Thursday, Aug. 14, 2003 | 10:18 a.m.
The pick-up action has been constant this summer inside Durango High's sweat box of a gym, and the line to the water cooler forms instantly after games.
Except for UNLV guard Demetrius Hunter, who stands at midcourt. He waits a few seconds, then implores those "next" to get back out on the floor.
His college career is coming to a close, and Hunter, who had surgery on his left Achilles' tendon after the season and proclaims himself to be at "85-90 percent" this week, has no time to waste.
He has been running with and against Romel Beck, Jerel Blassingame, Andy Hannan, Michael Umeh and John Winston, the newest Rebels. One or two of them might break out, but Hunter's experience, scoring and defense will be crucial to UNLV in 2003-04.
It hinges on his health.
"I have something to prove to myself," said Hunter, 23. "I don't really go out and try to prove things to others, but I have something to prove to myself. I couldn't control what happened to me last season.
"This season, I'm bringing it."
Even though the sore tendon area kept Hunter from bringing all he had last season, nobody will hear Rebels coach Charlie Spoonhour question Hunter's performance during his first collegiate season back home.
A former Cheyenne High standout, Hunter played his first two seasons at Georgetown but started slowly as a Rebel. Spoonhour stuck with him.
When Hunter hit his stride, collecting a career-high 24 points at New Mexico at the end of January, nobody was more impressed than Spoonhour.
"He did that on one leg, and it hurt," Spoonhour said. "I like him anyway, because he's such a nice person. But when someone goes out and actually does the things he did, or tried to do, you develop an added amount of respect for him."
Hunter acknowledged that he was toying with a fine line, of wanting to help the Rebels any way could while risking further damage to his left ankle.
However, he did not dwell on it.
"I owed it to coach 'Spoon,' " Hunter said. "He could have sat me down at the very beginning of the season, when I was playing like, um ... terrible. I owed it to him to go out and play my hardest, even when I was hurt.
"I'm not one to get a little nagging injury and call it quits. I know the difference between tearing something and going out and playing in pain. Then it got to the point where the pain got so bad, I had to chill out."
At Georgetown, Hunter's shooting and scoring improved from his freshman to sophomore seasons, when he turned his assists-to-turnovers ratio from a negative into a positive.
He missed home, though, and daughter Destini, now 3. Upon transferring, he had surgery to remove a painful bone growth near his right Achilles' tendon.
That's what hampered him last season on the left one, but he still played in all but four of UNLV's games.
Immediately after the season, he had a 90-minute surgery. Instead of shaving away that buildup, however, the operating surgeon told Hunter that he actually chiseled it away with a hammer and iron tool.
It was about the diameter of a quarter, as thick as two or three of the coins.
Rehabilitation consisted of walking, then running, in a pool, then 100-yard jogs on the football track, then sprints. He said UNLV athletic trainer Dave Tomchek was instrumental in his recovery.
So was Wes Reed, a two-year Rebel in the mid-1990s and a confidant who accompanied him to Durango.
Dan Trammell (ex-Montana), Donta Bright (ex-Massachusetts), Catrel Green (Indiana State), Martrell Johnson (Montana State), Rickey Dominguez (Illinois-Chicago) and Lamar Falley (Durango High) are just a few of the regulars.
Tyrell Jamerson (ex-UNLV) coordinates the competitive sessions, and former UNLV coach Bill Bayno played most of last week.
"He doesn't talk much" about being fired up for the upcoming season, Reed said of Hunter, "but I see it in his face."
Hunter hopes the prognosticators don't expect much from UNLV this season, and he guessed most preseason periodicals will place the Rebels in the middle to lower half of the Mountain West Conference.
"It's good when people don't expect you to do too much because we have no pressure, nowhere to go but up," Hunter said. "I think we'll have more of a 'team' this season. And I think we'll be better, in terms of playing together."
A recruiting expert or two has pegged Spoonhour's incoming class as a top-five national group, and Hunter has been able to get a feel for most of them during the past few weeks.
Of Spoonhour's newcomers, only center Chris Adams, who is finishing academic work at San Francisco City College, hasn't played at Durango this summer.
Hunter said he appreciates Winston's "pass-first" style, and Hannan's slashing reminds Hunter of Toni Kukoc. Hannan, 6-feet-6, has also an impressed Hunter with his jumping ability.
Already, Hunter is a fan of Umeh for the way the Houston native plays so hard. Hunter calls him "J Lew," as a tribute to the hard-nosed style of former Rebels guard Jermaine Lewis.
"Jermaine played hard all the time," Hunter said, "no matter what."
Blassingame is another point guard, but Hunter said he and Umeh haven't gone head-to-head because they haven't been in town at the same time this summer.
"He's pretty quick," Hunter said of Blassingame, "and he can shoot off the dribble pretty well."
Beck, a stringy 6-7 forward, is an above-average dribbler whose range extends to 20 feet.
"He will help us, in terms of scoring," Hunter said. "He can really shoot the ball, and he plays the slashing game a little. He's a pretty good player."
Which the Rebels will need, considering lottery-pick point guard Marcus Banks and forward Dalron Johnson have departed.
Hunter figures he'll mostly play at shooting guard but is prepared to help out at the point, which Spoonhour did not dispute.
"He will start our defense," Spoonhour said. "If healthy, he'll be about as good at that as anyone I've ever had, and I've been in this awhile. And I expect him to be better offensively and a better rebounder.
"Last season, he couldn't defend. That was the worst thing for a guy who can guard, but he couldn't do that with that foot."
His lateral movement is limited, so Hunter mostly stayed on a straight-ahead course at Durango, and he rarely shifted to fifth gear. Often, it looked as if he were ice skating.
He said was by design, so he doesn't put too much stress on his left ankle. He left with his daughter Wednesday to Georgia, where he will spend the rest of the summer with his mother, Charlene, a seamstress.
When Hunter returns, he expects to be in top shape. Last season, he played at 223 pounds. He's now at 210, with six-percent body fat. Workouts with Tomchek have honed Hunter, and he plans on weighing 205 for the start of practice in two months.
He has never been hungrier.
"After seeing what Marcus did, it makes you hungry," Hunter said. "I didn't have the season I hoped to have, but it's in my hands now. It's all on me."
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