Frustrated at playing time, Hamga departs UNLV

By Rob Miech

Friday, Dec. 12, 2008 | 6:30 p.m.

A teammate asked UNLV 7-foot center Beas Hamga to autograph a Rebels poster for a friend who is an ardent fan of the basketball squad.

“Should I write, ‘Goodbye’?” Hamga replied.

Playing only 26 total minutes in five games this season, Hamga had made up his mind to leave Las Vegas, to search for more time on a Division-I basketball court.

That became official Friday morning, when fifth-year coach Lon Kruger granted Hamga’s release from UNLV.

With a one-way ticket, he will board a plane Saturday morning for Indiana, where his former summer traveling-team coach and guardian Mark Adams lives.

Hamga, 20, did not say goodbye to any of his UNLV teammates, including dormitory roommate and Rebels walk-on guard Todd Hanni. Hamga had cleared his stuff out of the dorm by Friday morning.

Although Hanni said he was surprised, he also admitted that Hamga had been frustrated lately and wasn’t “as lively” as he’s been in the past.

Kruger said even Adams didn’t think that leaving UNLV was the right move for Hamga, because Hamga will have to sit out another year according to NCAA transfer rules.

“And there’s nothing to be gained in that,” Adams told Kruger.

Hamga came to Las Vegas as a well-traveled prep player in the summer of 2007. That fall, he went on the shelf when the NCAA questioned his academic transcripts.

College basketball’s governing body allowed Hamga to stay at UNLV, but it forced him to redshirt in 2007-08.

That started his eligibility clock, in which players get a five-season window to play four seasons.

When Hamga became eligible this season, new centers Darris Santee and Brice Massamba solidified themselves as the respective starter and reserve in the post for the Rebels.

Moreover, next season, Matt Shaw, who is redshirting this season after knee surgery, will be healthy and Findlay College Prep big man Carlos Lopez will be in the fold.

Lopez, at 6-11 but projected to hit 7-2 by a doctor in Puerto Rico, has a fabulous inside game. He spins like a dervish and finishes with gusto – something Hamga has never shown.

By transferring after the fall semester, Hamga will be eligible at his next school – possibly Indiana – after the fall of 2009. So he will have only two full seasons at his next stop.

That’s if it’s a D-I program. Hamga can transfer to a D-II school and be eligible to play right away, the rest of this season and for three more years.

“Whenever you’re not getting playing time, especially as a freshman, things start to run through your head,” said senior forward Rene Rougeau. “We could tell he was upset. We thought he would tough it out.

“That’s how it goes sometimes. Sometimes, you just have a change of heart.”

Hamga has plenty of work to do to handle the rigors of elite D-I basketball. At 230 pounds, strength trainer Jason Kabo had him on a challenging regimen to improve his physique.

From a basketball standpoint, Hamga wasn’t a natural. He did not have a good feel around the basket, he did not have an accurate touch from close range and he rarely flashed powerful finishing moves.

But he arrived at UNLV with lofty ratings from recruiting services.

Kruger discounted that anyone was in Hamga’s ear to leave.

“I think it was just the frustration with not playing,” Kruger said. “I think it’s tough for a young person to handle, when the expectations are such that ‘you’ll be a big star right away.’ It will just take a little longer, in Beas’s case.”

Kruger’s system is uncompromising. Players who show they will work hard in practice and over summers, who listen and display requisite improvement, will be rewarded.

“It’s in their court, as to the amount of work they put in and their productivity,” said UNLV assistant coach Greg Grensing. “Those are tangible things, whether it’s adding weight, getting stronger or being quicker laterally, or shooting. It falls on their shoulders.”

Grensing expanded his thoughts.

He said the biggest difference in college basketball over the past 20 years is that, in this day and age, society is built much more on instant gratification.

“I think, in general, younger kids come in thinking they’re entitled to play, as opposed to earning the right to play,” Grensing said. “Every player we have, we want them to be successful.

“But it falls in their court as to how much playing time, or whatever, they earn or deserve.”

It isn’t easy, he said, for 18- and 20-year-olds to be accountable or responsible. Often, they’re sheltered from having to work. When it gets difficult, there’s an inclination to look for the next easiest option.

Indiana.

That’s the easy way, Grensing said. The hard part is making it work when they hit a rough patch.

Grensing believes Hamga, when he initially chose UNLV, might have noted how one-time UNLV projects Louis Amundson and Joel Anthony turned themselves into NBA players.

But Hamga didn’t comprehend the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of those success stories.

“I don’t think he had a good grasp on where he was at,” Grensing said. “He had been told, not just by people close to him but by the basketball community, scouting services and other coaches, that he would be something.

“In our opinion, he wasn’t ready.”

The Rebels wish Hamga well. Some, by the end of Friday morning’s practice in the Cox Pavilion practice gym, were surprised to learn he was gone for good.

“We’ll probably talk among ourselves and come up with some Beas moments, laugh and reminisce,” said sophomore point guard Tre’Von Willis. “Life goes on … hopefully, he has a great career.”