Kelly gets OK to join Rebels

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Jan. 6, 2000 | 10:41 a.m.

Lou Kelly is not a myth.

He does exist and he was in Las Vegas on Wednesday completing the final steps to make him eligible to play for the UNLV men's basketball team.

Steps that included filling out a stack of paperwork.

UNLV coach Bill Bayno said he was confident that Kelly would be cleared to participate in the team's practice this morning at the Thomas & Mack Center.

But if there is one message Bayno wants to send about Kelly, it's that he is human and should not be expected to immediately make a huge impact on the team.

"I'm going to bring him along at his own pace," Bayno said during his monthly luncheon on Wednesday. "I don't want anyone rushing him.

"He's a 20-year-old kid who could have the weight of the world on his shoulders if we let that happen and we won't let that happen.

"We need to get him in shape and have him learn the offense and defense."

Bayno said that the high expectations for Kelly to step in right away and score 20 points a night to help the Rebels are unfair and unrealistic.

"He hasn't played in an organized game in a while," Bayno said. "He hasn't been in an organized practice.

"We'll know where he's at day-by-day in practice. He's got a lot of work to do to catch up."

Now to catch up on why it took an exceptionally long time to get Kelly here.

The 6-foot-5 swingman finished his last final at Los Angeles City College before the school's classes were done on Dec. 20. Because his final was over early, it was thought the paperwork would be completed at the speed of light and that Kelly would be eligible to join the team Dec. 18.

That turned out to be a false hope.

Since then, Kelly and the Rebels have been waiting for the school to confirm that he completed the requirements necessary to obtain his associate in arts degree, which would then make him eligible to compete as a Rebel.

UNLV officials have said that the process was slowed because Kelly's professors had the holidays off and did not have any incentive to post final grades early.

Adding to the complications was the fact that before Kelly arrived at LA City College, he was enrolled briefly at Fresno City College, then spent a year taking classes and playing basketball for San Bernardino Valley College. So LA City had to process his paperwork from all three schools.