TAKE FIVE: WENDELL WHITE

Monday, Nov. 27, 2006 | 7:19 a.m.

UNLV senior swingman Wendell White drops to his knees every night and prays.

"I'm blessed," he said. "God has blessed me. Yeah, I talk to God. I'm happy I'm in this position right now."

If he had stayed in Vallejo, Calif., with his Samoan relatives and gangbanger buddies, White figured he would be in one of two places right now.

"Jail," he said, "or dead."

Instead, White left his mother, Rose, and the bad influences of the Bay Area for Los Angeles when he was 11. He lived with an uncle and aunt, and was near his father, Walter Sr. He switched from football to basketball and scored 72 points in a junior varsity game at Redondo Beach (Calif.) Union High as a freshman.

After a stint in junior college, White landed at UNLV and has laid the foundation for a solid future. He and fiancee Kelly Valentine will marry soon. The versatile 6-foot-6, 225-pound player figures to play a key role when UNLV plays Arizona at McKale Center in Tucson on Tuesday night.

Wrong crowd

White didn't reveal many details about running on the wrong side of the tracks in Vallejo. Gang life, he said. Hanging out with the wrong people. "I would say I had a rough childhood," he said. "I changed my life as soon as I came to L.A. I wanted a new life."

72 points?

And his shot was off. "Just rebounding," White said of his astonishing output in a JV game in high school. "I think I had 20 boards, too." That enabled him to briefly play with brother Walter Jr., who was a senior at Redondo Union. "We played Inglewood in the playoffs, and we won," he said. "I took a key charge. I only scored two points, but I was happy about that charge."

Reality check

When White returned from a basketball camp between his freshman and sophomore years, he learned his father, Walter Sr., a plumber in the Los Angeles area, had suffered a fatal heart attack while eating lunch with a brother. "I broke down," White said. "That also changed my life. It stung a lot. Then you grow up quickly, with more responsibilities."

Big guard or small forward?

Is White a guard who can rebound or a forward who can dribble? "A power guard," he likes to call himself. Through UNLV's first few games this season, he led the team in scoring, rebounding, steals and field-goal percentage. Free throws, which he was hitting at a 28.6-percent clip, were another story. "I just need to concentrate more when I'm on the free-throw line," White said. "That's about it."

The burden

On a smallish team without much height on the bench, White might be pushed to help out among the bruisers down low this season. Bring it on, he said. "If it does put a burden on me, I'll take the challenge. That's all I can say. My teammates trust me, and I'll give them something to trust." Besides, he's accustomed to shouldering burdens in his life. "A whole lot of challenges," he said. "I just thank God, give praises to him. Hopefully, we do a great job this year."