By Rob Miech

Thu, Mar 20, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Chris Morris

UNLV’s Joe Darger, right, and Wink Adams celebrate the Rebels’ 76-61 win over Brigham Young University in Saturday’s Mountain West Conference championship game.

Fending off 7-foot centers has been child’s play compared with the jousting UNLV junior forward Joe Darger did while growing up around 17 siblings.

They often slept three to a room, and the entire family shared two bathrooms. The kids played their own five-on-five basketball games, with reserves.

Darger, 21, might have the biggest fan base of any Rebel as UNLV opens the NCAA Tournament today in Omaha, Neb., against Kent State.

“I can’t explain how big that’s been,” he said. “All my relatives and fans have always been there for me. It’s been amazing.”

Darger (sounds like “dagger”) has a key role in coach Lon Kruger’s system, as important for his 3-point prowess as he is for hounding the other team’s center.

No doubt behemoths Luke Nevill and Trent Plaisted prepped Darger well last weekend for his matchup today with 6-7, 216-pound Haminn Quaintance of the Golden Flashes.

“There’s always quicker and bigger guys,” Darger said. “We just have to play harder and smarter. Whatever I have to do to help my team out, that’s what I’m there for.”

A year ago, Darger went into his first NCAAs as a part-time long-range specialist. He didn’t score against Georgia Tech, he nailed a 3-pointer against Wisconsin and then he drilled three against Oregon in the Sweet 16 to finish with 13 points.

On the eve of that tournament, The New York Times ran a feature on Darger’s father, John, detailing his two wives and polygamist lifestyle in Riverton, Utah.

The Darger patriarch, a real estate developer, grew up with 46 siblings. His father had several wives.

John Darger was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because polygamy is illegal and the church renounced the practice more than a century ago.

He and wife Carollee, Joe’s mother, have 10 children. With Elizabeth Darger, John Darger has eight children.

John Darger allowed a New York Times reporter into the suburban Las Vegas home he and Carollee purchased for Joe for a family celebration after the regular season finale a year ago.

The two-story house is convenient for the large Darger traveling party that often attends UNLV home games. Joe yields his master bedroom to an older sister for a spot on a couch.

Joe Darger declined to talk to the reporter, saying UNLV coaches did not want any distractions before the NCAAs started in Chicago.

At a team banquet Sunday, Darger said he had no issues with the story or revelations about his personal life.

“No, not at all,” he said. “They asked me if they could do it. I told them, go ahead. Didn’t bother me.”

Joe Darger answers questions politely, without blinking. At 6-feet-7 and 225 pounds, he carries more brawn than a year ago. That has helped as he’s tried to contain foes sometimes 5 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than he is.

He said coaches have done a great job prepping him to rattle those opponents as his playing time and production doubled this season.

Darger averages 11.2 points, tied for second among Rebels, and he’s part of a three-headed 3-point shooting attack along with Wink Adams and Curtis Terry.

In the Mountain West Conference tournament finale, he jump-started UNLV with a rare 4-point play when Lee Cummard fouled him on a shot from way beyond the arc.

He also hit back-to-back 3-pointers early in the second half to ignite the Thomas & Mack Center crowd and separate the Rebels from BYU.

“We have a lot of heart and desire to keep going forward and make a run in the tournament,” Darger said. “It’s about whoever wants it more. For the most part, it’s worked out for us.”