Spoonhour hoping to restore Rebels’ crowds

Steve Addy

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2001 | 9:44 a.m.

After climbing to 13th nationally in 1997-98, UNLV men's basketball attendance has dwindled the past three seasons. Here are the Rebels' most recent figures, with their NCAA ranking:

The last time Charlie Spoonhour stomped the sidelines as a college basketball coach, he had no trouble attracting a crowd.

Three years after his 1992 arrival at Saint Louis, the Billikens' home attendance had doubled to 17,714 per game and they jumped from 64th to seventh in the NCAA attendance rankings.

Three seasons later, 1997-98, they were averaging 17,708 and climbed a notch to sixth.

Those kinds of figures used to be associated with UNLV when Jerry Tarkanian was coach. In their first nine seasons at the Thomas & Mack Center (1983-92), the Rebels ranked in the national top 10 in attendance eight times, usually in the top five. Their best year was 1990-91 with 18,658 per game.

As Spoonhour sets out this season to revive the Rebels on the court, he might find it just as challenging to fuel a resurgence at the gate. Over the past three seasons, the Rebels have gradually fallen from 13th to 33rd in NCAA attendance, averaging 11,029 last season.

Those numbers have caused economic ripples at UNLV, mainly because men's basketball pays much of the freight for the athletic department.

Starting with Thursday's annual Fan Jam (6-8 p.m. at the Mack), Spoonhour and Co. will begin their quiet campaign to fill the stands like the Rebels used to.

"After watching the pro game (Lakers-Kings exhibition) the other night and seeing how the fans supported it, I'm hopeful we'll have great crowds," Spoonhour said. "I remember how it used to be at UNLV."

Of course, he realizes the Rebels don't have a drawing card like Kobe Bryant. He also knows UNLV's flagging fan base might require some convincing after a decade of fits and starts in the program.

"You don't sell out unless you earn it," he said.

At Saint Louis, the Billikens began to sell out in Spoonhour's second season (1993-94) when they started 14-0. Having ranked 51st in attendance in his first season (8,590), they bolted to 24th (13,008) with a 23-6 record.

In 1994-95, Saint Louis moved to the Kiel Center (now Savvis Center) which holds 22,000 for basketball. The Billikens' average rose to 17,714, including 21,004 against DePaul. Of their 15 crowds over 20,000, all occurred during Spoonhour's seven-year stay.

"We filled it up pretty well," he understated. "Our kids worked hard, and our fans were very supportive, even in my first year. People got kind of excited."

On Dec. 6, 1997, Spoonhour's club beat Illinois 57-51 before a school-record 32,429 at the TWA Dome.

"For a little Jesuit school, that was pretty heady," he said.

Such feats were even more shocking considering that Spoonhour's clubs weren't teeming with blue-chip talent. Their best player, guard Larry Hughes, played one season ('97-98) before hurrying off to the NBA.

Clearly, Saint Louis fans were willing to overlook the aesthetics of Spoonhour's grind-it-out defensive style and appreciate the effort that guided the Billikens to NCAA tournament bids in 1994, '95 and '98.

At UNLV, where many fans still crave the high-scoring Tark style, Spoonhour might have a tough sell early on, according to Dominic Clark, the Rebels' sports information director for much of the Tarkanian era.

"(Spoonhour) will need to show that winning 52-49 is as exciting as winning 90-80," said Clark, who heads Image Media, a Las Vegas sports event promotion firm.

"One thing in his favor is he's a very likeable fellow. As he gets out in the community more, people are going to see that he's a believable, next-door-neighbor kind of guy. That will help him."