Thursday, May 19, 2005 | 10:06 a.m.
New UNLV assistant coach Greg Grensing:
UNLV basketball coach Lon Kruger brought a member of his family to Las Vegas when he hired Greg Grensing on his staff.
Grensing, 47, said Kruger taught him everything he learned about the game in the first two-thirds of his life. Now, Grensing is eager to show Kruger what he's learned over the last 15 years.
"There's part of me that is anxious to show him how I've grown," Grensing said Wednesday on his cell phone while running errands and tending to relocation matters around Omaha, Neb.
"I want to contribute. In business and in life, you recruit people who you know are successful. I know we'll be successful (in Las Vegas), and I know he's excited and upbeat about it."
UNLV officially announced Wednesday what Kruger had informally concluded about a week ago, when he called Grensing on his first day of a recruiting trip to North Carolina.
"We talked that first night," Grensing said. "He asked me, and I said I wanted to do it."
Grensing replaces Marvin Menzies, who left UNLV after one season to join Rick Pitino's staff at Louisville.
In a press release, Kruger said Grensing and his family will fit "perfectly" with the rest of the staff, that Grensing is an excellent floor coach who has a "terrific" national recruiting network.
In the spring of 1984, Kruger hired Grensing on his staff at Pan American University in Edingburg, Texas.
At that time, Kevin Wall -- whose brother Dan coached Grensing, a guard, in junior college and at Southwest Texas State -- was one of Kruger's assistants. When a spot on the Pan Am staff opened up, Kruger hired Grensing upon Kevin Wall's recommendation.
Before Kruger went to Pan Am, in 1981-82, it won five games. He stayed four seasons, with Grensing a part of the last two. Pan Am went 20-8 in '85-86, Kruger's last in Edinburg.
"It was unusual and unique," Grensing said of Pan Am. "They weren't much into basketball. We had a long way to go down there just to establish credibility and interest in the program.
"Establishing credibility and interest, and winning, went hand-in-hand, and (Kruger) managed to do that. The timing was good."
Grensing had been an assistant to Creighton coach Dana Altman since 1994, and last season he served as the Bluejays' associate head coach.
Grensing and Altman were assistants under Kruger at Kansas State for three seasons, starting in 1986-87. When Kruger left Manhattan, Kan., for Florida, Altman got the Wildcats job and kept Grensing on board.
Grensing has helped coach teams in 11 NCAA tournaments.
"I think it's a tremendous opportunity for me," Grensing said, "to be involved in a national program, one that I have a great deal of respect for because of the tradition and history of UNLV basketball, what it's stood for, and the coaches and players who have been there."
Grensing remembers visiting with Kruger as Kruger's 2-year-old boy, Kevin, laid on Lon's chest tossing a small basketball into the air. Kevin will be a fourth-year junior shooter at Arizona State next fall.
Kruger's daughter, Angie, is graduating from medical school at the University of Florida.
"Talk about aging," Grensing said.
At Kansas State, Grensing's stepson, 14-year-old Justin Nielsen, chose to live with him when Nielsen's mother and Grensing chose to get a divorce. When Grensing left town to recruit, Lon and Barbara Kruger were always there for Justin.
Barbara, especially, was an invaluable mother figure to Justin, Grensing said.
"They took care of him and did it in a manner that made you feel appreciative, nothing like they'd gone out of their way," Grensing said. "They're so genuine and sincere."
Grensing vowed to work as tirelessly for UNLV as his longtime mentor with whom he's been reunited.
"I've been fortunate to be around a lot of success," Grensing said. "I know the opportunity I have now, to be involved with UNLV, is one I'm looking forward to. I'm so anxious to get started. I expect nothing but really good things to happen."
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