THE OPENING LINE

Monday, Aug. 13, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES, HE COULDN'T HAVE LOOKED BETTER

During my 20 years here, I've seen a lot of remarkable things occur within the realm of the UNLV basketball program. These would include, but certainly not be limited to : members of the administration setting up secret cameras in the rafters to catch their own coach cheating; a bomb going off behind the Rebels' bench at Utah State; Bryan Emerzian scoring a basket; and Romel Beck getting back on defense and once even taking a charge.

Amazing events, one and all. But not as amazing as watching the Rebels' current coach and savior, Lon Kruger, sitting behind his desk and addressing the media just six days after having sextuple bypass open-heart surgery.

Sextuple bypass? That sounds like some detour you take when the bridge is out in Minnesota. Kruger's so tough, he turned it into a pothole.

Oh, I'm sure he has looked better than when he faced the press on Wednesday afternoon. His left arm had a scar longer than Florida's bench, the one on his chest (which he didn't reveal) apparently resembles a spur of the Baltimore & Ohio and there was a wound in his neck that looked like a bullet hole. This was a receptacle for the plenty of fluids his doctors fed him, some of which, it can be assumed, were pain killers that would drop a rhino.

I told the coach he looked like he had just returned from a Big Ten road trip and he laughed, although not too hard, which either meant he didn't want to dislodge the stitches holding him together or he didn't think my joke was that funny.

He said what you might expect - that he's going to take it easy now and then, maybe let his assistants coach in practice a little more, maybe have a banana instead of a bag of chips, although his heart problems are hereditary, not dietary. And he said he's going to stop and smell the roses, or at least those little violet flowers that bloom in the desert sage around here, now that he has been given a second lease on life when he had no clue the first was coming due.

"I have no designs on being a hero or breaking records as far as coming back," Kruger said about his presence in familiar surroundings, adding that he's going to lay back in the zone and forsake the full-court press for as long as his doctors say.

But I've got to tell you , for a guy who had just had his chest opened up with a Skil saw and sewn shut again with piano wire, he looked absolutely fantastic.

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Kumho Tires Street Warriorz Series, "All night" Saturday (gates open at 4 p.m.), The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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ALSO WORTH A LOOK

Sacramento River Cats vs. Las Vegas 51s, 7:05 tonight, Cashman Field

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