Redshirted Amundson will miss trip ‘home’

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.

This weekend's journey to the chilly Front Range was the road trip that UNLV sophomore Louis Amundson was looking forward to the most at the start of this season.

Amundson, a rangy 6-foot-7 forward who started the Rebels' final exhibition game and entered the year as the team's top defensive and rebounding forward, grew up about 35 miles from Colorado State's Moby Arena in Boulder, Colo. And although he grew up rooting for hometown Colorado, he has fond memories of playing on the Rams' home court in Fort Collins.

"I played in that gym when I was little and in all kinds of camps and stuff," Amundson said. "I have a lot of friends who go there. It's cool to go back and play in there."

But Amundson won't be playing in Saturday afternoon's key Mountain West Conference game at Colorado State, although the Rebels certainly could use him. Nor will be suit up two nights later up the road in the 7,200-foot altitude of Laramie against defending conference champion Wyoming.

In fact, there's a good chance he won't even make the trip with his teammates. That's because Amundson is redshirting while still fighting off a staph infection that has plagued him since cutting his foot last summer.

Amundson made the decision to redshirt just before Christmas after having an infection on his right (shooting) thumb lanced. Although that injury has healed and he practices with the team, he said he still is taking strong antibiotics to keep the infection from returning.

"The thumb is fine," Amundson said. "The thing about it though is that the staph is still in my system. If I was to suffer another cut or scratch, it's still possible I could get another infection."

Amundson, who averaged 2.6 points and 2.3 rebounds as a true freshman reserve, said he has been told by his doctors that it could take a year before the infection finally leaves his system.

"The doctor said I should be good by next (season)," he said. "Most of the time this happens to people it lasts about a year. But I should be ready by next season."

Did Amundson ever have any second thoughts about deciding to redshirt?

"Oh, yeah, definitely," he said. "It was a tough decision and I really wanted to play. But the risk of the infection possibly returning after already missing eight games early in the season was too tough to ignore."

Douglas, the nation's No. 1 scorer with a 28.5 average, was held to just four points in the first half by Lewis and finished with 21 points for the game, which tied his lowest scoring output in Mountain West Conference play. Douglas, who also scored 43 points two weeks ago against Wyoming, is averaging a remarkable 33.4 in MWC play.

"I think we did a pretty good job on him and also he missed some easy shots," Lewis said. "Most of the shots he was missing that game were shots he'd usually hit. He was in-and-out a lot.

"Hey, he still had over 20 points. He's just a really good player. He's going to keep doing that for the rest of the year."