Playing down to the competition - ugly wins and losses (season recap part 3)

You’ve guessed it, we’re talking about the conference schedule last season this week – and it was a heartbreaker.

UNLV, still ranked #25 at the beginning of the conference schedule had a home opener – a good way to start against familiar foes. Unfortunately, the Mountain West was competitive as ever last season, and in the way were two teams ranked and performing better than the Rebels – the BYU Cougars (ranked at the time #15), and the SDSU Aztecs (ranked #6 when we first played them).

BYUs rivalry with UNLV was among the highest of any programs vs. the Rebels. A UNLV/BYU game normally sold out the arena – and that was when the Cougars were just an above average team. On January 5th in front of a sellout crowd the Cougars did something they hadn’t in a long time – win at the Thomas and Mack. The Rebels kept it close in the first half, but then floundered and let the game get out of hand. Anthony Marshall and Brice Massamba had good games, everyone else was sub-par. More was going to be needed to beat the team that had only lost once – oddly to Cal. Besides not having Rebels offense clicking on all cylinders, Lon Kruger’s defense wasn’t equipped to prevent three-point capitalism. Jackson Emery was 6-9 from the arc, Jimmer Fredete was 7-13 from long range. While tragic, it’s doubtful that any team could have beaten BYU that night with those two lighting it up from the perimeter. The final was 89-77. With the loss, our Rebels fell out of the rankings.

The follow-up to the heartbreaker was a easy home game against TCU, who played sub-par non-conference basketball and whose real passion is clearly football. An easy 83-49 victory was scored at their expense. Optimism returned as our offensive production was solid with UNLV shooting 51% and TCU 31%. The first road game, a difficult one, was on the horizon.

Traveling to Viejas arena in San Diego had changed from previous years. The party school had hired a real coach, Steve Fisher, and were playing serious basketball in large part by a sophomore phenom and a collection of seasoned senior role players. Not only that, they were selling out games and had an enthusiastic fan base. Because of their success, as well as the Rebels, the game was featured on CBS college sports in HD. Man was it a nail biter. The Rebels had shown signs of greatness earlier in the season, but in this matchup UNLV played terribly – but so did #6 SDSU. The Rebels jacked up threes, bunches upon bunches and the result was that of a rigged carnival game – 1 of 18 from three-point-land as a team. We assumed the Rebels would be out rebounded, we were. What many had not assumed was that UNLV would be hanging right with SDSU till the very end. While it was another loss, at least it showed that the Rebels could hang with the #6 team in their gym, no small feat.

One step forward, two steps back seemed to be the theme of the conference schedule as well. After the close one in San Diego,  the Rebels traveled to play Air Force, and nearly gave away what should have been a guaranteed win. It took a late game (19-2) comeback for the Rebels to get the victory. Three point shooting woes remained, with the Rebels shooting a mere 25% from the arc. An ugly win in the low scoring affair, the Rebels would come back to Las Vegas haggard with their confidence shaken.

 Before the seasons started, most had it predicted BYU, SDSU, UNLV, and New Mexico as the teams prepared to make noise and perhaps all make the tournament. Those didn’t figure on Colorado State also being competitive. No matter how good or how bad teams are, if the bad team plays excellent and the good team plays very poorly, the bad team is likely to win. In one of the most unexpected losses of the season, the Rebels lost a home game to the CSU Rams. This loss really had people questioning the viability of the Rebels NCAA playoff chances.  The Rebels shot a miserable 13% from three, and never lead the game. The final score in this ugly game was 78-63, one of the worst home losses in recent memory.

In what was assumed to be a more difficult task the Rebels next faced New Mexico at the T&M. It was widely accepted that to make the tournament we needed to win this game or rely on sweeping the MWC tournament. This was one of the better games of the conference schedule, it wasn’t brick-fest and Oscar Bellfield got to be a hero – a roll he’s played well throughout his career. This game seesawed till the final minutes, when the unthinkable happened for the Lobos. UNLV trailed 61-60 when Willis intercepted Tony Snell's pass and was intentionally fouled. Willis made the two free throws, and Oscar Bellfield made 1 of 2 free throws with 18 seconds left to make it 63-61.The Rebels won due to luck or destiny, and thankfully shot a respectable 46% from three.

The Rebels first meeting with Wyoming, another team filling out the bottom of the MWC. The Rebels struggled in the first half, trailing by eight but righted the ship in the second half. The final score was 74-65. Shooting woes for the Rebels remained, but were largely contained in first half shooting.

Utah was just lousy last season. The Utes, a team normally stocked with 7’ centers, became fodder for Quintrell Thomas’s breakout game. He tallied 16 rebounds and 15 points, and the Rebels won the game 67-54. Carlos Lopez also nearly had a double double, so it just wasn’t Utah’s season. More evidence that even though Utah sucked, we might have lost this one – our shooting. UNLV shot almost 37% from the field, and only 16% from three. Luckily, Utah shot poorly as well. An ugly win to say the least, but congrats to our centers.

While the Rebs floundered, their next opponent, #8 BYU maintained the excellence they started with. Meeting them in Provo turned out to be as damaging as the previous meeting, they dominated us, winning 78-64.Poor shooting doomed the Rebels, on 30% shooting and 26% 3pointers. To make matters worse, BYU was nearly perfect from the charity stripe. Hopefully Coach Rice can instill that kind of work ethic in our players – make the free throws, their supposed to be easy, that’s why they are called ‘free’. This came was never that close.

UNLV’s second meeting, this time in Ft. Worth, TX,  had the feeling of a practice gym match. Due to weather issues, many failed to show up. While the reported attendance was “3813” the real number was more like 500, including the band and staff. UNLV won the game with their most impressive offensive outing of the conference schedule, with 94 points, but let the hapless Horned Frogs score 79 points. That’s not UNLV defense, especially against such a bad team in an odd atmosphere. Everyone was at least hopeful that the offensive production would continue when we faced SDSU next.

The first outing showed that SDSU appeared beatable by the Rebels – and that was in their gym. In another ugly loss, the Rebels lost another close one to #6 SDSU on our court, 63-57. The game was close almost all of the way, and it was most frustrating because UNLV could have legitimately beaten the Aztecs, both the previous time and this time. Here’s two things that the Rebels could have done better and won the game #1 make your free throws, 63% at home is simply unacceptable. #2 – stop shooting three pointers when you only make 1 of 15 (6%). I realize that SDSU has intimidating inside players who can throw a block party at a moment’s notice – but don’t get lazy and sit out on the arc all day when you’re one of the worst three point shooting squads in the NCAA. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t bounce our way.

The following game vs. Air Force was an ugly affair for both teams, but someone had to win and someone had to lose. Tallying a remarkable 49 points, the Rebels won the game (Air Force only had 42). This was painful to watch, I know they say a win is a win, but come on – it seemed more like a 0-0 tie in soccer. The Rebels only shot one more three pointer than against SDSU, this time going 2-14 from the arc. We were lucky that Air Force stunk like few before them have.

Fortunately for the fans, the Coaching staff didn’t see it as ‘a win is a win’ and decided drastic times call for drastic measures. But most calculations, the Rebels needed to win the final games of the Regular season to have a legitimate shot at an at-large bid. That meant avenging Colorado State @ Colorado, beating New Mexico @ the pit, and then two easy ones – Utah and Wyoming. Given the way the Rebels were shooting the ball (terribly), that would be a tall order. The staff banished the players to non-UNLV threads during practice. They said that the players were not representing UNLV basketball well, and they didn’t deserve to wear the uniform. Given how bad the Rebels had played and how fortunate our record was in spite of the bad basketball, few were convinced that this psychological move would right the ship and produce wins over the final four games. We were wrong, that (or luck) did the trick.

The Rams and the Rebels had been fighting over third place in the MWC, and for either team to win the matchup would swing that place considerably given the amount of basketball left to play. The Rebels produced shooting an amazing 42 % from the arc and 37% for the game. Fortunately for the Rebels, CSU played bad basketball, and we held on for a 68-61 victory. Looking back, had we lost this game, but won the other three, our tournament hopes may have been short lived – very important win.

The next tough challenge was New Mexico, in The Pit. Even though the Lobos were still rebuilding, wining in the atmosphere of The Pit is a very difficult task, one that the Rebels accomplished in winning form. Many heroes to this game, Tre’von Willis with his 25 points, Oscar Bellfield for tieing the game and forcing overtime at 67-67, and Bellfield and Quintrell Thomas for scoring points in overtime and getting the win. This was probably the most entertaining game of the season, with overtime and 9 lead changes. UNLV’s 3 point shooting was much improved at a scorching 47%. It was a fantastic win, and potentially the hardest of the final four contests needed to secure an at large bid. The Rebels powered through to a 77-74 overtime win.

The final two, Wyoming and Utah, were games where the Rebels played like team people anticipated they would be coming into conference play. The Rebels finished beat Wyoming 90-77 at home, and Utah 78-58 away. Three point shooting was incredible, field goal percentage in general fantastic. In these two final wins the Rebels finally did not have to win ugly, and did not play down to their competition.

With the post season upon them, the question in everyone’s mind was which Rebel team would show up – the team who had struggled so mightily to make a shot, or the one who defended with the best of them and dominated?


Next week:
Tournament time  - What effort was in Vegas, stayed in Vegas

Following those, comes the season preview!
Want to discuss, or did I miss something? Talk about it in the forums: Link

The freedom to twitter: A mountain west coach bans the use of twitter, is it in the cards for the Rebels?; Rebels land commitment from Daquan Cook closely eyeing others; 2011-2012 Non-Conference Schedule Finalized

(Updated 10:15 7/24/2011)


UNLV’s rival New Mexico Lobos’ Coach Steve Alford has banned his players from using Twitter, and has forced current ‘tweeters’ to close their accounts. In addition, Coach Alford allows players to have Facebook accounts, but has informed them they would be monitored by the athletic department. As far as consequences for indiscretions, any violation would warrant disciplinary action, a third violation would warrant pulling that student-athletes scholarship, suspending them, or removing them from the team. Coach Alford has not explained his rationale for doing so, but it is implied and obvious that Twitter could be seen as a distraction, a portal for trouble, and accentuates the individual over the team.


http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2011-07-20/new-mexicos-alford-threatens-scholarships-over-tweeting

Could this be a trend in college sports, and specifically could Coach Dave Rice implement a similar policy? The UNLV Athletic department is no stranger when it comes to student-athlete trouble caused by ‘tweeted’ comments. Take the case of UNLV Football wide-receiver Phillip Payne. In October of 2010 he was suspended by Coach Bobby Hauck due to tweeted comments critical of the coaching staff. He was suspended for two games, which would be the equivalent of 4-6 basketball games due to length of schedule.

UNLV Basketball has not yet experienced such problems, a statement which I don’t mean to imply that they will in the future. Coach Rice has not formally announced a policy in the manner that Coach Alford of New Mexico has, but it is possible that players have been encouraged to curtail Twitter accounts or at least what they are tweeting.

Take the case of UNLV player Anthony Marshall. He previously had an active account www.twitter.com/ANT_MARZ , that has since been closed. While I didn’t officially log when the account ceased to exist, I would guesstimate it was sometime in May. Sadly, I had meant to take a screenshot of the twitter page because it featured a cool new team photo of the Runnin’ Rebels on a chessboard motif – possibly a leaked new wallpaper of the team. If anyone has a copy of that, I’d like to have it and display it. UPDATE: Anthony Marshall has opened another Twitter account, http://twitter.com/#!/ant_marz3 (still cool backgound). Here is a twitter roster for this year’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels:

Oscar Bellfield – None that I could fine

Anthony Marshall – http://twitter.com/#!/ant_marz3 - protected (now)

Mike Moser - http://twitter.com/#!/MoserM5  - last update September 21 (year unknown)

Chace Stanback - http://twitter.com/#!/ChaceStanback  - very active, multiple daily posts

Reggie Smith - http://twitter.com/#!/reggiesmith2  - very active, multiple daily posts

Justin Hawkins - http://twitter.com/#!/Hawk_31  - protected

Brice Massamba - http://twitter.com/#!/B_mamba12  - protected

Bryce Jones - http://twitter.com/#!/B2nyce  - very active, multiple daily posts

Carlos Lopez – None that I could find

Kendall Wallace – None that I could find

Quintrell Thomas – None that I could find

Karam Mashour – None that I could find

Coaching Staff:

Coach Dave Rice - http://twitter.com/#!/CoachDaveRice  - Coach semi-active, every few days

Asst. Stacey Augmon – None that I could find

Asst. Justin Hutson – None that I could find

Asst. Heath Schroyer - http://twitter.com/#!/HSchroyer  - Hardly active, post 1 time a month

Given that two of the four members of the coaching staff themselves have and use Twitter, it would be hypocritical to ban it, unless of course everyone including coaches were banned.

The potential for trouble in the context of UNLV Basketball and twitter is very real, and many hypotheticals could cause problems. Here are some purely hypothetical but possible indiscretions: Coach / player posts something that raises the eyebrows of the NCAA compliance investigators, embarrassing photos tweeted (i.e. Congressman Weiner, Brett Favre), player trashes coaches or their decisions (Phillip Payne), strategic information leaked (injuries, starting lineup change), or off-color slur (see Tim Hardaway, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett). But are there any positives beyond a player communicating with his friends and fans?

The benefits beyond those rely on the fact that Twitter is an addictive technology. It is commonly said that the perfect invention is the one you never knew you needed, but now somehow can’t live without it. Many say Facebook and Twitter fall into that category. Many advertisers, stupidly, believe that Facebook and Twitter are some kind of second internet and they have to be a part of it or be killed by the competition. Why does Glidden paint feel that it is a good business strategy to try and get people to ‘like them on Facebook’? Tangent aside, many high school ballers have taken to Twitter like syrup to pancakes. Should the trend of banning Twitter accounts spread among schools, but not be outright banned by the NCAA, it could be a real boon to those universities who continue to allow it – a Shabazz Muhammad could say, no thanks I don’t want to give up Tweeting to play ball at your university. We also know Muhammad is a very active tweeter: http://twitter.com/#!/phenom15balla


This debate is likely to last awhile….

Rebels land commitment from Daquan Cook closely eyeing others

As widely reported, UNLV received a verbal commitment from Baltimore native Daquan Cook who is a 6’1” point guard. Besides other targets, Coach Rice and Staff may be locking up two others soon - Katin Reinhardt and Matt Willms. Not coincidentally, feature stories on both players recently ran in the Las Vegas Sun.

Incoming freshman and UNLV target Steven Zimmerman has turned down a scholarship offer from UCLA. This is good news for the schools who have already offered, Rebels included.
Link

Here is some video of Reinhardt:

Here is some video of Matt Willms (caution, over 9 minutes):

2011-2012 Non-Conference Schedule Finalized

As mentioned in the newspapers and now officially publicized on the Rebels website, the non-conference schedule is now finalized. New additions include Canisius (remember when and where you heard about that one) and Cal State San Marcos.

As far as Cal State San Marcos goes, this has to be seen to be believed and speaks to the level of competition we’ll be getting:

Link you have to see!


Official Schedule:
http://www.unlvrebels.com/sports/m-baskbl/sched/unlv-m-baskbl-sched.html

Rebelreign's schedule page will be updated soon.

The passing of Armen "The Hammer" Gilliam, Loyalty to UNLV and Coach Rice: The success of keeping the roster intact, Canisius date update

The passing of Armen "The Hammer" Gilliam

Sadly and far too abruptly, a member of the UNLV Basketball community has died. On July 5, 2011 the Hammer died at the young age of 47 of a heart attack. He was playing pick-up basketball when he died. As a tribute to Armen Gilliam, here is some highlight clips of the Hammer. Rest in peace.

Loyalty to UNLV and Coach Rice: The success of keeping the roster intact

On April 1, 2011 drips of information about UNLV head basketball Coach Lon Kruger’s decision to leave UNLV for Oklahoma trickled out, as if they were from an unreliable faucet. After many hours of partial and misinformation (largely distrusted because Kruger himself just a few days earlier said he was staying at UNLV) it became a certainty, UNLV’s entire coaching staff was leaving. Once the shock subsided, it was common sense that replacements would be named, and the athletic director said it would be a quick process, and it was. Coach Rice was named, and he assembled a dream-team staff that embodies our championship heritage, and seeks to bring that back. Fortunately, none of Coach Kruger’s former players have decided to leave UNLV in the wake of his departure, and this is a testament to the character of the players, Coach Rice and his staff, and the reputation of UNLV.

In the landscape of college basketball, it is not unheard of and actually quite common for coaches to come and go. NCAA coaches are given a bit more latitude than NBA coaches as far as being fired quickly if they they don't produce wins, so among the 300+ division I teams, things are relatively stable.

The fallout of a coaching change, be they fired or leave under good or bad circumstances, is that the people who actually put the points on the scoreboard are left in the balance. The dynamic that plays out in college sports is one where normally the student athlete and their family are looking somewhat at the college, but a great deal at the coaching staff when the initially choose a school. The staff, which would include the head coach and his assistants normally had been recruiting that player for several years while he was in high school, playing AAU basketball, or maybe even playing internationally. That staff has put in many hours answering questions, showing the player and his family how he would figure into his basketball offense (to a lesser extent defense), and most important to the athlete who has pro ambitions - how this staff will make him better so he can be a well-paid professional athlete. If the athlete was a transfer, they have had a similar recruitment, but obviously time wise to a much lesser extent. That said, as in the case of many UNLV players who have transferred into Lon Kruger’s program, they were people who he formally recruited out of high school – so the foundation had already been built.

Although this topic has only received passing mention by the news outlets, there would have been real danger should a significant number of players decided to transfer. UNLV has some built-in factors that could have made that danger a reality.

Our Roster

In terms of homegrown talent on the current UNLV roster, there is only one player who fits that category on this coming season’s roster – Anthony Marshall, a junior this season and a product of Mojave High School. Assuming that he felt that UNLV was always his best option, no matter the coaching staff, then he’s safe. There are many telling signs that he has immense loyalty to Las Vegas and UNLV, but surely we would understand if instead of Coach Rice some clown was installed by the A.D. and Regents, then Marshall might have left.

The next closest thing to a local, would be players from Findlay Prep - not locals but people who did attend high school here in Las Vegas specifically to be a part of a national powerhouse high school program.  From Findlay we have Brice Massamba, a native of Sweden and Carlos Lopez, who hails from Puerto Rico.  Brice Massamba is a senior this year who never redshirted, so theoretically he could have decided to transfer and have 1 year of remaining eligibility – but what’s the point of going to a new program with only one year left, that makes very little sense for Brice or for another program. Carlos Lopez is a redshirt sophomore this year, meaning he has used his redshirt as a freshman. If he were to transfer to another program he would only have two years of eligibility remaining, and would have to sit out this season.

Also in the category of next-closest-thing to a local, would be Karam Mashour. All indications is that UNLV’s good fortune of having this talented Israeli player on our roster is because his uncle lives in Las Vegas and is his United States roots. That makes it less likely that he would want to leave Las Vegas to find another program to play in. Also drawing assumptions from past actions, he was told he would have limited minutes as a freshman if he did not redshirt, but he played last year anyhow. It is less likely that he would want to ‘not-play’ this coming season by red-shirting at another program. He could have always gone back to Israel, but the basketball scenery there is uncertain, and exposure would likely be less than at UNLV.

Regarding the rest of the roster, Oscar Bellfield, Chace Stanback, and Kendall Wallace are all seniors this year. Stanback and Wallace have each already used their redshirt year (Stanback for transferring from UCLA, Wallace for injury), so transferring would be forfeiting their final year of eligibility. Bellfield never redshirted, but transferring to sit one year and then play later doesn’t make too much sense. Bellfield played more minutes than any other player last year, and he has a great thing going here.

Justin Hawkins will be a junior this year, but he could have elected to transfer, redshirt and have two years of eligibility remaining. Mike Moser has just finished sitting a redshirt year after transferring from UCLA. Although I am not fully apprised of the NCAA rule on this, theoretically, he could have elected to transfer out of UNLV to another program and played this coming season since he has already sat the year already and has not yet played for the Rebels. The same situation exists with Reggie Smith who transferred in from Marquette will be eligible in January 2012 to start playing. Since he will have sat the year, nothing prevents him from choosing another school to play ball at. Quintrell Thomas, the Kansas transfer who will be a junior this year, has already used a redshirt season getting to UNLV. Thomas would jeopardize an entire season by trying to play somewhere else.

Previous Recruits

As far as recruits who were in place under Coach Lon Kruger, shortly after the regime change Findlay Prep product Nigel Williams-Goss rescinded his verbal commitment to UNLV, stating that it was Coach Kruger that recruited him and who he was sold on, he has a lot of time to remake the decision and will still consider the Runnin’ Rebels when making that choice. Grandy Glaze was a recruit who, for was appears was a mutual decision, has chosen another school (St. Louis). The all-time Nevada high school scoring leader, Dantley Walker, was recruited by both Lon Kruger and Dave Rice, and Rice appears to be a Coach both he and his family are happy with, so his commitment was solidified.

Other familiar teams

Other teams that we know and play against have not been so lucky when it comes to coaching changes and players staying.

The Utah Utes have been an absolute disaster since they fired Jim Boylen. They hired Larry Krystkowiak and soon thereafter nearly half the team decided to transfer.  J.J. O’Brien was one of the transfer players UNLV was targeting, he ended up choosing the SDSU Aztecs as his destination team.  The team only returns four players from last years squad (David Foster, Chris Hines, Josh Washburn, Jiggy Watkins) and has been patched back up with JUCO and small school transfers, as well as a lot of walk-ons. They will try to compete in the Pac-12, but even living up to their 12-16 record from last year seems like a challenge under these circumstances.

The Wyoming Coyboys fired Coach Heath Schroyer (now an assistant with UNLV) ten games into last season. Interm Coach Fred Langley was not retained, and Wyoming snagged Larry Shyatt, who had been assistant to Billy Donovan with the multiple national champion Florida Gators. He’s probably the best they could do given the circumstances. Not long after the hire, Amath M'Baye, Wyoming’s best player with several years of eligibility left, decided to join Coach Kruger in Oklahoma. Wyoming has also lost Desmar Jackson to Southern Illinois.

Conclusion

The fact that not a single player from this year’s roster has defected is a tribute to the faith and optimism that the players have for Coach Rice and his assistant coaches. Although each player has their own circumstances that extend well off the hardwood, a Coaching staff has to be there for the players, not just for X’s and O’s but for mentorship, guidance, and security. With the change, a lot of familiar faces are gone, but none of the new faces are strangers. Talent, winning, and tradition bind the new staff and everyone is confident that the success that Coach Kruger built can be maintained and even capitalized on. All of the players and coaches should be given our sincere thanks for helping to maintain a highly successful roster that is expected to go deeper into the tournament this year. 


Originally published on The Mountain West Connection
Link

Canisius date update



One of their loyal fans has alerted me that they believe Canisius will be visiting and playing the Rebels on November 17, 2011. 

Christian Wood - Orally commits to UNLV

Christian Wood orally commits to the UNLV 2013-14 class

(Video fixed 10:30a.m.)

Points of emphasis about his recruitment

• Appreciates the reputation and tradition at UNLV
• Believes UNLV is young and on the rise
•  Looked at the Rebels due to AAU coach’s relationship with Stacey Augmon
• Says looks forward to having Augmon as a mentor, aspires to be similar type of swingman player, appreciates him having helped develop Carmelo Anthony and J.R. Smith
• Appreciates that Augmon was a NBA player, what he brings to the table
• Wanted to pick a school close to home (Palmdale, CA)
• May attend Finlay Prep this coming season
• Major point (hidden in plain sight): Looks at the UNLV coaching staff and sees the former coaches of both Jimmer Fredette and Kawai Leonard, both NBA lottery picks

Profile

Christian Wood is 6’8”, entering his junior year, and plays power forward currently at William J. Knight High School in Palmdale, CA. As exhibited in his game footage he has an excellent 3-point-shot and dunks with regularity and authority. He has been described as extremely athletic for his size, and has been compared with Kevin Durant for body type. Overall, he has been described as a cross between Austin Daye and Tracy McGrady. By his own admission, he needs to build strength so he can rebound and fight for loose balls. Missed all but three games of last year’s high school season with a broken wrist. At his age, growing taller is still within the realm of possibility, but even if he does not grow another inch, he is the correct size for a power-forward. His shooting range will draw the defense out, allowing better looks for his teammates. He has the potential to be a 1^st team all-MWC type of player, and a good shot at being selected and competing at the next level. This is excellent news for UNLV and for Christian Wood and his family, he figures to be a prominent key to the Rebel’s future.

Rankings

• Scout.com lists him as a 4-star prospect, 33^rd best player overall and 9^th best power forward
• Espn.com lists him as a 4-star prospect (94 points), 37^th best player overall and 11^th best power forward
• Rivals.com lists him as a 3-star prospect
• Neil Neves @ Coast 2 Coast recruiting believes by the time 2013 arrives Wood could be the #1 west coast prospect.

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Video

Interview done by West Coast Hoops – May 22, 2011 (Topic, recruiting, people who influence his decision)

http://www.ihigh.com/westcoasthoops/video_895653.html

Christian Wood and others at Pangos spring showcase:

http://blip.tv/ballislife/katin-reinhardt-stanley-johnson-zena-edosomwan-jordan-bell-christian-wood-showout-at-pangos-spring-showcase-5230769

Highlight mixtape

Highlights from 2011 Memorial Day tournament (he’s wearing #3)

Congratulations!

Congratulations are in order to the Dallas Mavericks and former UNLV Runnin' Rebel Shawn Marion, 2010-11 NBA Champions!

Strength of schedule

Strength of schedule?

Many have figured out the layout of the 2011-2012 non-conference schedule, and we already know we’re playing a smaller field in the MWC this year, obviously one game home and one away, so the immediate impression is that this is a weak schedule, weaker that the schedules UNLV had lined up the past few years.

Why is it weak?

If you look at the schedule (feel free to click on the 2011-12 schedule tab to see the full nonconference schedule). We aren't playing a lot of great teams next year, only four made the tournament and SDSU isn't going to be good next year. To assess the future difficulty in playing an opponent, there are three main factors. 1) Quality of team; 2) Location of game; 3) Date in schedule playing them. There are other factors that could be considered, such as win streak, matchups, etc, but its far too early to look to those factors. We’ll look at those three factors for now when assessing this schedule.

Lets group the non-conference games into categories:

Ultra-Marquee

North Carolina

Wisconsin

Without question, when people think of UNC they think basketball, they think national championships, and they think Michael Jordan. UNC is a perennial powerhouse that easily scoops up McDonalds All-Americans on a regular basis. Wisconsin is more known for football, but have been a steady tournament making team for a good while and any win against Wisconsin is considered a great boost to the tournament resume.

UNC has not released its schedule yet, but by the same time last year they had five  games under their belt – enough time to make adjustments about what works and what doesn’t, additionally enough time to scout the Runnin’ Rebels to study matchups, defense, and offensive strategy. What makes both of these matchups that much harder is that we face Wisconsin on their home court, and UNC at the Orleans.  The UNC game at the Orleans (provided we get them in the draw), has historically not been a good venue for the Rebels. UNLV was demolished two seasons ago by Kansas State there, and nearly gave away a victory last season against Boise State. UNLV’s fans have not attended Orleans’ games as well as they perhaps should – insulted that the games aren’t included in their season ticket packages or, in this case, they’ll be forced to pony up for an expensive package to watch the Rebels. UNC has a good traveling crowd, and expect them to take full advantage of a trip to Vegas. To top things off, TV coverage of games at the Orleans has been spotty, let’s hope a ultra-premium opponent like UNC will fix that wagon. It will be difficult to beat the Tar Heels unless they play terrible and we play outstanding basketball.

For whatever reason, we’ve had Wisconsin’s number for awhile and have regularly beat them in tough games, our guys should use that confidence to our advantage but not let it go to our heads. A win against Wisconsin on their floor would do wonders come tournament time. We face Wisconsin on 12/10, plenty of time for their team to find a rhythm and study the new-look Rebels, so they are definitely not to be taken lightly.

Marquee

University of Nevada Reno

University of Southern California

University of California Santa Barbara

Illinois

University of California
Wichita State

University of New Mexico

Colorado State

For a team who is seeking to be better than the annual tournament appearance and maintain a top-25 ranking, these marquee games become games where we must win 3/4ths of them to be taken seriously. UNR hasn’t been good in a few years, but all indications is they are rebuilding and will be a good team soon, if not this coming season. It’s still our in-state rival, but it’s a home game this year so that’s a plus.

USC is always a big name, but has been underachieving for awhile. Don’t count on our pick up of Bryce Jones (who won’t be eligible this year) to put a thorn in their side, but hopefully he can let our coaching staff know about their weaknesses.

UCSB has caused headaches for Lon Kruger’s Rebels  for awhile, let’s hope a regime change will rectify our spotty record against the Gauchos.

Illinois should be a game that every player who was a member of last year’s squad should circle. They flat-out embarrassed the Rebels in the tournament in a game most picked the Rebels to win. Revenge should be a primary motivator, but they also could be slightly easier to take on, losing McCamey and Davis to graduation.

Cal has been mediocre as of recent, but they are still a big name – that’s why it’s a marquee game.

Wichita State is probably a team most don't know much about, but they just finished this past season going 29-8 and won the N.I.T. beating Alabama 66-57. They will be a difficult foe who we have to face on the road if they maintain or build on their success of this past season.

The Lobos are only getting better, and they will be a tough team this season. They are the odds-on favorite to challenge UNLV for the MWC title this year. We have to play them once in The Pit, so that’s never fun. Likely we’ll spit the series.

The Rams keep getting better under Tim Miles, and they likely will be slightly better next season than they were this season. Keep in mind, they did embarrass us at the T&M, so we’ll have to make sure and dominate them home and away this year.  

Filler

Washburn

Grand Canyon

Morgan State

Cal Poly

UTEP

University of Louisiana-Monroe

University of Central Arkansas

Hawaii

Cal State Bakersfield

Wyoming

San Diego State

Air Force

TCU
Boise State

Not much needs to be said about the filler teams - they are filler teams. SDSU will not have the name recognition because the vast majority of the team that carried them to the sweet 16 last year is gone. Steve Fisher is still a great coach, but the Rebels should easily destroy them, especially with the knowledge of Justin Hutson on our sidelines. UNLV must win every game we have against these bottom dwellers for us to have a legitimate shot at an at large bid. Failure is not an option.

What about the TBAs?

There are two games yet to be scheduled, December 7 and January 7. It would take a miracle to schedule another ultra-marquee or marquee opponent for either of those spots, those types of teams likely already have their schedules filled out and don’t want to bother with a potentially dangerous UNLV, especially not on our home court. Expect two filler teams, don’t be surprised if we have to fill it with a D-II opponent, which is unusual but not unheard of. Best outcome would be filling one of  the games with BYU – they still have name recognition but will be vastly inferior with losing Jimmer, but from the way the coach has talked we aren’t going to play BYU next season.

Shabazz Muhammad as a Rebel

No, Shabazz Muhammad did not just commit to UNLV, this is just a glimpse into a possible future that would be excellent news for UNLV, the fans, and even for Shabazz.

Although this is just a possibility right now – it s a possibility that makes a lot of sense and is a great choice. Before we talk about the benefits for everyone, let’s look at who Shabazz Muhammad  is:

Shabazz Muhammad is a 6’6” 205 lbs shooting guard who is entering his senior year at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, NV. He has been called the best basketball recruit in Southern Nevada history. He is a scoring powerhouse, averaging 25 points per game and a season high last year of 38 against Sierra Vista HS. He is the correct size of a shooting guard, even for NBA standards (MJ was 6’5” and did pretty well). He also has a powerful body, he is able to take the ball to the rim, and pull up inside the arc. He has been known to hit from 3, but that is one of his few offensive weaknesses. Defensively, he is a supreme athletic specimen, he has the quickness and ability to stop others and recapture the ball to lead a fast break. Defensively, the only critiques have been of his ball handling under-pressure, and gambling a little too much trying to go for a steal. Remember this, he’s the #2 prospect in the nation and he was only a junior – nobody’s perfect. He is hardwired to be competitive and his drive to win is extremely high. Everything continuing the way it should for Shabazz, he will be playing at the highest level of basketball professionally, the only question is what path will he take to get there.

The reasons why Shabazz Muhammad should play for the Runnin Rebels (in no particular order):

1.      Vegas is a basketball Mecca – it’s all here, there is nowhere that can compete with Las Vegas in terms of basketball prowess and exposure. Besides UNLV being a traditional basketball powerhouse, we have the NBA summer league, USA Olympic team training camp, qualifiers, and exhibitions, Impact Basketball Academy, Tarkanian Basketball Academy, Thomas and Mack Center, Mendenhall Center (soon to be completed), likely stadium projects that will eventually snag the Sacramento Kings – it’s all here.

2.      Family – Any person who has succeeded at the highest levels, athlete or not, will tell you that they couldn’t have done it without their support system. Playing locally means that your parents, brothers, sisters, friends, former coaches, and mentors are available to you. Would you rather make a telephone call from another timezone when you are going through a tough time, or meet face-to-face and end it with a hug or handshake. Your games will be well attended, but will your family and friends be at all your home games? There are clear advantages to playing collegiate ball in Las Vegas. It’s also a two way street, besides the benefits your family gives to you, think about what you give to them by being local. Shabazz has not had a problem with travel around the country when on the road with Dream Vision, but he’s also had that support system there as his father is an assistant coach with the team. Have it both ways – continue doing what you love with the people you love backing you up – it’s a no brainer.

3.      Staying local – There is something to be said for staying local and being successful. Take Butler University. If you look at that team, it’s a small school with limited historical success in basketball. That said, they’ve just reached the national championship game twice in the last two years – incredible. Chalk some of it up to great coaching or luck, but also look at the roster. Ten out of the fourteen members of that team are from Indiana – the same state as Butler – they are locals, that’s 71% of the team! No disrespect to the excellent players past and present who represent UNLV Basketball but are from places far and near, but even they would agree – if talent is in your own backyard, keep it on lockdown. UNLV has quite a few scholarships available for when Shabazz Muhammad is going to start as a freshman, why not fill that team up and have the roster eventually be Anthony Marshall, Roscoe Allen, Shabazz Muhammad and Ben Carter as the locals. Quite a team, no? So Anthony Marshall graduates and let’s say Muhammad decides not to declare for the draft until after his sophomore year, then you get Dantley Walker and perhaps Nigel Williams-Goss added to that squad – fantastic team of locals, not counting the remaining great players we have / will be getting.

4.      Coaching style – Coach Dave Rice has been a man of his word, everything he has said up to now has come true, and I believe him when he says he is going to turn the Runnin’ Rebels back into the Runnin’ Rebels. He even maintains he will continue to keep the team’s defense up to the level it was under Lon Kruger, a defense that was feared and respected throughout college basketball. What player wouldn’t want to be a part of that system? Fast-break transition basketball is awesome to watch, and fun to play. Tarkanian’s teams thrived on quick scoring, and Coach Rice is a Tarkanian student. Shabazz would be ready to start right away at UNLV, the offense and defense would be tailored to his strengths, and an added benefit is Stacey Augmon is here not only teach how to play excellent defense, but as a former NBA player development coach he would prepare him for the NBA. This fits perfectly. Additionally, with a runnin' offense Shabazz's draft stock could rise considerably. An offense that runs closer to 70 ppg has a leading scorer with around 15-16 ppg, but an 80+ppg offense has much more shots and scorers could average closer to 20 ppg, maybe more. What has more significance, Shabazz averaging 15ppg or 20ppg? NBA teams would project him as having more all-star potential with 20ppg in college ball, which leads to a higher draft pick and more guaranteed $$$. It's that simple.

5.      Being the hero – "Local kid helps make UNLV champions again". You can’t script it any better than that. Why go to Duke, Kentucky, Louisville, or North Carolina where you are just the next cog in a system that their fans expect will be there again and again? That’s boring. Who wants to be the new kid buried in a lineup of Mr. (insert your state name here)’s playing in Lexington Kentucky? Why play for Arizona, it’s like Las Vegas – but boring. Forget that crap, stay and be a rock star or royalty in Las Vegas, be the guy to brings an already great program back to the promised land. That’s a story people want to hear, that’s a story the national media wants to write about. No matter if you become Lebron James or Greg Oden, Las Vegas will always appreciate and admire you, you will be a hero to this town. Can the same be said of one of the schools I mentioned? I sincerely doubt it. The impact of Shabazz Muhammad playing for UNLV goes beyond just his time here, be it for only one or all four years. Other excellent local players will want to come play, along with great players from around the nation, and all because one man decided it was the right thing to do. Brilliant.

Shabazz Muhammad playing for UNLV benefits himself, his family, his city, and his State. When you are a top-5 prospect, you write your own ticket. Be a Rebel, and become legendary.

Also would like to congratulate USC Transfer Bryce Jones for making the decision to become a Runnin’ Rebel, you won’t regret it! Likely more on Jones in a future story.

YouTube Clips of Shabazz Muhammad’s dominance:

More fun:

Interview with Dantley Walker's father and assistant coach - Greg Walker

Dantley Walker - UNLV Point Guard of the Future 

Rebel fans, I recently had a chance to speak with and interview Greg Walker, Dantley Walker's father and assistant coach of his high school basketball team. Everything you wanted to know about UNLV's future point guard, you're about to find out. Additionally, the Walkers have been extremely accommodating in providing information and pictures - even the avid Dantley Walker fan will learn something or see a photograph they haven't yet seen. In true RebelReign.com style, the following is a transcript of the interview, enjoy:

RR: RebelReign.com
GW: Greg Walker

Signing day

RR: I’m talking to Greg Walker, Dantley Walker’s father. Obviously the most recent thing is that Dantley has recently signed his letter of intent to play for the UNLV Runnin' Rebels, to come play for UNLV when he comes back from his mission, is that correct?

GW: Yes, that’s correct. It was Thursday and with Coach Kruger we were actually going to go down there and sign it. But when Coach Rice came, he faxed or fed-ex’d it out here, and we had an assembly and he signed in front of the whole high school and we sent it back.

RR: Ok, that’s interesting. I had seen the picture of Dantley signing, but didn’t know it was taken in Lincoln County, it almost looked like it was taken at UNLV.

GW: They rounded up some UNLV Rebel banners and posted them on the wall; it was at our high school here in Panaca.

RR: That would explain the creases you could see in the banner, it had not been hanging long (laughs).

GW: (laughs) yeah, I think it was folded up.

RR: Were you actually there?

GW: Yes, well I teach here, but I was actually at some meetings. So I picked up the family and was there. It was probably only 10 minutes, but it was cool. We’ve been waiting to do that for a long time so it was great.

RR: Obviously this was a pretty big event for the high school, pretty small high school, what is the total enrollment out there in Lincoln County High School?

GW: There are about 2000 people in Lincoln County,  and about 200 students in the high school. Sometimes over 200, sometimes it dips under, but usually right around 200. About 50 kids per class year.

RR: What do you teach?

GW: I teach English, a high school English teacher. When I first came out here I was the head baseball coach, and assistant boys basketball coach. When I was at Chaparral high school for my first year-and-a-half in Las Vegas, I taught and coached there as well. I got an offer to go (to Panaca) and I took it.

RR: How is life in Panaca vs. Las Vegas?

GW:  (laughs) It’s a lot slower, a lot slower. You know I liked coaching in Vegas, but didn’t like teaching there too much. They were cramming about 45 kids in a class. We just thought (Panaca) would be a good place to raise a family. My wife was from Mesquite, she grew up there and it was a small town, and I moved from Oregon my senior year to Moapa valley – which is a small town. So we are both familiar with small town life. But it was still a little adjustment after being in Las Vegas for 6 years- when I was at UNLV and then teaching. There are good and bad things about both places.

RR: Nowhere is perfect.

GW: Right.

RR: How many kids do you have besides Dantley?

GW: I have two girls and another boy. I have a girl, Hailee, who is a freshman; a girl, Jade, that is a seventh grader; my boy, Kobe, is in 4^th grade.

RR: Are they all athletes as well?

GW: The girls are more into dancing and cheerleading, my youngest is really into all sports too.

RR: I want to talk about Dantley, let’s get a good history there and then move onto some other areas. Obviously, everyone knows you named him after Adrian Dantley, the famous Notre Dame standout who was a heck-of-a NBA player, and now an assistant coach.

GW: Its funny, because every article that has been written about Dantley brings up the naming thing. Its not so much that he was named after him, but we liked the name. Adrian Dantley was my hero growing up. I patterned my game after him, kind of an undersized post. I went to his camp in Salt Lake City when he was playing for the Jazz, and just loved the way he played the game. So that’s where we got the name.

RR: Nothing in particular about Notre Dame or the Jazz that you would have been focused on?

GW: Not Notre Dame. I graduated from high school in 1987 and he was with the Jazz when I was in high school, so I definitely was a big Jazz fan during that time. We would get the games on the satellite in Oregon and we would watch just about all of his games. I was 6’0” and played post, he was 6’5” and played post. I just tried to emulate his game. No Notre Dame connection, that was before my time.

RR: I’ve read numerous articles about your son, a few of the articles have mentioned his shooting ability changing in the 7^th grade, could you tell me about that?

GW: (laughs) Yeah, well we had a couple of guys that got him going in the Utah leagues, the Junior Jazz and the Border League it’s called out here. He would go play in Cedar City and St. George, Utah. We got him going pretty young, when he was in 3rd or 4^th grade. When he first started he was probably the best ball handler and passer, but wasn’t necessarily the best shooter. He was really small. Shooting just came with practice. I think 6^th – 7^th grade is when he got really serious about working on his whole game and started spending a lot of time in the gym. We just would go there for hours, working on his shot, dribbling, and everything.

RR: Since we are talking about Dantley in the end of elementary and junior high, was he looking at other sports or particularly gifted in other sports?

GW: Yeah, he was a really gifted baseball player. In fact, I’ve had people tell me – 'you’ve picked the wrong sport, you should have pushed him more in baseball.' You don’t have to fight the size issue so much in baseball as you do in basketball. He was an excellent fielder, switch hitter, could pitch – just a really good glove, but I knew more about basketball than baseball and he just liked basketball a little better than baseball, so he kind of gave baseball up even though he didn’t want to. I said, if your goal is to play college basketball then you probably need to give up some  things like that, so he did. You really do have to give it up if you are playing AAU ball. The high school season ends in February and AAU kicks up in March. Its hard to play high school baseball if you’re doing that.

RR: There are so many time commitments for high schoolers in general, you pile on all these extra-circulars you have to a lot your time otherwise you’re spread too thin.

GW: Right

RR: I don’t think I’ve read that anywhere, so that’s good to know.

GW: Not too many people have asked about it outside of Lincoln County. He was always an all-star, one of the better players, but outside of the County nobody knows.

RR: So, he started really putting in the time, what people would classify as a ‘gym rat’ around the 7^th grade, and it continued from there?

GW: Yea, right around then he gave up the other sports. That would have been the last year of  baseball majors, and it was year round basketball from there. Definitely a gym rat. Just about every day but Sunday, we would work on something or he would work on something.

RR: Do you have a hoop at the house, or how does he get his practice in?

GW: Well, we have it good out here because I have keys to the gym. But yeah, we definitely have a hoop here. We used to play on it a lot when he was younger, go out and go at it. Pretty soon it was just, lets get in the gym and do things full court. Its right next door, about 100 yards away from our house, so any time he wanted to get in he would take the keys and get in. The administrators would look the other way and not kick him out. Mostly the gym over the backyard as he got older.

Coach Wood, Dantley, and Greg Walker

RR: Having a knowledge as an assistant basketball coach did you have any ideas on the position Dantley would play or was best suited to?

GW: I’ve been around basketball my whole life, I told my wife if we have a boy, “I don’t care if he is 5”10” or 6’10” I am going to train him to be a point guard.” My problem was I had a lot of the same kind of success as Dantley in high school, but because I was a (post) inside player I couldn’t play D1 college basketball-it didn’t translate to that level. I didn’t want that to happen to Dantley. He was a little guy when we were at Chaparral, and we were working on his handles making sure he could be a point guard. He would give half time dribbling shows during our games at Chaparral when he was 3 and 4 years old.

RR: So, if he were 6’8” or 6’9” he would be Magic Johnson.

GW: (laughs) Yeah, I wish he would have gotten that height. He can play the 2 very well too, but there wouldn’t be too many D1 schools looking for a 5'11 2 guard.

RR: And by -2- you obviously mean shooting guard.

GW: Yeah, and so I think we made the right decision. I think if he wasn’t a point guard he probably wouldn’t be headed to the D1 level.

RR: With him being a gym rat, what would he be doing? Would it be just him shooting baskets from all around the floor, or would it be pickup games?

GW: Out here, it was tough to get pickup games. There was some guys who would get up and play three days a week, at the church, at 5:30 AM. He would set his alarm and get up on his own and do that, just to make sure he got his games in. Sometimes they would play Tuesdays and Thursday nights, and we always got him to those games. But, more than anything else, him and I were in the gym just working on everything. Shooting off the dribble, shooting off picks, shooting full court, left hand, right hand, driving, floaters, footwork, dribbling, we had a whole routine and it would usually take us about an hour and a half. We would always have him shoot at minimum 150 3's besides everything else we did. After that he would stay and do his thing, and I would go because I had enough. We would do that for years – we still do it sometimes. And that’s it, since we weren’t living in Vegas you couldn’t find a game to play in everyday. So he was like Larry Bird, just working on his skills on his own all the time.

RR: It’s tough in a city of that size to find a pickup game. When he did find a game were the opposition grown adults, decent competition.

GW: Yeah, I guess so-pretty decent. It was a lot of adults. Now, basketball is pretty big out here and a lot of the high school kids will get together with some of the better older guys and have some pretty good games. Once he got to high school we got him right into the Las Vegas Prospects after his freshman year. He was basically playing basketball from November till August. So, it’s only really during the fall when he had to try and find games here in Panaca since entering high school.

RR: I’m going to make an assumption here, so correct me if am wrong. There comes a point when a son, if he is good, is going to beat his old man in a game of 21. Assuming that happened, when did it happen?

GW: (Laughs). It happened! What’s funny is we used to play a lot of half-court, and I’m taller and bigger than him so I could always drive in and score on him. I said, you know what, we need to play full-court. So, we go and we play full-court 1-on-1, up and back. The rule was you could never walk the ball up-full speed the whole game. And we played to 11 by 1’s, best of seven. When he was younger I would always win the series. Each year he would keep winning more games. This last fall, I would be lucky to win a game. He would take me 4 games to 1 or 0. It started changing his junior year when he started beating me more than I could beat him. It was good because it kept him in shape and kept him playing full court. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen him play, but he could bring it up and just, kind of like Jimmer, pull up and shoot wherever he was. I think a lot of that was from us doing those full court 1-on-1 games so much-and all the shooting drills.

RR: No, unfortunately I haven’t seen your son play. I’m in that 95% that have only seen it on Youtube. I guess you trained him to beat you, so it was bound to happen.

GW: Yeah, we’ve had some pretty good battles. Talking trash, we’re both fiery and competitive. That’s one of the reasons he is successful – he is just so competitive. It doesn’t matter what he’s doing, he just wants to beat you. I think that’s helped him in basketball and other things. If you’re playing checkers or whatever, he wants to beat you.

RR: Kind of like the Michael Jordan mentality, wants to win at whatever activity.

GW: He’ll keep on playing until he finally wins. He won’t leave till it happens.

RR: Lets go down the statistics, I want to make sure everything I’ve read is correct.

GW: OK

RR: Dantley’s height is 5’11”.

GW: Yes, we’re hoping during his mission he can gain another inch.

RR: Well, he’ll have to drink a lot of milk.

GW: Yeah, stretch him out.

RR: He is going to graduate high school this year, and has a pretty good GPA.

GW: Yes, I think its 3.7.

RR: He’s currently only playing basketball, and been doing that primarily since 7^th grade.

GW: Yeah, as the sole sport. Organized basketball since 4^th grade.

RR: His high school team is the Lincoln County Lynx.

GW: Yes.

RR: The data I have says the team went 24-7?

GW: That sounds right. Tied for first place in league with Agassi Prep.

RR: League play, 11-3. What is the league, just all similarly sized schools or geographically?

GW: Yea, it's based on school population and geographically the southern part of the state.

RR: He averaged 36.2 PPG this last season.

GW: Yes

RR: Basically, his production is what a lot of people talk about because, for example, he scored 73 points in a game this season and that was the highest point total by any high school player in the country this year.

GW: That’s right and we won that game too.

RR: So people are looking at his scoring, but he has very respectable other categories. Assists per game, 10.2; rebounds per game – just under 6 (5.4), steals per game 5.4. So besides being a scoring powerhouse, with the other stats he could essentially score -0- points a game and still be a valuable asset.

GW: (laughs) Yeah, by his sophomore year he really had a well rounded game. He’s always had to do a lot of scoring for us. If you’ve heard, Dave Rice has said some good things about Dantley, such as talking about his good passing ability. I honestly think that will be more of his role on the college level. I think he’ll be more of a quarterback running the team type player. He'll still bust the 3 it if they play off of him but he'll  have a lot of others that can score too, at UNLV.  He’ll get you the ball, whether on the fast break, half court offense, or if you need to get it to the post or a certain player – he can do it. He has really good court sense.  Because he scored so much, sometimes his passing got lost in the shuffle.

RR: There is a statistic I don’t have because it wasn’t published. But obviously in order to average 36.2 PPG you have to jack up a lot of shots.

GW: Yes, he definitely had the green light. That’s the thing, I can’t remember exactly how many he shot each game and stuff like that, we have it somewhere. But, if he had a half decent look, Coach Wood gave him the green light because a lot of times he could shoot threes better than some of the kids out here could shoot lay-ups. But because he had so many guys on him, because he was such a good scorer, every team was throwing 2-3 guys or a gimmick defense against him, and he was still able to score 36 in spite of that. So, yea he was playing against a lot of 2a teams, but he never was being guarded straight up by one man.  Sometimes it seemed half of the opposing team was guarding him.

RR: The game where he scored 73, do you remember what kind of defense they threw at him that game?

GW: I remember it was Agassi Prep and we beat them. And the thing about Agassi, it was great that he scored 73 against them because they are a legit team. They were the state champions. I think they beat the northern team by 30 points to win the championship this year. Really athletic, big kids. Anyways, what they did was as soon as he got to half court they would double him right there. Or they would just double him full court.  A lot of teams did that. As soon as he passed the half court line they sent two kids at  him and would try to push him to the sideline to try to get him to pass the ball. That game it didn’t seem to matter, he was just in the zone. Everything he threw up just went in that game. Some of the shots he made were from 6 to 8 feet behind the 3 point line.

RR: So, getting back to where I was headed originally. Has anyone compiled the number and figured out his shooting percentage?

GW: You know what, we did from watching tape of his games.  His senior year, he was over 50% from inside the 3 point line, and he was in the low 40’s from outside, I think 41% from 3.

RR: Wow, that’s incredible, especially for the amount taken.

GW: Yeah, they would play him so tight that he would get fouled too, so he got to the free throw line a lot.

RR: How is his free-throw percentage?

GW: He lead the nation in free throw percentage as well. He made 262 out of 290 free throws, and he shot exactly 90%

RR: Ok, so we have a Danny Ainge here.

GW: According to MaxPrep that was the highest percentage in the nation.

RR: Now, since you’re also a coach, you would agree with me that its unusual for a person running the point guard would not be a prolific scorer like that, it takes a lot of energy to run a team. A lot of energy is used taking the ball up the court yourself, as opposed to being the one who scores by coming off the block and shooting.

GW: Yeah, we never took him out unless it was a blowout. We wore him down. If we took him out it seemed like we would fall apart. And a lot of teams, they would guard him full court and try to wear him out. He always had the ball in his hands, always. And that’s why some people wonder, if he scored 36, how did he get 10 assists? That’s exactly how, he always had the ball in his hands. He had some games where he would just about collapse at the end of the game, but he got in such good shape that he could handle it. I’d say he's a lot like The Jimmer that way. If you saw him this year they hardly ever took him out, and he always had the ball in his hands, but he seemed to do alright. Energy wise, by his junior and senior years he could handle that, go go go. It definitely took a toll on him, wearing him down. Sometimes by the end of the game he would just about drop.

RR: Regarding wear-and-tear, has he suffered any major injuries up to this point?

GW: No, he’s been blessed or lucky not to get injured. Only in his sophomore year I think he missed 2 games due to a sprained ankle. It could have been 1 game if my memory is correct.

RR: On another subject that may fascinate some, what kind of shoes does Dantley wear?

GW: (Laughs) It’s cool because when he was a freshman, sophomore, and junior, he loved the old Jordan’s and we found them for him to wear. It's popular now to wear them but when he was doing it nobody else really was. We found him a pair of the Jordan VIs. The red and white Carmines when he was a sophomore. They matched our red and white jerseys. Those are my favorite old school Jordan's. They weren't cheap but he looked great in them. When he was a junior he wore the XIs and some of the IV and V's too. I found most of them on ebay. They weren't selling them in Foot Locker, like they do now.

RR: Aren’t those the ones that look like the wrestlers earpieces on the side, the bulge?

GW: Yeah, I think he wore those too.

GW: Yeah, those are what he wore the first three years, and nobody else was really doing that, so that was kinda unique to him. People would ask him, “where did you get those shoes?” People really liked them. He would go through a couple pair a year. Christmas time, we would get him another pair. For Christmas or Birthdays he only wanted basketball shoes. This year he got away from that, and went with the Hyperdunks. He really liked how light they were. Also this year he wore the Hyperfuse.

RR: What shoe size does he wear?

GW: He wears size 11.

RR: Obviously when he’s at UNLV they’ll be giving him his shoes, so you won’t have to break the bank anymore.

GW: That will be nice. Now maybe I can buy me a pair once in a while.

RR: Obviously he just signed the letter of intent, in the middle of his selection process there was a coaching change, that must have been a shock?

GW: You know, it was. He was pretty bummed out about it when we first heard it. He was gone to a track meet and I texted him the news and it pretty much bummed him out. Everything was back up in the air after that.

RR: Obviously, the common practice is when you give your oral commitment to a coach, and that coach leaves things are really up in the air, seen that way from both sides. Is that correct?

GW: Yeah, Coach Henson called right after it happened. I think he was at the Final Four. He called and apologized, and he said, “You know I know this screws you guys up.” I really liked Coach Henson, so I said, “hey – these things happen.” You can’t blame him for going, he got a good pay raise and everything. So, like everyone else we kind of waited to see what would happen.

RR: I don’t remember how long, but in about 10 days to two weeks a new coach was picked, and by the result I would assume you guys are really happy with Dave Rice.

GW: Ecstatic. Really no other coach, except maybe coach Tim Duryea of Utah State, knew his game better. We couldn’t have done any better than Rice. Great man. Great coach. Coach Kruger really didn’t jump in till mid-January. Coach Rice has been watching Dantley since his sophomore year. He called Dantley the summer after his freshman season,  and he has been following him really close since that call. Coach Rice was the first D-1 coach who ever came to our gym to watch a player and our school has been here for over 100 years!

RR: That’s pretty important.

GW: Yeah, so he knew everything about Dantley, so we figured that if Coach Rice got the job then nothing was going to change. If Theus or somebody else would have got it, I am not sure what we would have done. He had Utah State waiting in the wings. Coach Duryea called when the coaching change happened and asked, “what’s going on”, and we said “we don’t know” and he said, “well if Coach Rice doesn’t get him, we’ll get you over here”. Utah State was really loyal, they could have had Dantley over for an official visit while the coaching change was in limbo, but they wouldn't mess with the situation until Coach Rice made his decision. So we were a little worried, but not too worried because if it fell apart at UNLV he could have gone to Utah State.

RR: Yeah, Utah State has a really good program, but they play in a weak conference.

GW: Yeah, that’s true. The thing with Utah State is they have a great basketball program, they can compete with almost anybody, but the WAC isn't what it used to be. BYU will play in the WCC next season. That is fairly weak too. We are glad he'll be playing in the Mountain West.

RR: Right, level of competition isn’t there, so..

RR: A couple of more recent developments, Coach Rice has recently appointed three assistants, Justin Hutson, Heath Schroyer, and Stacey Augmon, how do you feel about it?

GW: I feel really good about it, I have been following it really close. I watched a Wyoming game last year that Coach Schroyer coached, the whole family came down for that senior night game. I know about Augmon, I was as UNLV when he was there – I think it’s a great coaching staff. We know Stacey Augmon because he played at UNLV and was a pro and all that. We really don’t know the other two except from what we’ve read, but from all that we have read it’s a really good staff.

RR: Probably a stacked staff, never heard of a staff like that.

GW: I agree.

RR: At what point had your fears and Dantley’s fears been put to rest throughout this coaching transition, when it came to signing with UNLV?

GW: As soon as they announced that Coach Rice got the job, I was about 99% sure it was all good for him to keep his commitment. He got the job Monday, and he called Dantley Wednesday night and said “Hey, you still got that scholarship if you still want to come. We’ll defer it for the two years”. So I think as soon as Coach Rice got the job it was pretty much a done deal.  We felt very good about it and we're glad he would still be a Rebel.

RR: I assume as they announced assistant after assistant, that feeling just got stronger?

GW: Yep, you know what, no matter who he would have hired as assistants; he still would want to play for Coach Rice.

GW: There are things that some people don’t know. One of the things that limited Dantley’s recruitment is we told everyone straight out that he was going on a two year mission. And so, we were looking more at the Utah schools because they work more with missionaries.

RR: Right, they understand that and work with it all the time.

GW: Yeah, and Rice, having been at BYU had dealt with that, and he actually knew more about it than I did. He called me and I started to say, “well, with his mission...” He said, “Hey,I’ve been working with missionaries for six years, I know more about missionaries (working with the NCAA) than the Mormons do” (laughs). When we had talked to Coach Kruger before, he said to us, “Well we only have one scholarship for next year, if you want it, its yours”. I said, “Well coach, with his mission you won't burn his scholarship until 2013”, He said “You sure?!” I said, “Yeah, you still have one to give.” Coach Rice has worked with that for awhile so that’s good. He’s familiar with the church and how missions work.

RR: Let’s talk about the mission. My understanding is it’s a rite of passage for boys in the Mormon faith, a bit more optional for girls, isn’t that correct?

GW: Well, its optional for both. Nobody is forced to go on a misson. It's up to the girl or boy if they want to go.

RR: Definitely more prevalent for boys.

GW: Yes, the last statistic I had heard, I think, is a little less than half of boys at age 19 go, and girls even less.

RR: So, for how long has Dantley wanted to go on a mission?

GW: I think he’s always planned on going, I went, all his uncles went. I think its something he’s always wanted to do. There were some times when he was a freshman, he said, where he was questioning it a little, “what if I got a scholarship, should I still go on a mission?”. But, overall, it's just something he’s always wanted to do. He’s going to give that two years of service to God and the church and I think most of us agree that he should. I even heard Coach Rice talk about it a little bit – he said it will really help him as a person. I think it may even help him physically, it will give him time to get bigger. I think when he finally gets back and can play again it will be better than him going and playing right now.

RR: When you went on your mission, where were you sent?

GW: I went to Canada, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

RR: Is it a French speaking province?

GW: There is some French speaking people, but we only taught the English speaking Canadians. My French is poor.

RR: All kidding aside, I’ve read some comments that a lot of people would like to see your son go to NYC so he can play some street ball. (laughs)

GW: (laughs) You know what, he said that too. People ask him where he wants to go, he’ll say Brooklyn. (laughs). When he gets the time to play he can play.  But he’s just joking. He'll be happy to go wherever he is assigned. He would like to go somewhere where there are gyms and weight rooms and things like that. There is over 350 different missions, so its hard to guess where he might end up. We should know in the next couple weeks.

RR: He’s not out there for the whole two years, there is training and additionally if you are going to go to a non-English speaking then there is a language school that takes more time.

GW: If its English speaking its 2-3 weeks; if a language has to be learned then they will be in training for a couple months.

RR: But that doesn’t add any time to the 2 year commitment?

GW: No.

GW: And they are working with him so he can go early. He doesn’t turn 19 until the end of October, that’s usually when they go. But, the church knows he has a scholarship waiting so they’ll get him out there 3 months early. The church doesn't want the kids to lose scholarships so they're good at working with them. We would like to get him out about August 1^st.

RR: Which academic year will he be starting as a freshman?

GW: That will be 2013. And a red shirt season is always a possibility when he gets back. They are going to play that by ear. It all depends how well he adjusts after being out for two years.

RR: When someone is on a mission, how much time would they have to practice basketball or go to the gym to put on some bulk or anything like that?

GW: Well, what they do now, and it's different from when I went, it's mandatory that they get at least 30 minutes of exercise in a day except on Sundays. I told Dantley that if you got 30 minutes in the morning, then get up even earlier and get to a gym or weightroom. They have one day a week, called a preparation day (a day off) and on that day they can do all of that stuff too.

RR: The personal day, once a week?

GW: Yes

RR: Obviously you and Dantley, your family has numerous basketball players in your family, who have had accolades in Nevada – can you tell me a little about that?

GW: Yeah, in Oregon too. I actually did most of mine in Oregon and was all-state there. We moved to Moapa my senior year. Like Dantley, I got player of the year for 2A at Moapa. That was back when there only was 1A, 2A, and 3A. I got recruited by Coach Dave Rose (BYU coach) to play at Dixie when he was there, but passed it up and went to an Idaho JC. I have three younger brothers too. Same thing, always all-state and player of the years. On my wife’s side, she has brothers who were really good players too. I have an uncle who played at UNR way back when, in the 60’s I think. Dantley's great grandpa,on my side, played at Utah State. So basketball has been big on both sides of the family. If you look in the Nevada State NIAA records, you’ll see all of us in there. Rich Bowler (my wife's brother), Rex Jensen (my uncle), me, my brothers Kyle and Kevin. We're all over the place in that thing. But Dantley's name is in there now more than anybody's. He's first place in a lot of categories. That’s our favorite sport-basketball is in our DNA I guess.

Link: http://static.psbin.com/s/z/v6753wvbkak791/Basketball-_Boys.pdf (not yet updated for the past year, normally occurs late summer)

RR: I’m jumping around a bit, your son was named first team Parade all-American. Ranked one of the top-10 players in the country. Was there any prize money that came with that?

GW: (laughs). You know what, it was funny. He got all these awards the last four years (he was 1st team all league all 4 years, 1st team all-state all four years, mvp of the league twice, mvp of the state twice, RJ 1a-3a  player of the year twice, etc.), and he was asking me about being an all-American and I said, “you know Dant, I don’t think they’ll even consider you. You’re way out in Nevada and you play at a 2A school. It would  be great if you even got fourth team all-American, but I don’t think they’ll consider you” It was about a week later he came in, and said “hey I just got a phone call, I am first team all-American” and I said “what?!” So yeah, it was a big surprise. A nice surprise.

RR: So no scholarship or prize, did he get a plaque?

GW: As far as I know all they sent to our school were two plaques, certificates, and  a couple of the magazines where they list him and all the other all-americans, but that’s basically it from Parade.

RR: Since he signed with UNLV, has he had a chance to mingle with any of the current players?

GW: The only time he got to do that, was on UNLV senior night. Coach Kruger had him down, and he was in the locker room and hung out with them. He knows some of the players from AAU, but that was about it. Then Coach Kruger left, and then Rice got the job, and I asked Coach Rice if he could play and lift with the guys until he leaves, and he said “yeah”. So hopefully he’ll get to go down there on weekends and play and stuff, which I think will be good for him. He knows Anthony Marshall and Karam Mashour from the Prospects. So he definitely knows those two well.

RR: Obviously, being on the AAU circuit gave him a higher level of competition then just playing high school?

GW: Oh yeah, after his freshman year, right after they won the state championship, I said we need to get you in playing with and against better kids. If you can do these sort of things against them, then you probably have a future in this. If you can’t then you’ll probably just be a good player out here. So he got a tryout with them, and made it. He started for them his freshman year and played with the Prospects and Utah Select the next 3 summers. AAU is really important. If he didn’t do AAU ball he probably would not be at UNLV.

RR: So it had a profound impact on his playing ability?

GW: Oh, for sure.

RR: And the exposure as well.

GW: Yes and no. Sometimes I think it’s a little overblown. Some people say, ‘well it doesn’t even matter what a kid does in high school, everyone just scouts AAU’. I think that’s partly true. I think the things he did his senior year in high school got him more attention, overall, than the AAU. But his senior year wasn't a typical season either. His amazing senior year combined with the AAU ball got it done.

RR: Did you hear Coach Rice’s interview two days ago (from the week of May 3^rd on the radio)?

GW: Yeah, I heard parts of it.

RR: Did you hear the caller who asked if your son could play defense?

GW: (laughs) yes I did.

RR: What do you have to say about his defensive skills, I know from a stats perspective the only one I see that is defense qualified is steals. There are offensive and defensive rebounds. Just under 6 steals a game is respectable, but how is his defensive game.

GW: You know what, in all honesty that is the one area he will have to improve. That man to man defense. I kind of compare him to a lot of the players, say a Steve Nash, a Larry Bird, a Bobby Hurley. Those type of players, they are not necessarily going to lock up a player when they’re playing man-to-man defense, but within the scheme of team defense he’ll be excellent-just like those players. As far as anticipation and everything that goes with that he’ll be fine. He gets a ton of steals. A lot of it is just size, he’s just not a real big kid. That was one of my concerns about him playing for Coach Kruger – he ran 100% man-to-man all the time. I think with Coach Rice coming in, he coached a lot of non-athletic type players up there at BYU and they played a lot of zone. There are definitely places he can play within the zone, and certain match-ups where he’ll do just fine. That’s just something he’ll have to work it. A lot of high school kids are in the same boat. Everyone LOVES to play offense, everyone LOVES shooting the ball, and you kind of HAVE to play defense. So, he knows he’s going to have to get more serious about the defensive end too, he definitely knows that.

RR: Well from what you told me about his competitive spirit, I think it would come hand in hand. He’ll learn how to shut down his opponents so he wont have to score so many points.

GW (laughs) Yeah, he’s not going to have to do everything at the college level. His college game will be a little different from his high school game. For us, he had to do everything, and with the Reb’s he is going to be a part of  the whole scheme. It won't all be on him all the time. At UNLV everybody's got game.

RR: Besides defense, is there any other areas Dantley is putting special attention on working.

GW: The main thing is his body, he knows he needs to get stronger because he is not tall. So, he’s living in the weight room. He’s going to get with the UNLV strength coach and take that program with him on his mission. Those are the main two things, he knows he has to put the same effort he puts into offense into defense, and when he does that he’ll be a good defender. He knows those two things are what he needs to work on. Getting stronger and loving defense as much as offense.

RR: Its something I talked about with Coach Anthony Brown, but this goes to the bigger equation as to why UNLV loses out on local recruits. And you can discount kids who go Findlay prep because they are not ‘locals’ they come here because of the good program, but one of the things he said kids need to grow up dreaming about playing at UNLV, that should be an aspiration. It seems to me, based upon things that have been said, maybe Dantley grew up wanting to be a Rebel – am I correct in that statement?

GW: Yes, you are correct. I would say, and this might sound weird to people outside of Nevada: The main three schools he wanted to go to were UNLV, BYU obviously because he is Mormon, and Utah State. A lot of people might laugh about that.  Why not Duke or North Carolina? Well, I grew up during the craze, when it was Tarkanian and winning championships. Dantley was born in Las Vegas, and we’ve always been right here in Nevada. Wink Adams and Dantley became great friends this past season. He came to the last 7 games or so we had this year and loved watching Dant play,  and Wink gave him his UNLV jacket after his last game. So, Dantley has always loved the Rebels. He went to Lon Kruger’s camps when he was in middle school, got to know Coach Henson. The thing is, UNLV never showed any interest until about January of his senior year, so they weren’t looking at him and we weren’t looking at them – we didn’t think it was going to happen. When it did happen, we were just like “wow’- we were kind of shocked. I’m not exaggerating, UNLV was a top 3 choice-if not #1.

RR: You’re an alumni, your wife is an alumni, we have a great basketball history.

GW: Yep, a bunch of our family have graduated from UNLV besides us. There’s a lot of us who have gone to UNLV, so we all are Rebels.

RR: Just a couple more questions, your son is a point-guard, is he a vocal – yell out the calls guy or more of a hand-signal guy?

GW: He can be vocal, if he was in there next year I don’t know if he would be vocal because he would be the youngest one on the team, but he’s used to running things and he doesn’t like to lose, so he can be pretty vocal if needed. I’d say more than that, he’s been kind of a lead-by-example type player. Nobody is going to out work him, everyone follows his lead. It will be kind of interesting to see, once he gets with his group in 2013. 

RR: You’ve heard the cliché, coach’s son – high basketball IQ. Does that accurately reflect Dantley?

GW: Yep, that would definitely reflect Dantley. And at his size, he would have to have one. Its not like he’s getting by on athletic ability. He’s never the biggest or can jump the highest- he’s smaller and quick and he has that high basketball IQ.

RR: I’ve read he idolizes Steve Nash?

GW: Yeah, his favorites are Steve Nash and Stephen Curry and Jwill.  I’ve always talked to him about Bobby Hurley because they are the same size, play the same position, and Hurley did great things. I hate to bring up Duke guys-I hate Duke, but he and Dant are similar. I liked Mark Wade too. He's my favorite all-time Rebel. We've exchanged emails since Dantley signed with his team.  Wade was Dantley’s size, 5’11”, never shot the ball but was a great point guard. Still holds a bunch of assist records.  He loves Pete Maravich too. Dant has all the Maravich DVD drill videos. He likes some of the older guys. I named him wrong, should have named him Pete. (laughs)

RR: A lot of the Youtube clips are of Dantley jacking up threes, some lay-ups and some good passes. I don’t know if I don’t remember seeing it, but does your son have a cross-over?

GW: Oh yeah, oh yeah – he’s pretty famous for the cross-over. Whoever made the Youtubes, they kind of put the things in there they wanted to see. The one they used when they retired his jersey out here at the high school, someone was putting one together and Dantley said “hey, put more of my passing in there because I only ever see ones of me shooting threes” but yeah, he definitely has a cross-over.

RR: Had he looked at any Tim Hardaway tape?

GW: Yeah he knows Hardaway and his crossover. Dwill and Iverson too. He can break some ankles. In the Youtube tapes you always see him finishing, but a lot of the time how he got to that point was crossing-someone over.

RR: Well, that’s all I had laid out, is there anything else you think people would like to know about your son?

GW: We covered a lot. He knows he has a lot to prove, and I know some people out there think, “wow, they took a chance on this 5'11 white kid  from a small town” but its been that way his entire life, be it middle, high school, AAU ball, and everything else. He’ll show everybody what he can do in a couple years. Nobody is going to outwork him.  I know that. Whatever it takes to be successful, he wants to do that. The main thing he wants to do is help the Rebels win, to get back to where they were in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He wants to be a part of a winning program. He loves to fast break and push the ball, and that's what Coach Rice is planning to do.

RR: We all hope that happens obviously. I think that’s fantastic. Thank you for participating in the interview, best of luck to you and your son on his mission.

GW: Thank you