Kruger, staff ready to rack up some frequent flier miles

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 | 9:50 a.m.

Browse a newsstand these days and you just might see new UNLV head basketball coach Lon Kruger peering back at you.

Kruger is pictured on the cover of the July issue of VegasGolfer magazine holding a golf ball. But don't expect to see Kruger hauling around his clubs on the links much the rest of the summer.

That's because the key summer evaluation period begins on Thursday and continues until the end of the month. And with six scholarships available to hand out next year, Kruger and his staff will be zig-zagging the country watching high school and junior college talent.

Kruger, in fact, left Tuesday night for Indianapolis to attend for some NABC coaches meetings today. He'll stick around to watch Thursday's first day of the Nike All-American Camp at the Sports and Fitness Institute on the IUPUI campus in downtown Indianapolis. Then he flies to Teneack, N.J., on Friday to watch a day of the Reebok ABCD Camp before heading off to Georgia on Saturday to catch a day of the adidas Superstar Camp. He flies back to Las Vegas on Sunday.

"Actually, we're pretty lucky because we have so many high school events here in Las Vegas this month," Kruger said. "It reduces the amount of travel we'd usually make."

Most of the nation's top prep prospects will be in town July 22-26 to take part in one of three national travel team tournaments -- the Reebok Big Time Invitational, the adidas Super 64 and the Nike Main Event.

Kruger acknowledges his first full recruiting class at UNLV is a key one. The Rebels lose three potential all-conference players in forward Odartey Blankson, point guard Jerel Blassingame and shooting guard Romel Beck after the 2004-05 season as well as swingman Andy Hannan.

"When you have the class the size that we will be bringing in, it is critical to get a class that will grow and mature together," Kruger said. "We're losing some pretty good players after this season. We lose four players on the perimeter so that's obviously a key need for us. But we also need to bring in some big guys up front, too."

Kruger said the initial response from potential recruits has gone well. It is against NCAA rules to discuss or reveal the names of recruits until after they sign a national letter of intent with the school.

Which brings us to the early signing period in mid-November. Kruger said he is hopeful to have most of the class signed, sealed and delivered by then.

"The majority of the kids like to sign early now," Kruger said. "You'd like to get most of it done in November if you can."

Kruger, who also plans on taking in part of a junior college tournament in Indianapolis on Thursday, said he'd like to build his class around high school prospects.

"In general we want to go in the direction of high school players," he said. "If it turns out that the class is 4-2 in terms of high school players that would be fine. A 5-1 ratio would probably be ideal."