Rebels will use loss to NAU as motivator

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004 | 10:58 a.m.

Should the UNLV Rebels have any trouble getting motivated for tonight's non-conference game against Occidental College at the Thomas & Mack Center, all head coach Charlie Spoonhour needs to do is say two words:

"Northern Arizona. "

It has been only three weeks since the Lumberjacks, picked to finish eighth in the Big Sky Conference this year, stunned the Rebels, 74-73. And even though NAU is a lower tier Division I school, the Lumberjacks probably aren't a whole lot better athletically than those at Division III Occidental.

About the only thing more humiliating than losing to the Lumberjacks at home would be to get upset tonight. And the Rebels (8-3) insist they won't get caught looking ahead to Monday night's conference opener against Utah.

"I think we've learned our lesson," Rebels guard Romel Beck said. "You've got to come to play no matter who you're playing."

"You don't need to bring it up," Spoonhour said of the Northern Arizona game. "Our guys can remember that.

"What we do bring up is that Occidental has a pretty good basketball program. They're not Division I, but that doesn't mean that they don't have players and it doesn't mean that they can't play the game. They won more than 20 games (25-3) last year. We have treated them respect. We have not fooled around and acted like this was going to be something easy."

Besides, Spoonhour has two players -- Beck and starting point guard Jerel Blassingame -- who can speak from experience about just how good the Tigers (6-2), who upset Cal State Fullerton a year ago, really are.

"We scrimmaged Occidental when I was in juco at LA City College," Beck said. "They're pretty good. They're athletic. They're sort of like a Princeton team with backscreens and plays like that. They have a really good coach (Brian Newhall) who knows a lot about the game. It's going to be a pretty good game. I don't think we'll take them lightly."

The Tigers advanced all the way to the Elite Eight of the Division III tournament last season. The team that eventually won the title, Williams (Mass.), stunned Holy Cross earlier this season.

That would be the same Holy Cross, coached by former Rick Pitino assistant and Pitt head coach Ralph Willard, that first gave Kansas and then Marquette big scares the past two years in the NCAA tournament.

"I just know every year something like that happens and you don't want to be the Virginia of this year," Spoonhour said alluding to then-NAIA power Chaminade's monumental upset of Ralph Sampson-led Virginia in Hawaii.

"I think we learned from the Northern Arizona game," Beck said. "In the first half we just ran them off the court. In the second half we took them lightly."

The Rebels open Mountain West Conference play on Monday night at home against Utah (11-3). Head coach Rick Majerus is hinting that starting center Tim Frost may miss the rest of the season because of a back injury. ... MWC preseason player of the year Matt Nelson left Colorado State's loss at Montana State on Monday night with a knee injury. Rams coach Dale Layer said he believed the injury "was significant" to his 7-foot star who had arthroscopic surgery on the same knee this past summer.