Columnist Hal Rothman: This year’s UNLV team might be something special

Hal Rothman

Sunday, Nov. 6, 2005 | 7:51 a.m.

Hal Rothman is a professor of History at UNLV. His column appears Sunday.

My guilty pleasure is to sneak away to watch UNLV basketball practice in the afternoon. It's a short walk from my office, and every now and again, I look at the clock and think that I'd like to hear the whistle blow, the tennis shoes squeak on the hardwood, the chatter of players, and the sound of the ball thumping on the court.

I've been a basketball junkie as long as I can remember. My first favorite player was Elgin Baylor, the silky smooth Lakers star of the 1960s.

I followed the great Celtics teams, Dr. J. when he was in the ABA, actually saw the New Orleans Buccaneers of the ABA play in person -- I think there were 90 people in the gym that night -- and remember the NCAA Tournament when there were only 16 teams.

Back in the day when the NBA Finals were not carried live on any network, the long-haired me and a few of my friends drove to a bar near an Air Force base to watch the 76ers and the Trail Blazers tangle. The dirty looks we got were soon replaced with friendly whacks on the back when the fly boys realized we were as solid a bunch of fans as they were.

When I was in school in Texas, three friends of mine and I rented a van and drove to Albuquerque for the 1983 NCAA finals. We bought a couple of scalped tickets in the nosebleed section and got to see Lorenzo Charles dunk Dereck Whittenberg's desperation airball to give NC State the crown.

In the summer of 1978, on the University of Illinois campus, I once got in a pickup game with Magic Johnson -- boy, was I out of my league! -- and I drag my kid to more high school games than he can stand ... and at 10, he already shares my affliction.

It's the purity of the game that I love, the perfect harmony that can exist only for seconds at a time.

Rebound, outlet pass, ball to the wing, underneath for the layup is about as perfect as great music or great art. It gives me a chill, a shiver down my spine, a sense of beauty in the universe as complete as the Mona Lisa or Aaron Neville's singing.

So about three weeks ago I sneaked over and watched the Rebels, and for the first time in a long time I see a well-coached team that likes each other. These guys talk to one another like friends, brothers even. They slap hands, laugh together and genuinely seemed to enjoy each other's company.

This has been rare of late, not only here but in a lot of programs. Too few teams look like they're having fun, as the game has become more individual than team.

With all the one-year wonders and the preening for the cameras, college basketball has taken on a lot of the worst traits of the pros. With the exception of teams like last year's Illinois and North Carolina squads, both of which played like teams and loved the game and each other, it's been hard to take pleasure in the college game.

All the more reason that I think we're all going to fall in love with this bunch of Rebels. Coach Lon Kruger's teams have always played superior hustling defense. Watching him and his staff cajole the best out of his players in practice makes me think we will see a lot of hustle that leads to Rebel fast breaks this year.

Right now, everybody is laying it on the line. It looks like there are at least 11 guys who can play and they all want minutes. It's exciting to watch and to anticipate the future.

The Runnin' Rebels once represented community to this town, shouting "us versus them" and carrying the pride of a city of outcasts and misfits on their broad shoulders. They were us then, for they too were apart.

They won, they were honest to a fault about who they were and what they represented. Before we're through this year, I have a feeling the Hardway Eight (the 1977 team that made it to the Final Four), the 1990 championship team and all the others will be proud of this bunch.

Remember, all I do I is sneak over and watch practice. I cannot promise you that they will be great. I suspect that they will be better than we think; what I'm really sure about is that they'll be exciting and fun to watch.

After checking them out a couple of times, I can tell you these kids have heart. They may not turn out to be the best team in UNLV history, a tall order by any measure, but I'm certain that they will give us more great moments this year than we've seen in a long time.