Kruger deal worth $3.8 mil.

By Rob Miech

Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 9:27 a.m.

If he finds any spare time, especially in his first year or two at UNLV, new Rebels basketball coach Lon Kruger will be able to hone his golf game as a member at Spanish Trail Golf and Country Club.

UNLV will provide Kruger and his wife, Barbara, with two loaner automobiles and 30 game tickets per game, among other amenities, and Kruger will receive an extra $25,000 if the Rebels reach the NCAA tournament.

He gets another $25,000 for each game that UNLV subsequently wins in the NCAAs.

And that Spanish Trail deal? It's included in the contract.

At least, that's according to Kruger's contract, which the Sun obtained Wednesday and will be reviewed today for final approval by the state's 14-person Board of Regents at Desert Research Institute.

The five-year contract is worth a total of $3.835 million, beginning with an annual compensation figure of $709,500 and steadily increasing to $827,000 in 2008-09.

Charlie Spoonhour, who resigned a month ago due to health reasons, made approximately $425,000 during his third and final season as the Rebels' coach.

Neither UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick nor Kruger returned calls seeking comment Wednesday. Mark Alden, one of nine Las Vegas-based Regents, said he had just spoken with Hamrick when reached late Wednesday afternoon.

"I can tell you that I gave him a '10' when he was hired as athletic director," Alden said. "And I just now told him that I gave him a '14' for this hire. It was done right, and he considered the right names, following them all to the end of the tunnel.

"And it was the right decision, I'm positive about that. I know every aspect of how (Kruger) was selected, who was talked to, what was said and what was done. Even (former Rebel) Sidney Green just called to say that (Hamrick) made a great decision."

If approved, Kruger will also receive an annual expense account of $15,000, from which he will be able to host guests at Spanish Trail for business-related purposes. With Hamrick's approval, Barbara Kruger can travel with her husband, at UNLV's expense, and receive a standard state per diem.

Alden said the release of supplemental details of the contract might become an issue. Alden did not receive those until Wednesday. Typical due process requires that the Regents receive such supplemental paperwork no fewer than three days before a meeting.

However, Alden said Tom Ray, attorney for the Board of Regents, could simply put the supplmental details on the record today to bypass the review period. If not, according to Alden, plenty of time exists to approve the package.

Alden said Kruger has agreed to work for free, as a volunteer employee, until the contract officially begins on June 1.

"It's not a problem," Alden said of a possible delay in the finalizing of Kruger's contract. "It possibly could be set aside. Still, it won't be a problem."

Kruger, 51, spent 18 seasons coaching in the collegiate ranks, at Texas-Pan American, Kansas State, Florida and Illinois. In December 2002, he was fired in the third season of a guaranteed five-year, $10-million contract with the Atlanta Hawks.

At Kruger's press conference Monday, a prominent Rebels booster said UNLV did not require significant financial contributions from outside sources to secure Kruger's services.

Alden confirmed that and said the funds that Kruger continues to receive from the Hawks are mutually exclusive from his UNLV contract. It had been speculated that Atlanta will owe him $2 million minus his deal with the Rebels.

"It's all from self-supported, non-state money," Alden said.