Kendall Wallace’s rehab takes next step as he rejoins Rebels on practice floor

By Ryan Greene

Thursday, March 3, 2011 | 2:15 a.m.

Seven months removed from surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, UNLV guard Kendall Wallace can already see the improvement in his golf swing.

"I don't go so aggressive at the ball anymore," he said with a grin. "I slowed down."

Wallace will have plenty of time down the road to refine his game on the course. The focus on getting back in touch with his skills on the basketball court right now takes precedence, and it cranked up a notch late last week.

Last Friday, the redshirt junior returned to team drills at practice and, unlike at the driving range, is hoping to get back to full speed as soon as possible.

"With the brace on, I feel pretty confident, feel that I can cut at any time," he said. "I just have to get used to the speed again.

"The guys were there for me, but being back out there and being able to play, it's fun. It's definitely a different feeling."

Wallace's averages last season of 19.1 minutes and 6.9 points per game were modest, but he's been sorely missed this season because of his specialty — 3-point shooting.

In 2009-10, he led the team with 61 connections from deep, while his 39.9 percent efficiency ranked second behind only Matt Shaw, whose UNLV career ended a year prematurely last spring following a failed drug test at the NCAA tournament.

Early on this season, it looked like the Rebels would be able to survive just fine without their resident 3-point specialist, but after a 9-0 start, the team's outside shooting hit a run of maddening inconsistency that lasted nearly two months.

Wallace could be counted on last year to come off of the bench and either provide a spark to the offense or help bust up an opponent's zone defense just by being out on the floor and commanding extra attention.

UNLV has now gotten back on track from beyond the arc over its last three games, finding a groove just at the right time.

"I always had confidence in our guys and their shooting abilities," said Wallace, who has offered tips here and there along the way while in street clothes. "We knew we weren't going to shoot that well all year, but after a few games (struggling), we started to think about it a little too much. We thought about it when we caught the ball, were hesitant to shoot it and now we've started to figure it out a little bit more.

"I think we've found our confidence now. Those two road wins (at Colorado State and New Mexico) last week were big."

Wallace uses words such as 'we' and 'our' because he said he never felt alienated from the team, which can sometimes be the case for guys rehabbing from season-ending injuries.

He's been too busy on his own lately to even worry about feeling like an outsider.

After suffering the injury during a pick-up game late in the summer, Wallace said it took him a day to come to terms with what lied ahead. He'd be in school a year longer than he had planned on and would essentially be working by himself all season while his teammates chased the program's fourth NCAA tournament berth in five years.

But physically, he dealt with other residual effects that come with a major knee injury.

"Initially, he put on some bad weight," strength and conditioning coach Jason Kabo said. "In January, we kicked it into a new gear, started a new program. That was really our starting point. That was when we noticed some changes and what we needed to do. I told him I didn't want to go into the summer trying to lose fat."

The added weight on Wallace could be noticed in his face, but as 2011 began, Kabo and team trainer Dave Tomchek started getting Wallace working harder on the treadmill, doing stairs exercises in the Thomas & Mack Center during practices and mixing in some more aggressive shooting drills.

An added bonus was extra time in the weight room, which Kabo believes could help Wallace become more diverse as a senior.

"The biggest thing for me was to make him a little stronger, because he's not the most physical athlete in the world," he said. "Obviously, he's not going to be a body-builder or anything, but we tried to get him close to the point where he's the strongest he's ever been because we have all that time off.

"Hopefully we can get him to play defense a little better."

Wallace will be needed some in that more well-rounded role early in the 2011-12 season. UNLV will lose perimeter stalwarts Tre'Von Willis and Derrick Jasper to graduation and won't have Marquette transfer Reggie Smith available until the end of the fall semester, per NCAA rules.

Handling a bit of an expanded role is something Wallace is confident he can handle after chugging through rehab just to get back to this point.

"It's a long, long road back, and there are days where you don't want to do it, but you've got to get yourself up out of bed and have the discipline to go out there and do rehab, get into shape and root your teammates on," Wallace said. "You've got to think about the positives that are coming out of it."