Friday, Jan. 16, 2004 | 10:31 a.m.
UNLV point guard Jerel Blassingame says he is looking forward to this weekend's trip to San Diego. And it has nothing to do with the warm, sunny weather, the nearby beaches or Sea World.
"San Diego has been a good town for me," Blassingame said. "It brings back some good memories."
It was just 10 months ago that Blassingame and fellow Rebels guard Romel Beck were cutting down the nets at Jenny Craig Pavilion after helping lead Los Angeles City College to the California state junior college championship. And Blassingame, a 5-foot-9, 170-pounder, also walked away with the tournament MVP trophy.
"San Diego will always hold a special place in my heart because we won our state championship there," Blassingame said with a smile.
Now Blassingame will try and quarterback the Rebels (9-4, 0-1) to their first Mountain West Conference victory of the season when they face San Diego State (10-6, 1-0) at the Cox Arena at noon.
The game will pit arguably the two top point guards in the Mountain West Conference in Blassingame and San Diego State's Wesley Stokes, a transfer from Missouri who leads the MWC in both assists and steals. Blassingame, meanwhile, ranks second in assists and third in steals and is also getting high marks for his defense.
"I'm looking forward to playing against Wesley," Blassingame said. "He's one of the premier guards in our conference. It's going to be big for me to go up against him."
The following week Blassingame goes up against Wyoming point guard Jay Straight, who was regarded in some circles as the top returning point guard in the conference.
"Every game is big for me no matter who the other point guard is," Blassingame said. "I'm going to go out there and play hard and do what I have to do for us to get a win. If you get too caught up in personal matchups, that will hurt the team."
Blassingame goes into Saturday's game after playing perhaps his best game as a Rebel in a 72-67 loss to Utah on Monday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Although he missed two key free throws and a potential game-tying 3-pointer in the waning moments of the game, Blassingame seemed to almost will the Rebels back from a 10-point second half deficit with his smothering defense and explosive drives to the basket. He finished with 17 points, six assists, two steals and just two turnovers in 39 very physical minutes.
"There wouldn't have been any concern about the last play (the missed 3-pointer) of the game if he hadn't played the way he did the other 39 minutes that he was out there," UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour said. "He's done very well. He's very competitive. He knows what he needs to do. And he's a bright kid. His basketball IQ is really high."
He'll be matched up Saturday against Stokes, a graduate of famed Long Beach (Calif.) Poly High School who started his sophomore year at Missouri in the tough Big 12 Conference but decided to transfer closer to home. The Tigers then recruited a point guard named Ricky Clemons, a key figure in the school's NCAA current probe.
"I'm highly impressed with how Stokes has improved his game," Spoonhour said. "I was familar with him when he was at Missouri and I watched him play when he was younger. He's got a great idea of how to play the game. He shoots the ball better now than I remember him shooting it. And he's really unselfish."
In other words, it's going to be a very tough matchup for Blassingame as well as any other point guard in the conference.
"(Blassingame) is going to find somebody every game," Spoonhour said. "The thing with Jerel is when you're having a good year, and he's having a good year, people are going to get after you."
No problem says Blassingame.
"Man, I'm just going to go out there and play hard," he said. "That's all I can do."
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