Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.
UNLV guard Michael Umeh says one of the best presents he got this Christmas was a few days off.
The 6-foot-2 sophomore guard from Houston has been bothered the past month with a sore wrist on his shooting hand suffered during a spill in practice. But getting three days off from the basketball court for Christmas has allowed the injury to finally start to mend.
And tonight against Fort Lewis College (8-1) at the Thomas & Mack Center in the Rebels' final tuneup before Monday's huge Mountain West Conference opener at Utah, Umeh will return to the starting lineup for the first time since a Nov. 26 victory over Oregon State.
Umeh, who tied his career-high with 11 points and made a key steal in Sunday night's 89-82 loss at 15th-ranked Texas, will replace senior swingman Andy Hannan, who will sit out to rest a nagging groin injury.
Umeh was 4-of-5 from the floor against the Longhorns, including a perfect 3-of-3 on 3-pointers.
"It feels good (to start again)," Umeh said after a grinding and physical three-hour practice on Tuesday afternoon. "I'm going to go out there and try and set the tone, start the game off good and get some things going for us."
Umeh scored eight points and was 2-of-3 from 3-point range in the Rebels' first game back from the Christmas break, a 74-54 victory over Texas-Pan American. So he has connected on five of his last six 3-pointers since the layoff. He had made just two of his 14 previous treys before the break.
"My wrist has been bothering me since earlier in the season and it's starting to heal now," Umeh said. "I kept re-injuring it when I was bumping into somebody or twisting it or falling down again. It never really healed. But at Christmas time, when (coach Lon Kruger) gave us those three days off, it really gave it a good chance to heal."
Now it's a dislocated index finger that Umeh injured in practice last Friday that bothers him. Fortunately, it's on his left (non-shooting) hand.
"I was trying to handle a pass from Jerel (Blassingame) and it just popped out," Umeh said. "But it's starting to get better. The more those things heal, the more confident I'll be in getting my shots off."
Umeh hopes his late heroics at Texas will carry over into tonight's game against the Division II Skyhawks from Durango, Colo.
"The second half (at Austin), I just knocked down a couple shots, made a good steal and tried to pick it up on defense," he said. "It got me going again a little bit. It gives me more confidence going into this game."
Umeh will join Blassingame, guard Romel Beck and forwards Odartey Blankson and Louis Amundson in tonight's lineup.
"It's our last game before the start of conference," Umeh said. "We need to step it up and be ready to do good things on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. Fort Lewis is a very good team that we're playing. We need to continue to make progress and improve."
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