No. 24 UNLV steps out of national spotlight to face Illinois State

By Ryan Greene

Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Checking in at No. 24 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll this week and fresh off of four strong victories in front of national TV audiences, the 2010-11 UNLV men’s basketball team has officially introduced itself to the nation.

Now, it’s time to go incognito for a little while.

The Rebels (6-0) begin a three-game stretch on Wednesday night at Illinois State (5-1) where none of the action will be seen live by anyone outside of the arena. The game is part of the second installment of the Mountain West-Missouri Valley Challenge.

They’ll be judged on how they play when nobody’s watching compared to when many were.

If they can do so, the Rebels will be bucking a trend in recent years where they haven’t quite played their strongest basketball after coming up with big, emotional wins and cracking the Top 25 polls.

“We can’t let it happen,” sophomore guard Anthony Marshall said. “We’re a lot more mature, with only one freshman on the team. The rest of us were on the team last year and know what it feels like in that position. We’ve got to go in there and play 40 minutes of good basketball. We can’t come out slow and let them get momentum, or it could be a long night for us. We have to go in there with the mindset of making it hard for them from the beginning.”

Making things difficult for opponents, especially on the offensive end, has become the trademark early this season for Lon Kruger’s club. Through six games, opponents are shooting just 34.9 percent against the Rebels, while they’ve totaled 54 assists and 104 turnovers.

Like UNLV, Illinois State is a balanced offensive club, with seven players averaging at least 6.5 points per game.

However, this is by far the Redbirds’ biggest test to date.

The 5-1 record looks strong, but it has come with wins over SIU-Edwardsville, Tennessee State, South Dakota, Louisiana-Monroe and Jacksonville State. Their only setback was a 63-54 loss at Arkansas-Little Rock on Nov. 21.

The two schools have not met since 1977, which, oddly enough, was when the tie between the two current coaching staffs was born.

Kruger was an assistant on the staff at Kansas State in the late 1970s that tried to recruit current ISU coach Tim Jankovich to Manhattan.

Jankovich ultimately went to Washington State, but after a year, he transferred to  K-State, where he started for coach Jack Hartman at point guard for three seasons.

After graduating in 1982, he went down south to join Kruger’s staff at Texas-Pan American — Kruger’s first head coaching gig — for a year as a graduate assistant.

“He was a really good player,” Kruger said. “Kind of the coach-on-the-floor type. It’s no surprise that he’s turned out to be a good coach.”

Jankovich’s first go-around as a head coach didn’t go so hot, as he was just 53-57 at North Texas from 1993-97. In 2002, he hooked on with Bill Self at Illinois then followed him to Kansas before taking over at ISU in 2007.

So far, in four seasons, he’s 75-32. The Redbirds went 22-11 a year ago, but were bounced from the NIT by eventual champion Dayton.

The Rebels will present a major challenge to a young team that is stocked with four freshmen and six sophomores. The regular rotation includes three key seniors in guards Alex Rubin and Austin Hill and 6-foot-8 forward Blake Mishler. Two of the team’s three leading scorers this season, though, are just sophomores — 6-9, 240-pound Jackie Carmichael (11.8 ppg) and sharp-shooting 6-3 guard Trey Blue (9.3).

UNLV had a quick turnaround from its late Sunday night arrival back in Las Vegas from the 76 Classic in Anaheim, Calif. The team had a light practice on Monday that closely resembled the walk-through it held on Saturday between victories over Murray State and Virginia Tech.

The Illinois State trip is just a piece of a grueling stretch of the non-conference schedule. The Rebels departed for Peoria, Ill., on Tuesday and then made the bus trip to Normal. After returning from Wednesday’s game, the turnaround is again quick, as they’ll leave for Saturday’s game against Nevada-Reno on Friday.

“We’re gone pretty much two straight weeks,” sophomore forward Quintrell Thomas said. “It’s something you have to do. It comes with the territory. You have to just roll with it and take care of business.

“Everybody has to stay more focused. We have to come in and be more energetic. We need to definitely come out and treat them like we would any other team.”

If the Rebels come out and play the same way they have in each of their first six outings, then the Las Vegas oddsmakers could look smart for setting an opening line in the game of UNLV by 9.5 points.

Kruger’s team proved this weekend just how advanced in terms of athleticism, physicality and experience it is from last year.

On Wednesday, it can prove to any remaining skeptics that it’s also more mature and ready to handle the national attention.

Even if no one is watching.

“This group, if you’re judging it to this point, had an emotionally big win over Wisconsin, then came back to regroup and play really hard at a neutral site,” Kruger said. “That gives you encouragement that they’re going to handle it well.”