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twitterLIVE FROM FIRSTLOOK 2009:
UNLV completes inaugural practice at FirstLook 2009
Matt Shaw blocked shot preserves 39-38 victory for Black squad
Friday, Oct. 16, 2009 | 10:20 p.m.
UNLV Basketball: First Look
Rebels fans got their first taste of the 2009-10 UNLV basketball season at First Look, an intrasquad scrimmage, Friday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The end
The stats for tonight are a bit skewed since players switched sides here and there, but there was plenty to take away from the first practice/scrimmage of the year for the 2009-10 UNLV hoops squad.
— Junior forward Matt Shaw, back from an ACL injury which had him sidelined all of last season, swatted a Kendall Wallace layup try at the buzzer to preserve a 39-38 victory for the Black squad.
— Shaw ran the floor well, as did sophomore big man Brice Massamba, who shed some serious weight in the offseason and is looking great. He scored in a variety of ways and looks to be vying for a potential starting spot.
— Of the freshmen, former Findlay forward Carlos Lopez looked to take the most initiative, pulling the trigger on a couple of three-point tries and displaying some nifty ball moves underneath.
— Sophomore guard Oscar Bellfield hit a trio of threes.
— Derrick Jasper is definitely in full command of this offense, and it'll be interesting to see how he functions alongside UCLA transfer Chace Stanback once he's back from a turned ankle, which kept him out tonight and will have him out until early next week.
For full recaps of tonight's action at the Mack, including stories, photos and video, stay tuned to lasvegassun.com/rebels.
5:20, first half
Sorry for the delay during the pre-scrimmage festivities. There were some dunks and cheer performances, and they're now down to business.
The reason for the delay was because I was hunting down Larry Johnson before he exited the building for the night. He was great, and stay tuned to lasvegassun.com/rebels in the morning to hear what he had to say.
Anyways, the White squad, which started a lineup of Derrick Jasper, Oscar Bellfield, Tre'Von Willis, Matt Shaw and Darris Santee, currently leads the Black squad, 16-11.
However, the brightest standout so far is sophomore forward Brice Massamba, who has six points tonight, and after losing a ton of weight during the offseason, looks like a new man.
He hit a nifty baseline jumper, made a sweet post move for another bucket and looked light on his feet in the process.
He's looked good in the absence of fellow sophomore Chace Stanback, who is on the bench in a gray hoodie. The UCLA transfer is expected to be back by the middle of next week after turning his ankle in a pick-up game a couple of days ago.
Pregame, part deux
Allegedly, Grandmama is addressing the team.
If you'll remember, legendary UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian said in one of his Shark Bytes blogs on lasvegassun.com/rebels recently that Johnson should be welcomed back into the program with a hand extended out to him.
Senior walk-on guard Steve 'Chopper' Jones just led the team onto the floor, and here are a couple of quick observations ...
-One name you won't find in your program just yet is that of junior guard Mychal Martinez, a walk-on guard who is from Las Vegas and played at The Meadows School. He spent the last two years playing at Yavapai Junior College down in Arizona.
-A couple of mohawks being sported, by sophomore forward Brice Massamba and sophomore forward Quintrell Thomas — a Kansas transfer. Speaking of Thomas, he is in full uniform, which is odd since he's so soon removed from shoulder surgery.
-The new black practice unis are pretty slick, can't lie.
I guess someone listened.
As for a couple of minor predictions for tonight's scrimmage, I'm going to be keeping an eye on freshman guard Anthony Marshall from right down the street, where he graduated from Mojave High.
I think he's the sleeper on this team, and could crack the rotation for some minutes very early on in the season. I'm interested to see how he looks when running with the veteran teammates.
Pregame
Welcome inside the Thomas & Mack Center.
Feels like it's been a little while since you've heard that, huh?
Well, it's going to be a fun night in here, as the 2009-10 UNLV hoops squad makes its debut in front of, what I'm estimating right now, will be a crowd of about 4,000.
And it's worth butting in right now to point out that Grandmama himself, Larry Johnson, just walked in in a crisp white pearl-snap shirt and headed up the tunnel towards the Rebels locker room. It was quite a sight just to see him in the building.
It's a pleasant night to be in here. There's no funky smell lingering, as the bulls and horses have yet to take over the Mack. A flip chart was just handed out with this year's team photo. And I'll tell you, my first thought was 'Wow, this actually looks like an intimidating basketball team.'
Lots of anticipation, and I'll be bringing you the action all night. Stay tuned.
Ryan Greene can be reached at ryan.greene@lasvegassun.com or 702-948-7844.
Discussion: 7 comments so far…
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Dec. 12, 4:00 p.m. (PST)
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- NCAA: Odds | Schedule | Stats
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ryan, no mention for santee??
in my opinion he was the most improved player and stood out more than anyone other than d-jazz.
I thought Santee looked pretty solid, but he'll certainly have his work cut out for him for PT. I think Massamba has to be an early candidate for most improved on this squad. Looks like a totally different player.
I thought the team looked good. I was happy with our bigs playing. I thought it was odd to see them out there given how we finished the season with Joe jumping and four guards on the floor.
It was incredible to see LJ and was very happy to hear and see the reaction to him. It's funny you mention the call for him in an earlier Shark Byte, because that is exactly what I thought of when he was introduced.
I also really like watching O's face when they showed the video replay of the end of the Louiseville game!!
Too bad more folks didn't show up, but the crowd was pretty darn good. GO REBS!!
pretty good crowd.... PLEASE tell me they are going to change the scoreboard this year. was like a puzzle last year to see how many boards or assists someone had
is the writer of this column calling the two sides the "black and white" teams? or, is that coming from the team itself? For years and years, the two squads were the red and white, which are the dominant colors of the school logo...(legally, the school charter states the colors to be Scarlet and Silver) black was always avoided due to the gang connotations of black and red; then again, putting black on a red and white uniform has sold much more team merchandise to teens who want to be junior thuglettes... (worked well that way for Maryland, Arkansas, Houston, Chicago Bulls during Jordan years.) Seems naming them the 'black' squad might not be something the school went for as opposed to what you observed. p.s. it's not "The Mack" only. The family of E.Parry Thomas shouldn't be slighted at your sense of writer's liberty. Past nicknames, even nationally televised games, had the stadium nicknamed, among others, "The T & M" and the "Thomas Mack-muffin" (building's resemblance to the breakfast sandwich), though i'm sure that one will slight Jerome Mack's family's opinion of how their patriarch is currently being honored. (by the way, Thomas and Mack 'really' built las vegas, they were mormon bankers from utah, flush with mormon cash to invest, who came south and started valley bank and created millions in hotel/resort construction loans--Steve Wynn's benefactors and mentors as well.
Johnpinnv....Why do you have to make a racial issue out of the color of the jersey? Who cares? It's a color of a jersey. Your a pinhead.
Great to be there and see the team in action. Brice looked good during the game and practice where he had a couple nice dunks. It was great to get to meet all the player after the game, in talking to them we saw the good character and personality this team has which is a big thing to having good chemistry. Can't wait for 11/14!!!