Terry’s drive brings out Rebels’ best

By Rob Miech (contact)

Monday, Nov. 5, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

Exhibition: UNLV vs. Washburn

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Alumni game at 6 p.m.)

Season opener: UNLV vs. Montana State

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: Thomas & Mack Center

Tickets: $12-$28; unlvtickets.com

Curtis Terry tumbles over the scorer's table in a heap, scattering three or four chairs, landing hard. A hush falls over the Thomas & Mack Center.

UNLV basketball teammates, coaches and managers inch toward the sprawled-out senior. He finally stands, rubs his left elbow, waves off medical attention and ambles back to the court.

Later, a few Rebels remind Terry that it's practice. But Terry doesn't know half -speed.

"That shows you he's willing to lay it on the line out here," says junior walk-on guard Rene Rougeau, "just like it's game time."

The next day, the Rebels glide through a drill. They could end practice by executing 20 full-court baskets in a three-man, four-pass weave in which the ball shouldn't touch the ground, in two minutes.

They fail three times. Passes are sloppy. Lay-ups are missed. The ball hits the ground. Terry stands before another hushed huddle of Rebels.

"If you're not going to do this, sit the (bleep) down!" Terry yells. "Let's do this!"

They complete the drill on their next attempt, with sweat flying and adrenaline pumping and 2.9 seconds to spare .

Sophomore walk-on guard Scott Hoffman says Terry is 50 times better than when he showed up at UNLV and will "blow up" this season. But he's always been a leader.

"He's never followed anyone," Hoffman says. "I haven't played, but he's always boosted my confidence, telling me to keep my head up. I'm doing this for him."

Terry, 22, sits in the middle of the front row in UNLV's team photograph this season. Three teammates sit to his left, three to his right , and seven stand behind him.

As the Rebels' starting point guard, he will be the focal point on the court, too.

Over the summer, Terry coordinated practices and workouts, calling his teammates daily with times and places. He followed those calls with text messages.

"You heard it from him if you weren't there," Hoffman says.

Curtis Terry Sr. has been tutoring his youngest son and namesake about leadership since the third grade in University Place, a suburb of Tacoma, Wash. Always do your best. Always give it your all.

"I had to pump that into him at home," says Curtis Sr. "He kept his head up and took care of what he needed to do."

The elder Terry believes Junior will average 10 assists this season. Neither Terry is daunted by the fact that only four players in NCAA Division-I history have averaged double-digit assists - including UNLV's Mark Wade in 1986-87.

"With this team, that's possible," Curtis Jr. says.

"We'd love that," says a smiling UNLV coach Lon Kruger. "I don't think anyone would mind that."

Kruger didn't mind when Jason Terry brought little brother Curtis into the Atlanta Hawks' locker room seven years ago. At 15, Curtis Terry got to watch NBA players practicing, shooting and goofing around.

Current UNLV assistants Steve Henson and Mike Shepherd were on Kruger's staff in Atlanta, and those links were invaluable when Terry received no scholarship offers out of Curtis High.

He says he was overshadowed by a wealth of prep talent - like Martel Webster (who plays for the Portland Trail Blazers), Rodney Stuckey (Detroit Pistons) and Ryan Appleby (University of Washington) - in and around Seattle.

Curtis Sr. says coach Lindsay Bemis didn't do enough to promote Junior. So Curtis Jr. sent his own highlight tape to college coaches. Henson, then at South Florida, received one and took it to UNLV when Kruger hired him, and they made a walk-on offer to Terry.

"My biggest thing was to prove something to myself," Terry says, "that I'm good enough."

Kruger put him in a dormitory room with Hoffman, then a part-time student not playing basketball.

"I look up to him a lot," Hoffman says. "We talk about girls, school. Everything. And he'll be a great point guard because he'll make every player better."

As a freshman, in the final minute of regulation against San Diego State, Terry hit three 3-point shots, including one at the buzzer to force overtime in one of UNLV's most improbable victories. The Rebels had trailed by 10 with 30 seconds left.

That summer, Kruger called Terry when he was hanging out with his brother in Atlanta. We'll put you on scholarship for the next three years, Kruger said, if you're OK with that, if you want.

"If you want? I said, 'Yes, without a doubt,' " Terry says. "From then on, I knew I'd have to work even harder to keep the scholarship and to get minutes.

"To play for coach Kruger means a lot. I've kind of come full circle."

As a sophomore, when knee injuries sidelined guard Michael Umeh, Terry started 25 times in a shooter's role.

Last season, he played every position but center as a reserve, deferring to a senior-laden team.

Kevin Kruger, who left Arizona State to play his final season for his father, refined Terry's thoughts about playing the point and helping teammates.

"He (Kevin Kruger) made them responsible and liable for what they're doing," Terry says. "If someone (messes up), you get in his face and tell him specifically what he's supposed to do."

When UNLV played Wisconsin in the NCAA tournament regionals, Terry was so excited he smacked his fists together during introductions at Chicago's United Center. He collected two quick fouls. When he finally returned to take two free throws for an injured Wink Adams, he missed both woefully.

But Terry kept his head up. In the final 90 seconds, he drilled a 3-point shot and converted a floater in the lane to assure UNLV's 74-68 victory over the Badgers. UNLV made it to the Sweet 16.

Now, he's in the middle of the team picture.

"That was such a confidence booster for me," Terry says of the Wisconsin game. "We have guys who can duplicate what we did. We can be successful using the same formula."

Now he's the vocal general who knows the offense from top to bottom, who is willing to take fault and be responsible for the rest of the team.

"I have no problem doing that," Terry says. "I've definitely come a long way."