REELING REBELS: UNLV's goals shot down

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After becoming the inaugural Mountain West Conference champions in 1999-00 and making the NCAA Tournament, the UNLV men's basketball team entered this season with its sights set on another Mountain West title and a return to the NCAA Tournament.

However, those dreams were destroyed recently when the NCAA placed the program on four years' probation for recruiting violations. As part of the NCAA's sanctions, which led to coach Bill Bayno's firing, the Rebels are banned from participating in postseason play this year. Barring a successful appeal, UNLV is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament or any other postseason event.

In addition, the Mountain West Conference -- whose tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tourney -- is refusing to let UNLV participate in this year's event for fear the Rebels might win it and not be able to accept the NCAA bid.

With their goals stripped away before conference play even began, the Rebels had to shift their focus to playing for pride under interim coach Max Good.

So far, the results have been mixed.

At press time UNLV, which finished 23-8 overall (10-4 in conference play) last year, was 3-1 under Good and 6-5 overall on the season. While the Rebels enter Sunday's game at Old Dominion on a three-game winning streak, they have played uninspired at times against inferior competition since the NCAA's ruling.

Of course, it's easy to understand the lethargy, considering the players already know -- regardless if they win the rest of their games -- they'll almost certainly miss the postseason for the first time in five years.

It wasn't supposed to be this way for the Rebels, who returned four starters and nine lettermen from last year's team, which ranked seventh in the nation in scoring offense.

UNLV features six seniors, including Danny Brotherson, Trevor Diggs, Kaspars Kambala and Sylvester Dotson.

Kambala, a 6-9 forward from Riga, Latvia, is UNLV's big man in the middle and top returning player. In his fourth season with the Rebels, Kambala was named to this season's Top-25 Preseason Wooden All-American list. He was a first-team All-Mountain West Conference honoree and was selected All-MWC Tournament last season.

Kambala started all 31 games for UNLV last year and was the team's leading scorer (18.5 ppg) and rebounder (9.3). His numbers are nearly identical this season, as he leads the team with 18.3 points and 9.6 rebounds through 10 games.

Brotherson, a 6-foot-4 guard from Bunkerville, is in his second season with the Rebels. He appeared in all 31 games for UNLV last season, averaging 8.1 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and ranked third on the team with 46 steals. Through 10 games this year, Brotherson was averaging 7.5 points and 3.7 rebounds.

Diggs, a 6-3 guard from Brooklyn, N.Y., is also in his second season with the Rebels. He was named to last year's All-Mountain West Newcomer Team as he appeared in all 31 games and was the team's second-leading scorer with a 15.1 average. He ranked seventh in the conference in scoring and led the Rebels with 54 steals.

Diggs once again leads the team in steals this season with 14 to go along with a 11.6 scoring average.

Dotson, a 6-7 forward from Detroit is also in his second season with UNLV. Last year, he played in 28 games, averaging 4.2 points and 3.8 rebounds and shooting 55 percent from the field. Dotson is coming off one of the best performances of his career against Pepperdine on Dec. 22, when he scored eight points on 4 of 6 shooting.

The other seniors are reserves Chris Popoola and Donovan Stewart.

In addition to the six-man senior class, UNLV returns two juniors in Vince Booker and Chris Richardson.

Booker, a 6-1 guard from Cheyenne High School, returns for his second season. After averaging just 3.3 minutes in 20 games last year, the former walk-on has worked his way into the regular rotation since Good took over.

Booker, who played just one minute this season before Bayno was fired, averaged 6 points and 20 minutes per game under Good. In a 69-64 victory over Pepperdine, Booker had career-highs of 11 points and 32 minutes, and his four free throws in the final minute helped clinch the victory for the Rebels.

Richardson, a 6-6 forward, returns for his third season with the Rebels. He played in 28 games for UNLV last season, shot 60 percent from the field and averaged 4.6 points and three rebounds.

Richardson, who sat out the first seven games this season because of an NCAA suspension, is averaging 6.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.

The Rebels return two sophomores in Dalron Johnson and Lou Kelly.

Johnson, a 6-9 forward from Los Angeles, Calif., was named the Mountain West Conference Co-Freshman of the Year last season and was named to the conference's Newcomer Team.

Johnson played in all 31 games last season and averaged 11.1 points, 6.9 rebounds and led the team in blocked shots with 43, which ranked fourth in the Mountain West.

This season, Johnson is averaging 11.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest.

Kelly, a 6-5 swingman, returns this season after receiving a medical redshirt for an injury to his right foot during last season. He only played in two games last season, suffering his injury in the first half of his second contest against New Mexico.

Although UNLV has a wealth of returning experience on its roster, the point guard position has almost none. Mark Dickel, who was named an Associated Press honorable mention All-American last season, has graduated. The former UNLV floor general was also named the Mountain West Conference Tournament's MVP and led the nation in assists last season with nine per game.

Lafonte Johnson, a 5-10 freshman guard, who joins the Rebels from Crispus Attucks School in York, Penn., and 6-foot junior guard Jevon Banks from Texas Tech have split time at point guard this season, along with Booker.

Johnson led his team in scoring with a 19-point average and assists with eight per game last season as it won the Prep School National Championship. He was named Prep Tournament MVP as Crispus Attucks finished the year 21-3.

Banks played at Midland (Texas) Junior College during the 1997-98 season before heading to Texas Tech.

The other newcomers to the squad this year are Noel Bloom, Gene Brennan, Jermaine Lewis and Omari Pearson.

Lewis, a 6-4 guard from Kilgore College in Texas, is the only one of the newcomers seeing significant playing time, ranking second on the team in scoring (13 ppg) while playing in every game.

Lewis was a second-team junior college All-American and the MVP of the Lone Star Conference. He averaged 26 points, eight rebounds and 2.8 assists last season. He also averaged four 3-point field goals per game and had 11 3-pointers in a game last year.

Bloom, a 6-7 forward from Moorpark Community College, will help push Kambala in practice.

Brennan, a 6-5 forward from NYIT, rejoins the Rebels after playing a year of Division II basketball.

Pearson, a 6-8 forward from Crispus Attucks School, averaged 16 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots per game for the Prep National Champions.