Stakes, pressure rise for Rebels

Steve Addy

Thursday, March 7, 2002 | 10:10 a.m.

UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour spent all season promoting moderate expectations for his first Rebels team. He saw no benefit in setting the bar needlessly high with a lot of loose talk.

But he can't shield the Rebels from pressure anymore. Tonight the stakes go up and so do the expectations.

Having finished a surprisingly solid 18-9 regular season by winning 10 of their last 12 games, the third-seeded Rebels embark on a more ambitious quest when they host sixth-seeded New Mexico in the first round of the Mountain West tournament.

The season probably won't be over if the Rebels don't win three games to capture the MWC championship and an automatic NCAA Tournament bid. No matter how they fare, an NIT berth likely awaits them Sunday night.

But after UNLV's impressive stretch drive, yielding a 9-5 conference record for third place, the Rebels themselves are boldly courting higher goals.

"We're hot, we're on a good winning streak, our confidence is up and we're at home," senior forward Chris Richardson said. "There's a lot of reasons to feel we can win it all and get back to the NCAA Tournament. That's what all of us are aiming at."

"I'm comfortable with how our team is playing right now," senior guard Jevon Banks said. "We are confident and guys are playing well together. I think we are capable of beating anybody when we play the way we're supposed to."

As usual, the most cautionary tone comes from Spoonhour.

"I'm happy for what our guys did in the regular season. That's really neat. I don't know what the tournament will bring, but I know they'll try," he said. "The thing we have to fight is complacency. Sometimes you can let little things slide."

From the first day of practice in October, Spoonhour has played it straight down the middle in his public comments. Pressure from the outside is not easy to control, but he was determined to insulate the Rebels while keeping them well-grounded.

When they won, he didn't act like they'd invented the wheel. When they lost, he made sure to include himself in any postgame critique, even when it wasn't his fault that someone rushed a bad shot or threw a lob pass into the tuba section.

Whenever he thought praise for his team was starting to overheat, he brought it down to a simmer by pointing out the Rebels' modest margin for error.

"Mostly I was being honest," Spoonhour said. "I just thought that for us to win ball games, we'd have to do a lot of things right.

"But I have been more or less open-minded about our (potential). I figured, wherever it takes us, it takes us. If we had ended up 16-11, I would've said, 'Well, that's what we are.' "

In retrospect, Spoonhour's low-key approach appears to have been the way to go. Though the Rebels struggled early, especially on the road, they were able to find their way without being rapped as underachievers. Since being 8-7 on Jan. 15, their only losses were in overtime at New Mexico (84-81) and in the final 10 seconds at Wyoming (82-78).

UNLV closed the regular season Saturday by beating New Mexico 91-82 to earn a split of the season series. The Rebels enter tonight's third meeting intent on playing better defense on Lobos guard Ruben Douglas, the league scoring leader who has 61 points against them this season.

"That puts us in a good club, because I don't think anyone else has a good matchup for him either," Spoonhour said. "Ruben's a very good player, and (coach Fran Fraschilla) gives him the latitude to be a good player."

"That kid can play -- straight up," Jevon Banks said. "He's one of the hardest guys to guard. He can put it on the floor, he can rebound, he can shoot. He's the guy we have to stop."