Lady Rebels came ready to play two

Tuesday, March 30, 2004 | 9:46 a.m.

OMAHA, Neb. -- While their come-from-behind 65-59 victory at Iowa State in Sunday's Women's National Invitation Tournament semifinals might have come as a surprise to many in these parts, you needed only to check the creases in the Lady Rebels' slacks and the starch in their collars to know they were planning on making the Heartland their home away from home this week.

"I told them to pack enough clothes for two games," UNLV coach Regina Miller said. "I didn't even want them to think about coming back early."

So while others in their small traveling party scrambled to rearrange flights and shopped for a change of clothes, the Lady Rebels boarded a bus in Ames, Iowa, Monday morning for a two hour, 45-minute drive to Omaha.

Exactly as planned.

And Miller said just like the landscape, the time went by in nothing flat.

"First, we watched the second half of our game against Iowa State, and the girls were all hooting and hollering," she said. "Then we watched 'Remember the Titans.'

While many of the players already had seen the movie, it sure beat looking out the window on I-80 West to gaze at endless corn and alfalfa fields which most of them, with the possible exception of Amy Loftus, who grew up in southern Illinois, were seeing for the first time.

Even the Iowa State players and fans will attest to that. Miller said ISU officials told her more than 200 Cyclones fans already had signed up for next year's trip to Las Vegas, where ISU will play in the Lady Rebels' annual tournament.