Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

UNLV BASKETBALL:

Former UNLV standouts set sights on the next level

Kevin Kruger, Curtis Terry looking for edge to advance in basketball

Kruger-Terry

Rob Miech

The Three Amigos: Former UNLV basketball players Kevin Kruger and Curtis Terry, and senior guard Steve “Chopper” Jones, pose after working out at L.A. Boxing on Wednesday afternoon.

Kruger, Terry and Jones

Former UNLV basketball players Kevin Kruger and Curtis Terry at lunch Wednesday, when they discussed their summer workout regimens and hoops hopes. Launch slideshow »

A few days ago, Kevin Kruger rousted Curtis Terry by carrying his laptop into Terry’s room and playing a YouTube recording of the UNLV fight song at high volume.

It rousted Kruger, too.

“That song still gives me goose bumps every time I hear it,” Kruger said. “It’s crazy. It means so much every time I hear it. I don’t know, subconsciously I remember what we did and what we had.

“The glory days.”

Terry smiled.

“I jumped up out of bed and I was ready,” he said. “I jumped up real quick.”

The last time they played basketball together, Kruger and Terry helped guide UNLV to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament in 2007.

Terry has been living with Kruger in Kruger’s home at the south end of the Strip this summer, and they push each other in hopes of landing professional contracts.

Often, that has required Kruger steering Terry clear of the nearby Jack-In-The-Box and its Extreme Sausage Sandwich that is Terry’s main culinary vice.

“No. 22,” Kruger said slowly of the sandwich’s place on the menu. “It’s so close to the house,” Terry said. “So easy,” said Kruger.

UNLV guard Steve “Chopper” Jones, who met Kruger when both played at Arizona State and who also lives under Kruger’s roof, is the third member of a workout trio that visits a boxing gym three times a week.

If they eventually find themselves in a three-way sparring tournament at L.A. Boxing in Henderson, Jones predicted victory.

“Curtis would get tired,” Chopper said, “and Kevin doesn’t have the chin to handle me.”

UNLV strength and conditioning guru Jason Kabo has been instrumental in designing individual summer workout programs tailored to Kruger and Terry.

Boxing trainer Mike Dizak has been polishing their weight balance, footwork and conditioning for the past few weeks.

Wednesday, Dizak put them through a fast-paced routine, which included various punching techniques, from 30 seconds to three minutes, on the heavy bags, mitt work, rope jumping and pre- and post-workout stretching.

Grunts and sighs and holy-bleeps filled the gym during each pause. Kruger, Terry and Jones left exhausted, with blank faces and soaked UNLV basketball shirts, after their intense hour-long regimen.

“They’re doing well,” Dizak said. “They pick it up quickly and the conditioning will help them. They still have a lot of room to improve, but they’ll get more out of it the more they stick with it.

“They could spar, eventually, but it’s up to them. I don’t think they need to … but it would help with their mental toughness.”

Trying to make it in professional basketball has honed Kruger and Terry plenty since they left UNLV, and both hope boxing helps give them an extra edge for the next stage of their careers.

After ankle surgery almost a year ago, Terry feels like he just graduated from UNLV and is about to test the pro waters for the first time.

A day after he did graduate, about 15 months ago, Terry tweaked an ankle. He figured it was more than a sprain when it didn’t heal after a few weeks, and he eventually underwent ligament surgery.

He returned last season to play 16 games, in which he shot 32.2 percent and averaged 3 points, for Los Angeles in the NBA Development League.

However, Terry, who was itching to play, wondered if that did more harm than good.

“I don’t know if it helped me or hurt me,” he said. “Since then, I’ve been trying to get back into shape, doing things the right way. It’s a lesson learned.”

Two months ago, Terry returned to UNLV weighing 240 pounds. Now, thanks to Kabo, he’s about 10 pounds away from his target of between 205 and 210.

He said the ankle is fine.

“I give Kabo the credit,” said Terry, 23. “We’ve thrown a circuit with weights into my cardio workouts, and combine that with all of our pick-up ball and boxing, and I’m feeling much better.”

A potential deal with a team in Turkey recently fell apart, and Terry is considering an offer from the Harstad Vikings in Norway. He would have to leave Las Vegas at the end of the month.

Terry and Kruger did some computer research and found that Harstad gets no sunlight from November to February.

“I might lose my tan a little,” said a smiling Terry. “Or maybe a D-League offer or something else will come out of nowhere in the next week. Whatever it is, I’ll make the best decision for me and go after it with all I got.”

Kruger made an ill-fated journey to play for Lukoil Academic in Bulgaria last fall. The situation wasn’t right, so he returned to Las Vegas early. When Lukoil finally released him, he finished the season for Utah in the D-League.

He started 16 of 21 games for the Flash, shooting 52.4 percent from 3-point range and averaging 11 points and about 4.5 assists. His turnovers-to-assists ratio was better than 2-1.

Utah lost in the championship round of the D-League playoffs.

“The fan base is growing in Utah, and they have great ownership and coaches,” said Kruger, 26. “They make sure they get good guys in there, and the playoffs were fun.”

A team in Greece showed interest in Kruger a few weeks ago, but that evaporated.

“It was kind of a long shot in the first place,” Kruger said. “I switched agents a month ago, and I’ll wait for an offer I like. If we don’t get one, I hope to go to a (NBA team’s preseason) camp … maybe back to the D-League.

“I’m not complaining. Hopefully next summer I’ll be in a better position than this summer. Really, that’s all I can ask for.”

In the meantime, Kruger and Terry bob and duck and weave around a forest of heavy bags in the Henderson foothills, trying to punch their way to the next round of their careers.

No, they agreed, a sparring card between them, and Jones, won’t likely happen.

“It would probably get out of hand,” Terry said.

“I don’t know if we’d be safe in the ring against each other,” Kruger said. “We don’t know what we’re doing.”

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