Assistant hoops coach Lew Hill, like Rebels, hungry to win

By Rob Miech

Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

UNLV assistant basketball coach Lew Hill knows it’s early. The public gets its first look at the 2009-10 team Friday night and full-bore practice begins Saturday.

Yet, in the past several weeks of conditioning, Hill has noticed something different about this version of the Rebels compared to last season’s squad.

“The hunger,” Hill said. “Two years ago, when people didn’t know we’d be good, that was the edge they played with. Last season, people projected us to be good and we didn’t play with that edge.

“I think this team has gotten that edge back.”

So has Hill, who left the Thomas & Mack Center on a stretcher with chest pain in February after an overtime defeat to San Diego State in one of the scarier scenes in recent UNLV memory.

“I remember walking out of the arena and seeing him in the ambulance,” said guard Derrick Jasper. “It was real scary for him and his family.”

After a few days of tests and observation at Sunrise Hospital, Hill returned to the Rebels with a doctor’s list of lifestyle changes. At the Mack on Wednesday, Hill said he’s doing fine.

“I feel good,” he said. “Oh yeah, I feel really good. There was a lot going on, stuff I care not to share. It was just a whole group of things.”

Hill acknowledged that many were concerned about him.

“I am great and thank you for worrying about me,” he said when asked what he’d like to tell UNLV fans and others interested in his welfare. “I am blessed. I’m happy and I feel good, and I’m ready to get after it.”

UNLV coach Lon Kruger, who underwent heart bypass surgery in August 2007, said such a health concern makes most people pause.

“Anytime something like that happens, it gets your attention,” Kruger said. “It makes you step back and maybe more fully appreciate the opportunity you have and also be a little more careful with your health and how you’re taking care of things.

“Lew seems very enthusiastic about the year and excited about the guys on the squad.”

Kruger coached Kansas State against Hill, a point guard, and Wichita State in 1986-87 and 1987-88, when Hill helped the Shockers reach consecutive NCAA tournaments.

Hill and the Shockers won the first game, 63-60, in Wichita, and Kruger and the ’Cats took the second, 58-47, in Manhattan.

Wichita State, coached by Kruger pal Eddie Fogler, lost in the first round of the NCAAs in 1987 to St. John’s and in 1988 to DePaul.

“Eddie was always positive about Lew,” Kruger said. “Lew was a very good competitor, one of those guys who knew the game well and knew how to play.”

When Kruger took over at UNLV, he hired Hill away from Texas A&M, which had gone 7-22 (including 0-16 in the Big 12 Conference) in 2003-04. Aggies coach Melvin Watkins had always raved about Hill to Kruger.

“Lew does a great job, absolutely,” Kruger said. “He’s very conscious about helping the guys, both on and off the court, and he works extremely hard at it.”

Hill’s wife, Renee, gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Elle, last month, but he declined to discuss the family addition.

“It’s great,” he said, “but I’m private on that.”

Hill is very public about his outlook for the Rebels this season.

“They had a great preseason,” he said. “They were working and getting better, and they’ll come out and do the same thing. It’s a good group. Great chemistry. They have great care for one another.”

Hill tutors the UNLV big men and he’s well aware that it had the worst rebounding edge, at minus-3 a game, last season in the Mountain West Conference.

That was 276th in the nation.

“When we won 27 games,” Hill said, “we didn’t rebound, so ...”

He laughed a bit and said he was just being funny, but he’s accurate. When UNLV went 27-8 in 2007-08, it had a -1.7 rebounding margin. That was seventh in the MWC and No. 242 in the country.

His unit will be bolstered by the additions of 6-foot-11 freshman Carlos Lopez, 6-8 junior Matt Shaw, who sat out last season after undergoing knee surgery, and 6-8 sophomore Chace Stanback, a transfer from UCLA.

Brice Massamba, a 6-10 sophomore, and 6-8 senior Darris Santee are the returnees.

“We have to gang rebound,” Hill said. “By that I mean, guards have to help the bigs and the bigs have to do their share. We have to gang rebound everything. It has to be a collective, a team. We’ve just got to do more.”

He declined to pigeonhole Santee as a ‘four,’ or power forward, or talk about Lopez pushing Massamba as the starting center.

“There’s no ‘four’ or ‘five,’ we just have players,” Hill said. “That’s this system. If you want to give them numbers, you can. But it ain’t how we judge it. Just go out and play.

“We don’t have numbers. Coach puts you in a position to play to your talent and your ability … We just play, which is good about what coach Kruger does. We don’t give you a title, per se.”

With that, he summed up his feelings about what’s about to take place.

“It’ll be fun.”