Spoonhour seeking old-style defensive grit

Steve Addy

Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001 | 10:33 a.m.

When Charlie Spoonhour says he wants his team to defend like the old-time Rebels of Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony, he is not merely name-dropping or pandering to disaffected UNLV fans.

More than a decade ago, Spoonhour's ball-hawking strategies borrowed heavily from the great Rebels teams, courtesy of ex-UNLV assistant Tim Grgurich.

Spoonhour's teams have long been known for defensive proficiency, and that reputation will have to live on this season because the Rebels are not loaded with offensive talent. They will probably have to outwork opponents and use defense to create opportunities for easy baskets.

If these Rebels are to have a team mantra, it is likely to be: Pressure the Ball. Constant pressure on opposing ballhandlers has been the focus of Spoonhour's first 10 days of practice with his new team.

"That's something everybody has to get better at," he said. "We don't have anyone who's got it figured out well enough yet.

"(Defense) is the way we're going to win games. We're not going to throw the ball out there and outscore people, I don't think. Defense is the way (my teams) have always done it."

That mind-set played a pivotal role in Spoonhour's eight NCAA tournament berths in 16 seasons. Often with marginal talent, his teams reached the tournament five times in nine years at Southwest Missouri State and three times in seven years at Saint Louis.

It was after his second bid with Southwest Missouri -- in 1988 -- that Spoonhour's defensive approach gained refinement with help from Grgurich, then the top assistant to Rebels coach Jerry Tarkanian.

In the first game of the 1988 tournament, Spoonhour coached against UNLV for the first and only time in the West sub-regional at UCLA. Southwest Missouri (22-6) qualified by winning the Mid-Continent Conference. UNLV, led by Gerald Paddio and Jarvis Basnight, had won the Big West and was 27-5.

The Rebels were averaging 85.2 points, but barely escaped with a 54-50 victory, their worst point output of the season. But rather than applaud his own team's defense, Spoonhour was more impressed by UNLV's.

"We were ahead a lot of the time, but they really pressured us," Spoonhour said. "We kind of prided ourselves on playing hard, but we got against Vegas and they took it to a new level. They were more physical than we were. They did a better job closing out (on shooters).

"We changed a few things defensively as a result of that game, minor things."

After visiting a Rebels practice and swapping ideas with Tarkanian and Grgurich, Spoonhour invited Grgurich to speak at his annual summer clinic. Spoonhour immediately incorporated some of Grgurich's defensive drills.

"A lot of the changes were mental, but after that we got a little more into it physically," Spoonhour said.

Thirteen years later, the Rebels hope to learn from those borrowed lessons of a bygone era in UNLV basketball.

Lafonte Johnson left the team for a few days to visit his ailing grandmother, Willie Dinkins, in Baltimore. ...

Former Rebel Donovan Stewart dropped by practice. He said he intends to pursue a UNLV law degree.