UNLV looking to break out of the pack

Steve Addy

Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2002 | 10:28 a.m.

WHAT: UNLV (11-7, 3-3) at New Mexico (13-7, 3-3)

WHEN: Today, 6 p.m.

WHERE: The Pit, Albuquerque

TV: Las Vegas ONE (Ch. 1 and 39)

RADIO: KBAD 920-AM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- When UNLV's Charlie Spoonhour referred to The Pit as "a really nice place," it was a dead giveaway that he has never coached a game at New Mexico's raucous basketball arena.

He has been here twice for coaching clinics, and watched a lot of loud Lobos games on TV, but none of that counts as genuine Pit experience. In Spoonhour's first 16 seasons as a Division I head coach, he never brought Southwest Missouri State or Saint Louis to New Mexico.

But here's a safe bet: If Spoonhour is still describing The Pit in kindly terms after tonight's Rebels-Lobos game, it will mean that UNLV's season has taken a surprisingly pleasant turn midway through the Mountain West schedule.

Despite all previous evidence that forecast a middle-of-the-pack finish by the Rebels, a well-timed confluence of their three-game winning streak and the Lobos' mounting troubles has presented UNLV with a grand opportunity.

If the Rebels can pin a third straight home loss on the embattled Lobos, UNLV will have finished the first half of conference play with a 4-3 record, including three road wins. The Rebels would be tied for third place, two games off the lead, but with five of their final seven MWC games at home.

That set of circumstances would guarantee nothing, except to make the rest of the season a lot more meaningful and suspenseful than most fans, pundits and wagerers might have guessed.

"We want to keep building on the wins we're getting," backup guard Jevon Banks said. "We've got a good chance to beat (New Mexico) if we can stay poised and keep their crowd out of it."

That's no small task, because The Pit has long been one of the nation's loudest arenas, a nightmare for visitors, at least until recently. The Rebels didn't respond well here last season, losing 75-56 after allowing a 20-0 Lobos run in the final nine minutes. The joint was rocking that night.

"That crowd is something else," Dalron Johnson said. "It's going to be hard to call out our plays."

Freshman center Lou Amundson said, "I'm excited to see what it will be like. I've heard some loud crowds, like at BYU, but Jevon told me that was nothing compared to The Pit."

However, the way New Mexico's season is falling apart, the homecourt boos for coach Fran Fraschilla are becoming just as deafening. In his third year with the Lobos, he is on the hot seat for too many home losses (16 in 53 games) and too many players leaving his program on unhappy terms.

On Jan. 22, just when Fraschilla was ready to dismiss headstrong point guard Marlon Parmer, his best all-around player, Parmer quit after the Lobos' 81-51 home loss to Utah. He said he could no longer stomach the coach's negativity, a charge leveled by many of the nine players who have left Fraschilla's program after short stays.

Fraschilla said Parmer's exit lifted a "black cloud" from the team, and his allegations were "a bunch of baloney coming from a selfish kid with a selfish father, period."

"I can't believe Fraschilla would let him go," UNLV's Johnson said of Parmer, his former high school teammate at Verbum Dei in Los Angeles. "I don't know what the issue was. If (Parmer) is sitting in the stands, he's going to hear from me."

There are other pressing issues for the Lobos. They absorbed a second straight home loss Saturday against San Diego State, 78-65, as top scorer Ruben Douglas (15.8) made only 1 of 12 shots. New Mexico had one basket in the final six-plus minutes.

If that wasn't enough, Fraschilla was hospitalized briefly last week because of kidney stones.

But Spoonhour does not want UNLV lulled to sleep by thinking the Lobos can be easily beaten.

"I don't know if they're in as much trouble as people think. They're pretty good," he said. "They've got good athletes and guys who can score. Particularly when they're at home and also coming off two (home) losses, I imagine we'll get their best effort and best attention."