ll bring something new to the table that the others don’t have – that NBA experience, and that’s something that will be appealing to kids. Everyone wants to play in the NBA.

R: In general, what are your players looking for in college to play basketball at?

AB: I think playing time is really important, everyone wants to play. Playing time, style of play. The canned answer now a days from college coaches is “we’re going to run, we’re going to get up and down” because that’s what kids want to hear. How many teams actually play that way - not many. Style of play, relationship with the coach, geographic location.

R: What about television exposure

AB: Well with the internet, cable and satellite, I think everybody is on TV now. So it’s not as big of a factor.

R: You don’t ever hear someone considering a mountain west team, them complain that games are on The MTN vs. ABC, ESPN, or Fox Sports?

AB: Universities try to use it as a recruiting tool, but similar situated programs are basically on TV the same amount of time. Sometimes exposure comes with who you play. 

R: Are kids paying attention to the moves in the MWC, with BYU, Utah, and TCU leaving, and then Fresno State, Reno, and Boise State coming in?

AB: Not really. Its nice because some of those schools have Vegas players and now they get to come home when they play UNLV. More adults follow the conferences changes than the kids. The moves were football moves, most of those teams don’t have great basketball teams, traditionally. Money is in football, so financially its that kind of move. The conference hurts from a basketball standpoint because BYU and Utah historically have been very good in basketball. It may help Utah if kids wanted to get into the Pac-10 but couldn’t get into a UCLA, Arizona, or Washington.

R: Did your kids have any opinions on the Dave Rice vs. Reggie Theus pick?

AB: I don’t think the kids really knew who either enough. Their parents sure. I remember sitting down with Olek Czyk when he was being recruited by Rick Pitino. Coach Pitino said, “Olek, do you want to know about when I was an NBA GM or head coach, any stories about that?” Olek says “No”. Coach Pitino says “Do you want hear about how at one point in time we had the highest payroll of salaries in the NBA, of kids who had played for me?” Olek says “No”. Coach Pitino says do you want hear about the new facilities we are going to build on campus?” Olek says “No”. So Coach Pitino says, “Well Olek, what do you want to talk about?” Olek says “I want to talk about how you figure playing me, I want to talk about the playing style, what do you see me doing?” So kids are more concerned with that. All the other stuff is kind of on the outside.

R: That’s pretty direct.

AB: Exactly, for the kids, I think that’s what they want to know. ‘how do you see me playing, where do you see me fitting in at’

R: I don’t know if its true or not, but do various recruiting coaches are maybe not as truthful with what they are going to do with a kid, as opposed to Coach Kruger’s approach of telling kids how it is – what their strengths and weaknesses are?

AB: I’ve never come across a coach who wasn’t direct. Coach Kruger would tell them how it is, like it or leave it. He’s got the experience, he’s been to the tournament, final four, NBA, he knows what he’s talking about, so he’s very direct.

R: How do you think Coach Rice is going to do?

AB: It’s a situation where he’s a local guy, meaning he played for them and coached for them. I think they should be pretty excited, he walks into a pretty good team, the cupboard is not bare. I think the expectations of his first year may be unfair for him, new coach, kids trying to buy into his system, the fan expectations will be unfair because anything less than the NCAA tournament, we’ll be up in arms about it.

R: Last season we reached the first round and lost. We didn’t really have to struggle to get that bid. Next year, is failure anything less than 20 wins?

AB: We’ll be up in arms about it – and that’s what typical fans do. Anything less than 20 wins and an NCAA tournament and we’ll be up in arms. I think if his first year is very successful he could be in a situation like Tarkanian, he could be here for 20 years. Vegas is based on winning, there’s tons of things people in Las Vegas can do other than watching the Rebels if they aren’t winning. The expectation is unfair, but if he does the right things he’ll be here forever if this is where he wants to be. I think it will work out. The style of play will definitely be attractive for kids around the country to come and play, it happened at BYU and he said its going to happen here.

R: Last season’s point per game for the Rebels were 71.6 PPG, what do you see it being this season.

AB: 70 points per game is still a lot of points. In spite of the fact that Coach Kruger was playing a half-court game. Coach Rice will have to have the team at least 70 points good, otherwise it won’t be exciting. This is Las Vegas, that’s how Tark’s teams did it with the amoeba defense. 70 points is the benchmark. They’ll have to score a lot of points to have exciting basketball. Even in winning, it has to be exciting. People aren’t as interested in the ‘snail-ball’ even if it produces W’s. People want to see transition, dunks, and alley-oops. He has a lot of benchmarks that may be unfair for a first-year head coach, but he’ll do well with the team that he has.

R: Do you feel more comfortable sending your kids to Coach Rice’s program vs. Coach Kruger’s?

AB: We’ll have to see, with Coach Kruger it was a relationship built over time. I’m open to building that relationship with Coach Rice and his staff. We’ll have to wait and see. Like I said I know his brother a bit better than I know him.  My interest is taking care of the kids. Coach Kruger did the things he said he would do for Anthony Marshall, kept on him about grades and made a good situation on the court for him. I would expect the same with Coach Rice, it will be about building relationship with him over time.

R: Obviously, Coach Rice was most recently at BYU. Have you ever had any Las Vegas Prospects go to BYU?

AB: We’ve never had a kid play for BYU. It’s a little bit different situation over there. I’m not sure I have anyone  on the team who is quite ready for that. (laughs) So no, we’ve never sent anyone to BYU.

R: Any final thoughts on what you believe will make UNLV basketball better from a recruiting standpoint?

AB: Like I said earlier, UNLV needs to get to the table first with quality players before all of the national hype comes. Not only that, UNLV can keep local talent if kids growing up are already thinking, I want to be a Rebel, playing for the Rebels is a goal of mine. That community spirit and pride in playing for UNLV goes a long way, and that needs to be fostered in the next generation of basketball recruit for UNLV to be successful in the long-term.

R: That sounds like two good ideas, Coach, thank you for doing the interview and good luck to the Las Vegas Prospects this weekend.

AB: Thank you.