UNLV starts season with a game between friends

Leila Navidi/Las Vegas Sun, Washburn University athletics

LEFT: UNLV coach Lon Kruger runs onto the court as the team celebrates its first practice with a special event for fans last month. RIGHT: Washburn head basketball coach Bob Chipman, who is a longtime friend of Kruger, will play UNLV tonight in an exhibition game.

By Rob Miech

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Washburn University

Washburn head basketball coach Bob Chipman watches his team in action. The 30-year Washburn coach -- and close friend of UNLV coach Lon Kruger -- is bringing his squad to Las Vegas for an exhibition game tonight.

Bob Chipman and Don Hoffman finally got Lon Kruger to relax a bit, hang loose and get crazy, on Bourbon Street in the mid-1970s.

The trio had guided their AAU basketball team past a regional in Kansas to the national finals, in Baton Rouge, La. They won two before losing to a stacked Armed Forces squad.

They took their wives. It was time to celebrate in New Orleans.

Chipman, the 30th-year Washburn coach who will match wits against Kruger tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center, remembers those halcyon days with his close friends.

“It was kinda cool,” Chipman said. “We didn’t have coach (Jack) Hartman yelling at us to go play hard. We just went and played, and had fun afterward.

“But it was hard, even at that time. Lonnie was always the choir guy, but we finally got him out for maybe a drink. He was 25 at the time. We finally got him into something.”

A deep investigation couldn’t determine whether it was a shot of bourbon, a Hurricane or just a simple tall draft.

Kruger laughed.

“I’m sure we did,” he said of reveling in the French Quarter. “I don’t remember the details. That was a long time ago.”

For a fourth consecutive season, Kruger is playing the Division-II Ichabods. Like two of those previous meetings, tonight’s game is an exhibition.

Washburn gets about $20,000 and a third game in a row against a D-I foe. Kansas and Kansas State beat the Ichabods in the past week.

UNLV gets to prepare for Saturday’s season opener against San Diego against a team that will do what the Rebels want – play man-to-man defense and push it on offense.

“We’ll get an opponent that’s organized,” Kruger said. “They won’t hold the ball. They won’t sit back in a zone. They’ll do whatever we need to help us prepare for the first game.”

Kruger, 56, will be reunited with an old friend and teammate.

Chipman, 57, played on Kansas State’s basketball team, under Hartman, with Kruger and Don Hoffman, father of current UNLV walk-on guard Scott Hoffman.

That trip to New Orleans was a highlight, according to Gretta Hoffman, Don’s wife and Scott’s mother.

“Us girls followed, and they did very well,” she said. “That was the most fun.”

Especially for Chipman, who played pick-up ball after leaving Kansas State with some less-than-talented people.

“It wasn’t any fun,” Chipman said. “You didn’t get the ball at the right time. It was so much fun playing with Lonnie one last time.

“When you played with Lonnie, you knew you’d get the ball at the right time, every time. And you knew we’d win, because Lonnie always wins.”

It took some effort to get to Louisiana, however, because Chipman and Kruger’s squad had to defeat a team that included Martinez Denmon in an AAU regional final at Hayden High in Topeka.

AAU ball then was much more recreational, far from today’s super-competitive prep boiler that can launch a lad to stardom.

“Martinez played for Iowa State and he was a cheap-shot artist,” Chipman said. “When we played them, he’d hit you in the stomach when the referee wasn’t looking.

“Hayden was packed. The crowd was split. It was a big deal, because Lonnie is a huge deal. He is known all over Kansas. Well, Denmon cheap-shotted Lonnie.”

Chipman didn’t see it.

“But I could tell by Lonnie’s eyes,” he said. “There was fire in those eyes. It was so typical of Lonnie.”

Kruger didn’t immediately retaliate. Eventually, at the other end of the floor, Denmon rose to take a long jump shot.

“And Lonnie goes full speed right into his chest,” Chipman said. “Takes him over the bench in the right way. It was a good, hard foul. Really hard.

“Lonnie is so competitive and under control, he always did it the right way.”

Kruger, Chipman said, was always organized about basketball and school. He always watched what he ate. When K-State practices ended, Kruger could be found running five miles on the track.

“He didn’t have time for extra-curricular parties,” Chipman said, “and, really, girls, most of his career.”

Kruger met Barb Miles, whom he’d marry, between his junior and senior seasons.

Kruger’s hometown of Silver Lake, Kan., is 40 miles from the Kansas State campus in Manhattan.

“His mom was the most amazing woman,” Chipman said. “I’ve never seen someone throw together a dinner for 30 people, on a moment’s notice, and not get ruffled.”

On occasion, Chipman and Kruger would play pinball at an arcade. Kruger frequently won, as he did when they bowled, played Ping-Pong or went to the pool hall.

“It was hard to be around him,” Chipman said. “He was just good at everything, but he never rubbed it in. He was so humble. When it was done, it was done. And he never talked about himself.”

Kruger did take the chalk from Hartman once, sort of, when Utah was drubbing the Wildcats. Hartman got so mad and flustered, he left the locker room at halftime.

“I’m done with you guys,” Hartman said.

Not missing a beat, Kruger picked up the chalk. Assistant coaches and teammates watched Kruger map a plan and draw plays.

“I thought, ‘That’s pretty good. We’re all right,’ ” Chipman said.

These days, Chipman watches what Kruger does on offense and knows that the Rebels are more than all right.

But Kruger is known for defensive stinginess, right?

“Oh yeah,” Chipman said. “The defense UNLV played on us last season might have been the best we’ve ever seen. I mean, it’s so obvious what you need to work on after you’re done playing his team.”

The UNLV offense, though, is pure genius, according to Chipman. It’s a mixture of collegiate and professional systems that is more advanced than anything in the NCAA.

Chipman raved about initial and secondary pushes, and some sets that are common in any NBA game.

“Our guys love running this stuff,” he said. “We put up 79 on Kansas the other night and we missed 14 free throws and about 10 layups. Other people are trying to do it now.

“His style is so much fun to watch, guys flying around on defense, plus the freedom and individual stuff, yet still under control, on offense. To me, that’s what college basketball is about.”