Adams practices, will come off the bench Saturday

By Rob Miech

Friday, Jan. 2, 2009 | 2:20 p.m.

UNLV senior guard Wink Adams participated in practice for the first time this afternoon since injuring an abdominal muscle against Southern Utah on Dec. 23.

He mostly drilled with the second team, and he hit a few 3-pointers and once dribbled between two defenders on the left side and sailed in for a layup.

He likely will come off the bench Saturday night when the Rebels play host to New Mexico at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“At first, I was favoring it,” he said. “I didn’t want to do any spin moves, nothing like that. Coach told me to just go out and play, don’t think about it. We’ll see how it goes.

“I was able to drive, do a lot of things I didn’t think I’d be able to do. It felt pretty good. We’ll see how it feels in the morning. Usually, when I do something, in the morning it feels sore. Right now it feels good. Hopefully, it’s healing.”

He kept himself from aggressively jumping or sliding, on defense.

UNLV coach Lon Kruger said he plans to get Adams into Saturday’s game early and see how he does.

“We’ll see how he feels,” Kruger said. “His conditioning certainly will be a factor. He hasn’t gone for 10 days. But I was really pleased with what he did today.

“He went pretty close to 100 percent. It was his first day of live contact, so we’ll see how he feels.”

Adams traveled to Louisville and watched from the bench, never removing his black UNLV sweats, as the Rebels pulled out a thrilling 56-55 victory over the Cardinals at Freedom Hall.

He was among the throng of UNLV players who celebrated on the court after freshman guard Oscar Bellfield hit the game winner and then the Cardinals missed a last-second shot.

“Oh man, I didn’t feel any pain,” Adams said. “That was all momentum, celebrating that win. Probably one of the biggest wins I had since I’ve been here.

“I was happy to celebrate, even if I was just on the bench. I never had that much fun on the bench in that type of atmosphere. I told everyone, though, that I don’t plan on doing that any more.”

He said he was aching to get into that game, but it wouldn’t have been prudent. An MRI a week ago showed no tears. Still, Adams had to allow the swelling to subside.

“All I could do is cheer my teammates on and keep their confidence up, and smile,” he said. “When the time came to play a coaching role, I told them what to do. Keep playing hard. That’s what they did.

“I was an assistant coach for the Louisville game. I was glad we won. Maybe I’ll look into that for a future career.”

Adams said he went about “75 percent” on Friday.

“I’ll get in a couple spurts Saturday night, but I won’t start,” he said. “I don’t want to play a lot of minutes and reinjure it. I’ll get in a couple minutes and work from there.”

Adams said he has viewed the tape of him falling to the court in the first half against Southern Utah. He was backing in the lane when he attempted a spin move to his right.

“You can’t get the effect of how bad the pain was, just seeing me fall,” Adams said. “It was tons of pain. It seemed like I heard a moment of silence when I went down. It got so quiet.

“It was a freak accident. Of all the times I did that move, that’s the one time it got to me. I pulled something. It shocked me. Things happen. You have to bounce back from it.”

UNLV trainer Dave Tomchek told Adams to go out Friday and don’t try to do certain things, don’t force anything.

“It’ll be a great feeling getting back,” Adams said. “Even though I’m not starting, I don’t want to be a cancer to the team. I want to come off the bench … ”

Be a cancer? Wink Adams a cancer?

“Yeah, where everyone is playing defense and I’m playing at 75 percent,” he said. “Plus, Tre’Von (Willis) is playing real well. His confidence is up. I want them to keep playing and doing what they’re doing.

“I’ll come off the bench and, hopefully, get back to 100 percent and be my normal self.”

UNLV does not play against until next Saturday, against TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. A Houston native, Adams is undefeated in five games in Texas during his standout career.

“I had never heard of anyone having this injury before,” he said. “Bouncing back after missing just one game is good. And we have another week off after tomorrow.

“That’s a lot of time to rest and heal. It couldn’t happen at a better time.”