Think you know Spoonball?

Steve Addy

Friday, Nov. 16, 2001 | 12:31 p.m.

Are you ready for some Spoonball?

Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. But before you answer, make sure you know what it really is.

Contrary to popular belief, new UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour doesn't intend to have the Rebels walk the ball up the court and milk the 45-second clock. He isn't instructing them to downshift on 2-on-1 breaks.

And he hasn't been promised a bonus for holding his own team under 60 points.

"Spoonball is probably like Margaritaville -- it's best defined by each individual," assistant coach Jay Spoonhour said. "But mostly, it's all about making it as hard as possible for your opponent to score."

In fact, those who long for UNLV to return to the Runnin' Rebels era might find that Spoonball isn't too far removed from Jerry Tarkanian's old game plan, which was based on unrelenting defense.

The big difference is that Charlie Spoonhour successfully utilized the style at smaller schools -- Southwest Missouri State and Saint Louis -- with considerably less talent than Tark's teams, so it was viewed as a novelty and given a cutesy nickname.

When Spoonhour's teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament, as they did eight times in 16 years, TV announcers pounced on the Spoonball label to describe their fiestiness and reliance on fundamentals. The jovial Spoonhour was happy to play along; the publicity was good.

But over the years, Spoonball's definition has undergone negative revision. Instead of standing for sturdy defense, the term has come to connote a slowdown offense. When UNLV hired him, some fans expressed fears that a new era of 54-50 victories had been ushered in.

But the facts don't indicate that will be the case. At Saint Louis, where Spoonhour had a 122-90 record in seven seasons, his winningest teams averaged 80.5 (1993-94) and 75.8 points (1994-95). Both won 23 games.

In Spoonhour's 212 games, the Billikens scored 80 or more points 49 times, winning 46. When they scored 60 or fewer points, their record was only 13-46, so they obviously weren't pinning their success on dragging opponents into a pedestrian game.

Even at Southwest Missouri, where Spoonhour coached from 1983-92, his five NCAA tournament qualifiers averaged 70.6 points over 154 games, going 116-38.

"At Southwest Missouri, we played faster than anybody in our league, and we were the best team," Spoonhour said. "Where did everyone get the idea that we played slow?"

That's easy. In the NCAA tournament, when most fans across the country were getting their only look at a Spoonhour team, his low-seeded clubs were usually at a huge disadvantage in size and talent. By slowing down the game, it was possible for Southwest Missouri and Saint Louis to compete and even win.

But the perception stuck: Spoonball equals Slowball.

"We would be in the tournament with our 6-2 power forward," Spoonhour said. "Common sense says you had better not try to out-talent a team like Kansas. We played Danny Manning (in 1987) with a 6-4 center guarding him. But we always gave our kids a chance to win."

The strategy worked as well as could be expected. Southwest Missouri beat Clemson (with Horace Grant and Elden Campbell) 65-60 in the 1987 tournament before losing to Kansas 67-63. A year later, in Spoonhour's only game ever against UNLV, Southwest Missouri lost 54-50 in the West subregional at UCLA.

At Saint Louis, the Billikens beat Minnesota 64-61 in the 1995 tournament and UMass 51-46 in 1998 before losing to Wake Forest and Kentucky, respectively.

For those who fear those kinds of scores with the Rebels, Spoonhour makes no promises. Some nights, that style might give UNLV its best chance to win.

"We're not the most talented team in our league, according to people's opinions," he said. "So we're going to have to find ways to win. We will concentrate on ball control and taking good shots. And we'll try to win with our defense.

"But that doesn't mean we're not going to run or take opportunities for easy baskets. We are going to do that. It would be silly not to."

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