Friday, July 20, 2001 | 11:25 a.m.
After two years in retirement, new Rebels basketball coach Charlie Spoonhour grew reacquainted with the recruiting grind last week, criss-crossing the U.S. to examine prospects for 2002 and beyond.
His itinerary took him to Louisville, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Chicago and other destinations he'd rather not reveal.
"The idea of getting up at 4:30 in the morning to catch a plane isn't my idea of the start of a great day," the 61-year-old Spoonhour joked. "But it's not manual labor, either. You're flying around to watch basketball games. It's hard to sell it like you're overworked.
"I would say it was productive. I was in a different place every day, sometimes two a day. We saw a lot of players and got stuff done."
In fact, the only reason Spoonhour and his staff are home now is because the NCAA mandates it.
Instead of 24 days of summer evaluation, the NCAA has changed the recruiting calendar to two seven-day periods with a 10-day break in between. That break ends Wednesday when the Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas will bring 4,000 prospects to Spoonhour's doorstep.
Like most coaches, Spoonhour would rather not be chained to his desk this week. Because the break is an NCAA "dead period," in which no contact with prospects is permitted, Spoonhour and his assistants are using the time to review the players they saw last week.
"This is a good time to assess, but we don't need this much time off," Spoonhour said. "I wish we had a few more (recruiting) days strung together. Some guys are only playing on certain days, so you wind up flying back and forth to fit everyone into seven days."
The Rebels will have only three new scholarships to award next season, possibly four if 2001 recruit Ernest Turner doesn't qualify academically, and Spoonhour will probably need to sign two big men.
NCAA rules prohibit Spoonhour from discussing specific recruits, but he and assistants Jay Spoonhour and Derek Thomas concentrated on about 12 prospects last week. The assistants attended the adidas ABCD camp in New Jersey.
One of UNLV's targets is known to be 6-foot-5 shooting guard Antwain Barbour, who starred under Jay Spoonhour last season at Wabash Valley (Ill.) College. Barbour averaged 23 points in the national Juco tournament, leading Wabash Valley to the title with a 37-1 record.
Barbour, from Elizabethtown, Ky., is being recruited by several schools, including UNLV, Louisville, Cincinnati and Kentucky. He intends to sign in November, and UNLV has a good shot at him.
"Coach (Jay) Spoon is like my best friend," Barbour told Internet site Juco Junction. "I'll look at UNLV just because of that. Plus UNLV is a big-time program right now. That is going to be a part of my decision."
The Rebels are also known to be interested in 6-6 swingman Bobby Jones from Dominguez HS in Compton, Calif. -- which produced UNLV quarterback Jason Thomas -- and 6-9 Juco forward Seth Scott from Utah Valley State.
However, another big man UNLV was eyeing, Dixie College forward Jaime Lloreda from Panama, has given an oral commitment to LSU.
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