UNLV plays wait and see with recruiting

Steve Addy

Monday, April 9, 2001 | 9:49 a.m.

Don't expect the Rebels to make a big recruiting splash Wednesday when the spring signing period begins.

Though new coach Charlie Spoonhour and his staff have identified various junior college prospects, especially big men, their current goal is to convince UNLV's early signees to affirm their commitments.

"We definitely won't be offering any (scholarships) the first day," Spoonhour said Sunday. "It's going to be a while. We saw some (Juco) players over the weekend, and we'll bring in some for visits, but there's not much going on yet."

Friday and Saturday, Spoonhour held meetings with guards Marcus Banks and Ernest Turner and their families, and he said the conversations went well. Both players signed national letters of intent in November, but were upset that Max Good wasn't retained as head coach. Spoonhour tried to persuade them to stick with the Rebels.

"I had nice visits with both of them, and we hope they'll decide to stay," Spoonhour said. "Nothing's definite. We hope we'll know (their decisions) by the middle of this week."

Banks, a 6-foot-2 star guard from Cimarron-Memorial High School and Dixie College in Utah, met with Spoonhour on Friday in Las Vegas. Attempts to reach Banks were unsuccessful, but he said last week that he was willing to give Spoonhour a chance.

Spoonhour flew to New Jersey on Saturday to speak with Turner, a 6-2 guard from Sterling HS. Turner's guardian, Rick Barrett, said Spoonhour met with Turner for two hours.

"I thought it went pretty well," Barrett said from Somerdale, N.J. "Charlie found out that Ernest is a very special kid. He told me that. He also said that if Ernest doesn't want to come (to UNLV), he'll release him."

Turner has yet to meet NCAA academic standards, mainly because he has delayed taking the SAT. He was scheduled to take an oral SAT last week, but the test was postponed.

"He still has two months," Barrett said.

Another early signee, prep school center Simplice Njoya, was granted his release by UNLV last week. He was closely aligned with Rebels assistant coach Charles Cunningham, who was not retained by Spoonhour, and Njoya chose to re-open his recruitment.

"I'll put it this way: Simplice has some opportunities in bigger conferences," Cunningham said.