Rams a tall order for Rebels

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.

The UNLV men's basketball team has a big problem on its hands this week, and it has nothing to do with the Rebels' disappointing 0-2 start in Mountain West Conference play.

It has everything to do with Saturday night's opponent, Colorado State.

The Rams (9-7, 1-2) started a lineup against Utah on Monday night that included three 7-footers on the floor at the same time.

That's right. Not one. Not two. But three 7-footers on the same front line.

For a UNLV squad that doesn't have player on its roster taller than 6-foot-9, that's a very big problem.

"They're huge," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "They're really big and they really pound it inside and they rebound it. Obviously, it's huge mismatches across the board for us size-wise."

Compounding the problem is that all three 7-footers are talented players, not just big stiffs.

Senior center Matt Nelson, who is 7-foot-1 and weighs 270 pounds, leads the nation in field goal percentage at over 69 percent and was the preseason conference player of the year before an injury-plagued 2003-04 campaign. He scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the Rams' 67-57 first-round NCAA tournament loss to Duke in 2003.

"He's real good," Kruger said. "He's very big and very skilled. He's shooting the ball for a great percentage. He passes the ball well out of double-teams. He's good."

Stuart Creason (7-0, 250) is a redshirt freshman who was a highly touted prep prospect after twice earning all-region honors at Coppell (Texas) High School. And Jason Smith, a 7-foot, 215-pound true freshman who plays the "small" forward spot at times for the Rams, leads all freshmen in the conference in scoring (10.1 ppg) and rebounding (5.1 rpg) and had a career-high 19 points in Colorado State's 74-67 victory over BYU on Saturday.

And should any of the big three need a rest, Colorado State coach Dale Layer can always turn to 6-foot-10 sophomore Stephen Verwers, who also has started off and on during his career and was rated a Top 100 prep prospect two years ago.

Meanwhile, UNLV is expected to counter with a starting front line of 6-foot-9 Louis Amundson, 6-foot-7 Odartey Blankson and 6-foot-6 Andy Hannan.

"They're real big," Amundson said. "We know that is their strength so we have to be able to handle that well, box out and make sure we get the rebound. They've got a lot of good big guys and they have a good coach so it's going to be a tough one."

Still, sometimes bigger isn't always better, as Air Force and Utah have already shown in conference play.

The Falcons, who like the Rebels were at a huge size disadvantage against the Rams with no starter taller than 6-foot-8, countered with a swarming defense around Nelson that forced 22 turnovers and produced 12 steals in a 58-53 victory.

Utah, which has a front line featuring 7-foot future NBA lottery pick Andrew Bogut and 6-foot-11 Chris Jackson, beat the Rams at their own game by outrebounding them, 35-17.

The Rebels will try to counter CSU's size with speed and quickness. The Rams' starting point guard, Dwight Boatner, quit the team last week so he could transfer to McNeese State and walk-on senior Nick Ball, who replaced Boatner in the starting lineup, left Monday night's Utah loss with a sprained ankle.

That leaves the Rams with true freshman Sean Morris and big brother Michael Morris, both sons of former NBA star Chris Morris. All signs would seem to point to a big night for Rebels senior point guard Jerel Blassingame.

"We have to try and push it and play with aggressiveness we opened the (San Diego State) game with," Kruger said. "But we've got to do that for 40 minutes."

It's the first time in more than a month players have had to juggle a class load around practices and games.

"We haven't had that in a while," Kruger said. "But they'll get back into that routine pretty quickly."