UNLV hoops notebook: Family ties a little fuzzy

Leila Navidi

Chace Stanback, center, and other players on the UNLV basketball team enter the Thomas & Mack for their first practice on the campus of UNLV at FirstLook 2008 last October.

By Rob Miech

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.

Isaiah Stanback returned a kickoff for the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but Chace Stanback wasn’t watching.

Chace Stanback, a UNLV forward who is sitting out this season after transferring from UCLA, hasn’t been following Isaiah’s professional football career too closely.

Then again, he isn’t that close to Isaiah.

The two Stanbacks have been listed as cousins in media guides at UNLV and UCLA. Isaiah played quarterback and wide receiver for the Washington Huskies.

Chace Stanback said that’s not exactly the case.

“I don’t even know if we’re really related,” Chace said. “I don’t know how many Stanbacks there are. We have a big family. I’ve never met him.”

Are they related?

“I think we might be,” Chace said, “somehow, some way.”

Isaiah Stanback is a 6-foot-2, 208-pound returner in his second season with the Cowboys.

Last season, he returned three kicks for 78 yards. This season, he has totaled 43 yards on three returns. In the Cowboys’ first game at Cleveland, he caught two passes for 24 yards.

The two Stanbacks have only communicated when Chace decided to pay an unofficial visit to Washington and coach Lorenzo Romar after he decided to leave UCLA.

Chace sent Isaiah two e-mails.

“He told me Washington was a great place to be,” Chace said. “He said he enjoyed it and that I should come. The only problem with that was that I would have had to go to a junior college for a year.”

Transferring from one Pac-10 program to another requires a player to sit out two seasons, not the usual one.

“Romar is a great coach,” Chace Stanback said. “I wish him the best. We became best friends on my visit. We went bowling. Had a good time.”

He has no idea about his ties, if there are any, to Isaiah Stanback.

“I don’t know,” Chace said. “My dad thinks we are related. Isaiah looks a little like my dad; dark complexion, huge nose and everything. My dad just doesn’t have the dreadlocks.”

On the mend

Senior shooter Joe Darger did not participate in practice again Monday. He sat out two practices Saturday after receiving two pain-relief shots in his back Friday.

He had been experiencing tightness in his back for a couple of months.

UNLV trainer Dave Tomchek told Kruger on Monday that the usual recovery time for such treatment is about a week, give or take a couple days.

Darger threw in some layups and a few free throws after practice.

“He’s feeling better,” Kruger said. “When you have those shots you don’t want to do anything for a couple days. You want to gradually work back into it. He did a little more today in the training room.

“We’ll see how he feels Tuesday. Could he line up and play today? Sure. He could, but it doesn’t give those shots a chance to heal.”

A familiar face

Former UNLV power forward Jerome Johnson has been a regular, in street clothes, at practice this fall.

Monday, he wore an extra-long white Polo shirt and jeans. He cupped a basketball a step outside the Rebels’ center-court huddle that ended the session inside the Cox Pavilion practice gym.

The Baltimore native dribbles a ball during practice and occasionally shoots short jumpers on side baskets.

Johnson, 23, played 10 games for UNLV in 2005-06. He played 45 total minutes, making two shots and grabbing six rebounds.

A back injury ended his career.

“He likes coming around,” Kruger said. “It’s great to see him. We know how much he misses it. It’s good to have him around.”

Kruger didn’t think that Johnson was showing interest in coaching.

“No, I haven’t heard him say that,” Kruger said. “He’s doing well academically, and he’s ready to get that degree and get out into the real world.”