Columnist Ron Kantowski: Don’t forget Kruger’s role in UNLV’s turnaround

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 | 9 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

I see where Lon Kruger finally got a little love from the UNLV unfaithful in the letters-to-the-editor section in Sunday's newspaper.

Maybe it's about time.

The Rebels' first-year coach has gone from persona non grata at the halfway point of the season, when the Rebels seemingly couldn't beat anybody not named for a Fort (and they even struggled against Division II Fort Lewis) to something of a silent partner in the team's turnaround.

But if you're going to hold Kruger responsible for the team's poor start and its failure to live up to to its preseason notice, then he should at least get credit for this Bat-turn down the stretch.

The Rebels have at least one more game to play, tonight against South Carolina in the second round of the NIT, which to anybody who saw them unravel like a Kmart cocktail dress at Air Force on Jan. 31 is stunning in its own right.

UNLV lost, 64-48. But it wasn't that close. Air Force got so deep into its bench that three guys on the floor at the end of the game were wearing satin shorts. Check the box score. Ollie from "Hoosiers" closed the scoring for the Falcons with two underhanded free throws.

Afterward, Odartey Blankson, the Rebels' sometimes misunderstood star, said he was "embarrassed" to be a part of it all, and it appeared the rats might be headed for the gangplank, especially after UNLV blew a big lead at home against lowly BYU the next time out.

But the Rebels' ship, taking on water like the Edmund Fitzgerald, didn't sink. Kruger wouldn't let it. Instead of continuing to coddle underachieving veterans such as Romel Beck and Jerel Blassingame, he put them on the bench, shrewdly using minor injuries to both as the reason for showing them the game from a different perspective.

Come to think of it, those might have been Kruger's exact words, which is a lot easier to accept than "Have a seat. You're benched."

From that vantage point, it was darn near impossible for Beck to make a spin move and launch an errant 3-pointer or Blassingame to blast up the court out-of-control and hurl the ball into the auxiliary press section. While those two sat, Blankson shot and shot and shot some more, and of those three, he's the one you want with double digits under "FGA" on the stat sheet.

Since Kruger shuffled the deck, the Rebels lost twice to Utah, a Sweet 16 team, and once to New Mexico, another tournament qualifier. And to nobody else. They've won nine times since the Air Force debacle, with the latest victory coming against a bigger and better Arizona State team in Thursday's pulsating NIT opener at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Now there's a word you don't often use in conjunction with an NIT game, especially a Rebels' NIT game. Usually, UNLV trades its lovely parting gift for a spot on the ferry to South Padre Island, but the way the Rebels attacked the basket and swarmed on defense against the Sun Devils, spring break appeared to be the last thing on their minds.

This was an ASU team that in its last outing, had extended Washington, the No. 1 seed in the Smallville Region, or whatever the NCAA is calling the West Region these days, into overtime. But playing with a level of energy that would have impressed the rocket scientists at Los Alamos, the Rebels stuck an 89-78 pitchfork in the Devils.

Blankson had his usual game -- 19 points and a handful of rebounds -- while Michael Umeh and Ricky Morgan, the two guys who have emerged as stars now that Beck and Blassingame have become Pine Brothers, continued to excel. And let's not be too harsh on Beck and Blassingame, who not only have accepted their reduced roles but more often than not have thrived in them.

Against ASU, when Blassingame left his seat, he was downright obnoxious on defense. It was like Don Rickles greeting a tour bus from Boca Raton.

All the Rebels played as if their hair was on fire, or whatever Mitch Williams used to say before throwing a wild pitch. Maybe that was surprising to those of us who have grown accustomed to UNLV's passivity in three-lettered postseason tournaments, but at least one basketball expert saw it coming.

Ted Owens, the former coach at Kansas who has admired Kruger since his playing days at Kansas State, said you could even tell from TV that the Rebels' coach is starting to morph into his old lantern jaw self.

"Not enough saw the inside of him," Owens wrote in an e-mail. "His fierce competitiveness, drive and leadership caused him to become the Big 8 player of the year twice. Lonnie was a determined kind of a guy and you knew from the set of his jaw that he was ready to play.

"I watched the game against Utah and you could see some of the fire that he has transferred into his team. In time, he will have a very good program there."

If/when that happens, I'm not sure this team, with its cast of difficult-to-coach characters and unabashed 3-point launchers, will rank among his favorites.

But he has somehow managed to take a steaming pile of turnovers and misguided shots -- and a bunch of guys who didn't seem to mind making them -- and turn it all into something of a successful season on which to build.

Instead of just one to forget.

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