Stable hands take the reins

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, March 3, 2005 | 9:36 a.m.

There wasn't a whole lot expected of Ricky Morgan when basketball practice began for the UNLV men's team last fall.

After all, the Rebels returned an all-Mountain West Conference point guard in senior Jerel Blassingame, who led the league in assists as a junior, and a capable backup in sophomore John Winston. Morgan, a transfer from Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Mich., seemed destined to be a reserve at best.

My, how things have changed.

When UNLV (14-12, 6-7) finishes conference play at BYU (9-19, 3-10) on Saturday night, the 6-foot, 190-pound Morgan will be making his eighth consecutive start. Blassingame, meanwhile, has been delegated to a backup role. And Winston quit the team during Christmas break so he could transfer to St. Mary's.

It was Morgan's steadying play at the point guard position that played a key role in UNLV's recent five-game winning streak.

"I think it does correlate," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "We've taken much better care of the ball. We've reduced our turnovers a lot in the last six or seven games. We've executed things better offensively. We still have a long ways to go but we're moving in the right direction."

Morgan has had a better than 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio since taking over for Blassingame in a narrow 57-53 loss to Utah on Feb. 7. He has dished off 22 assists while accumulating 10 turnovers in the seven-game span.

Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact Morgan has committed just one turnover in the past three games combined, a span of 66 minutes. He had zero turnovers in wins against Colorado State and Air Force, a team that leads the MWC in steals with an average of 8.6 per game.

"I think Ricky's done a real nice job," Kruger said. "He's given us some stability and direction, getting the ball where it needs to be and getting us into some offensive sets. And he's playing good defense."

In other words, things that a true point guard usually does for his team.

"It feels good," Morgan said. "I'm up for the challenge (of starting). Me and the guys have been working hard all season together, so they know how I play and I know how they play. There's been a little bit of an adjustment. Starting rather than coming off the bench is a little bit of a different road. I'm just trying my best to help the team win."

Morgan said he didn't set any lofty goals for himself coming into the season.

"The only thing I expected of myself was to come in and just leave it all out there and to play hard every game," he said. "And I think for the most part I've done that.

"Everyone on this team has great respect for each other including me and Jerel. I just want to come out and play hard. Fortunately for me, I got the job. I'm going to do my best to keep it and to keep the team moving forward."

Morgan developed a championship pedigree before coming to UNLV.

As a senior at Northern High School in Pontiac, Mich., Morgan was named a member of the Detroit Free Press' Dream Team after helping lead his team to the Class A (large schools) title.

He attended Iowa State the following year where Cyclones head coach Larry Eustachy tabbed him to replace NBA first-round pick Jamaal Tinsley, now a star with the Indiana Pacers.

"Those were huge shoes to fill," said Morgan, who started 11 games and had a team-high 91 assists. "But I learned a lot from Coach Eustachy. And now I'm learning a lot from Coach Kruger."

Eustachy left Iowa State the following year and Morgan also departed, eventually ending up at Schoolcraft College. He averaged 8.9 points and 6.1 assists there last year while helping lead his team to the Michigan state junior college championship.

So it was little wonder that Morgan didn't back down from the challenge of competing against a returning all-MWC player like Blassingame when he decided to attend UNLV.

"I always knew I had the potential to run a team," Morgan said. "I've been in the Big 12. I was quite sure I could do it in the Mountain West. It was just a matter of getting an opportunity and taking advantage of it."

So far, so good.