Getting Rebels ready for NIT relatively easy

Steve Guiremand

Monday, March 14, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

UNLV coach Lon Kruger didn't have to scramble to get some videotapes of his team's first National Invitation Tournament opponent.

"I watched every one of their games," Kruger said of the Arizona State Sun Devils (18-13), who will play the Rebels (16-13) on Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center. "I tape them all. And I've been to about a half-dozen of their games."

That's because Kruger's son, Kevin, is a starting guard for ASU who is third on the team in scoring with a 11.1 average.

So it will be Kruger vs. Kruger in the 9 p.m. game which will be nationally televised by ESPN2.

"I at least get to watch him play," Lon Kruger joked of the news he would be coaching against his son's team.

Father and son were talking on the phone when Lon Kruger got the word from the NIT that UNLV would be playing host to Arizona State.

"I was kind of surprised about it," Lon Kruger said.

"I really didn't even know what to think," Kevin Kruger said. "It was kind of weird. Any time you can get to see your family, it's good. But I wish it wasn't under these circumstances."

Although his dad has a good scouting report of the Sun Devils from watching all their games this year, Kevin Kruger said he is well aware of UNLV and its players, too.

"I spent a couple of weeks down there in the summer and worked out a lot with those guys," he said. "Ricky Morgan and I hung out a lot. Pretty much everybody on the team was there playing in those pickup games. So I might have picked up a few things, too."

Arizona State comes into the contest with a four-game losing streak including a 95-90 overtime loss to Pac-10 tournament champion Washington in the quarterfinals of that tournament. The Huskies, who were given the No. 1 seed in the Albuquerque Region of the NCAA tournament on Sunday, trailed the Sun Devils in the second half of all three games they played this year.

Arizona State is led by 6-foot-8 junior forward Ike Diogu, the Pac-10's player of the year who is considered a potential first-round NBA draft pick if he decides to forgo his senior year. Diogu averages 22.3 points and 9.7 rebounds per game and had a Pac-10 tournament record five blocks in the Washington loss.

"They're different types of players," Lon Kruger said when asked to compare Diogu with Utah's Andrew Bogut, the 7-foot MVP of the Mountain West Conference. "Ike can go out on the floor and can shoot some 3's. But both of them have about the same kind of an impact on the game."

The winner of Thursday night's game will play the winner of the Miami of Florida (16-12) at South Carolina (15-13) contest in the second round March 19-21, with that game more than likely on the road.

The quarterfinals are set for March 23-25 on campus sites while the semifinals on March 29 and the championship game on March 31 will both be played at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Tickets for Thursday night's game will be priced at $15 for plaza level seats, $10 for balcony and $5 for UNLV students with valid ID. General public tickets went on sale this morning and may be purchased at the Thomas & Mack Center box office, by calling (702) 739-FANS or online at UNLVtickets.com. UNLV season-ticket holders have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to purchase their regular seats before those locations are released to the public.