Hoops notebook: Terry back at the Mack

By Rob Miech (contact)

Monday, Feb. 16, 2009 | 5:47 p.m.

Sam Morris

UNLV guard Curtis Terry celebrates making a three pointer during the first half of their 76-61 defeat of BYU in the Mountain West Conference championship game Saturday, March 15, 2008 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Curtis Terry was happy to be back at the Thomas & Mack Center on Monday morning.

He appeared, wearing gray sweats and a long-sleeve white T-shirt under a black T, halfway through practice and made small talk with trainer Dave Tomchek and strength coach Jason Kabo.

Terry’s hair was much shorter than UNLV fans will remember. He nearly had a different look, including long braids, each season as a Rebel.

He recalled the day he cut his mane.

“Sept. 30,” Terry said. “Just a change. Had the hair since my sophomore season. I grew it out for 2 1/2 years. I miss it at times. Then again, I’m OK with it. I’ll grow it back if I want to.”

Junior guard Scott Hoffman walked over to Terry, who sat in a courtside seat, and shook his hand and talked a bit. When Hoffman returned to the black-shirted third team, assistant coach Lew Hill was watching.

“Going back to last year?” Hill yelled at Hoffman. “On vacation?”

A 6-foot-5 guard, Terry helped UNLV reach the Sweet 16 two years ago and get to the second round -- where it lost to eventual national-champion Kansas -- of the NCAA tournament last season.

With 158 3-point shots, he is sixth on the program’s career chart.

The Los Angeles D-Fenders picked Terry, 23, in the fourth round of the NBA Development League draft. He averaged 3.1 points, 1.5 assists and 13.3 minutes in 16 games, and he was waived Jan. 22.

His pro career got off to a rocky start, though, when he sprained an ankle a day after graduating from UNLV in May. At least he thought it was a simple sprain.

A month went by and it still hurt. He tried out for a couple of NBA teams and was on Dallas’s Summer League roster, but he wasn’t completely healthy so he was limited in summer ball.

“Couldn’t do it, physically,” he said.

August came around and he still didn’t feel right, so he had surgery in Seattle to repair stretched ligaments. He was cleared for full-contact drills Nov. 7.

“I came back a little too soon, probably,” Terry said. “But I wanted to see what I could make happen. I’m glad I did it. I met some great people in L.A., I played some games and got my name back out there.

“Just waiting for the next opportunity.”

An overseas option is a long shot, but Terry believes he could be playing for another D-League squad within the next two weeks.

He’s been working out in Dallas with Mavericks guard and brother Jason Terry, who’s recovering from hand surgery, and keeping up with the Rebels on Jason’s television satellite setup.

“I watch every game I can,” said Curtis Terry. “I’m itching to get out there. I’m seeing things that I wish I could do to help or to tell the guys.”

Specifically, he had some words for sophomore point guard Tre’Von Willis, but the two didn’t talk on the court after Monday’s practice.

Slow it down sometimes, Terry said he’d tell Willis.

“He can get going too fast,” Terry said. “That happens anytime you’re trying to make plays. But if he slowed down a little and let things develop, a lot more will open up. He’ll learn that, though. He’ll figure it out.

“He’s a real good player. He’ll get it all down. He has spurts where you just can’t stop him. He’s unstoppable. He’ll help the program a lot the next couple years.”

Despite four league defeats, Terry said the Rebels are still right in the thick of the Mountain West Conference race.

“They could still win the conference outright,” he said. “I think some teams will slip up. Hopefully, they can make things happen. Then again, in the past couple conference tournaments we’ve done pretty well in Las Vegas. That doesn’t hurt.

“Hopefully, it doesn’t come down to winning three games in three days. But if they have to, we’ve done it before. They know what it takes.”

NBA Entertainment League

Kevin Kruger with the Utah Flash, part of the NBA Development League, whose 14 teams feed NBA franchises.

Back to the Flash

Former UNLV guard Kevin Kruger drove to Utah first thing Monday and reported for his first practice with the Flash on Monday night.

That’s the D-League team he played for last season, and he had been hoping to return to Utah since he left Lukoil Academic in Bulgaria two months ago.

However, Lukoil didn’t release Kruger from his internationally bound contract until late last week.

The Flash (17-11) is second in the West Division, behind Idaho (19-12). Kruger will be in uniform Friday when Utah plays at Anaheim (11-18).

“He’s looking forward to that,” said Lon Kruger, Kevin’s father and the UNLV coach. “He’s excited to be playing. He wasn’t able to do anything because of that contract stuff.”

Time flies

Senior guard Wink Adams doesn’t know where the time went. Sunday night, he was telling his mother, Reandre, in Houston the same thing.

The Rebels have two more home games, Saturday night against BYU and March 4 vs. Air Force. (Although UNLV will play host to the Mountain West tournament.)

“It hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “It came fast. Seems like I just got here a couple months ago. Now, I have two games left. Just have to make the most if it, try to make a good memory of it.”

Yes, he wants UNLV fans to know, his first dunk as a Rebel is coming.

“It is coming,” said Adams, laughing. “I guarantee the dunk is coming. I said I’ll do it when my mother comes. Hopefully, I’ll get one.”

Reandre, known as “Mama Wink” throughout the Greater Houston Area, will attend Senior Night against the Falcons.

“Maybe more than one,” Adams said. “It’s just going to build up. I’ll dunk one. And if I get one down I’ll want to keep doing it again and again. I always have the opportunity. I’ll just take them this time.”

The charts

Adams (1,772 points) is eighth in career scoring at UNLV. Next up is Larry Anderson, who is in seventh place with 1,818 points. Armon Gilliam is sixth at 1,855.

Senior power forward Joe Darger has sunk 65 3-point shots this season. With four more, he’ll pass Terry for the 10th-best single season in Rebels history.

Darger has 194 bombs in his career. Adams has 198, which is fourth all-time at UNLV. Gerald Paddio is third with 205. Freddie Banks (229) and Anderson Hunt (283) top that list.

Home cookin’

UNLV had been averaging 13,155 at the Mack, its best average attendance since 13,347 was the average in 1998-99. Saturday’s crowd of 13,529 for Colorado State boosted the Rebels’ average to 13,180.

About five dozen plaza-level tickets in the Mack’s lower bowl were available as of Monday morning for Saturday’s game against the Cougars. Balcony tickets are $18.

A poster of seniors Adams, Joe Darger, René Rougeau, Mo Rutledge and Rob Ketchum will be given to the first 3,000 fans. UNLV officials have mentioned having a “Red Alert,” in which fans wear red, for the game.