UNLV’s basketball program has enjoyed some recruiting success in the Houston area in recent years including guards Wink Adams and Michael Umeh.

Runnin’ Rebel head coach Lon Kruger can only hope that lanky 6-foot-10 center prospect Henry Buckley measures up to that standard before he’s done.

The senior from Wheatley High School in Houston, who quietly took an official recruiting trip to UNLV this past weekend, signed a national letter of intent with the Rebels on Tuesday.

Buckley, who averaged seven blocks and 7.3 rebounds en route to first team all-District 22-4A honors in Houston, received a late recruiting rush following a strong showing in several Texas spring events.

“He had several mid and high major schools interested in him but I don’t want to name them,” Keith White, head coach of the Houston Hoop Stars AAU team, said. “UNLV is getting a kid who really works hard and wants to get better. He’s a shot-blocker who runs the floor well and also is a really good rebounder and team player.”

The one knock on Buckley is that he tips the scales at just 200 pounds. For that reason he will attend prep school for a year, most likely The Patterson School in Lenoir, N.C., before enrolling at UNLV in the fall of 2010.

“He’s pretty thin right now and needs to get stronger,” White said. “He needs more experience. He’s a late-bloomer. But he’s a kid who will work really hard to get better. I think he’s going to be a really good player before he’s done there.”

On the surface Buckley sounds like another raw shot-blocker who eventually starred for Kruger at UNLV … Joel Anthony.

“Joel was much bigger and stronger when he came here (from junior college),” Kruger said. “But Henry has a lot of upside to him. The thing that is impressive about him is that he has such a great attitude and realizes that he is going to need to work hard to get to where he wants to be. He just needs time.”

Buckley’s stock shot up during the recent spring “Ice Breaker” Tourney in Houston. Eteamz.com called Buckley “the state’s best kept defensive weapon.”

“He had several games where he had double digits in both blocks and rebounds,” White said.

ESPN.com’s Insider gave the following evaluation of Buckley last October:

“October, 2008: Buckley is an extra long and thin athlete. He has good bounce, runs the floor with ease and changes shots with his length on the defense end of the floor. He finishes over defenders by extending over them with good touch and body control around the basket. He is active and a good rebounder on both ends. In the post he showed a right hand jump hook over his left shoulder. Buckley has good upside but must add strength to raise his level of recruiting. Overall a very intriguing prospect.”

White said Buckley will play for his Houston Hoops Stars team in the Reebok Invitational Tournament in Las Vegas on July 22-26.

UNLV released its 2009-10 men’s basketball non-conference schedule this afternoon and it appears to be an attractive one for Runnin’ Rebel fans.

The Rebels will host Rick Pitino’s defending Big East champion Louisville Cardinals on Saturday, Nov. 28, in a rematch of last year’s nationally televised New Year’s Eve thriller won by UNLV, 56-55. The time of the game has not been released but will likely be around 1 p.m. because the Rebel football team hosts San Diego State later that day at 6 p.m. at Sam Boyd Stadium.

In-state rival Nevada visits the Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday, Nov. 18. Other key local games include Southern Illinois on Nov. 21 in the inaugural Challenge Series between Mountain West Conference and Missouri Valley Conference schools, Patriot League runnerup Holy Cross on Nov. 25 and Big 12 power Kansas State on Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Orleans Arena.

The road schedule includes games at Arizona (Dec. 2), Santa Clara (Dec. 5), Southern Utah (Dec. 15) as well as a spot in the eight-team Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu (Dec. 22-25). That made-for-ESPN tournament also features schools like USC, Saint Mary’s, SMU, College of Charleston and Hawaii.

The Rebels once again open their season with an exhibition against Washburn (Kan.) on Tuesday, Nov. 10.

The marquee game, however, will be the Nov. 28 contest against Louisville and one-time UNLV head coaching candidate Pitino, who left the court at Freedom Hall on Dec. 31 without shaking UNLV head coach Lon Kruger’s hand after his team’s stunning home loss.

“I think that got kind of blown out of proportion,” Kruger said of the incident.

As for the overall schedule …

“It’s a challenging schedule that will prepare us for conference play,” Kruger said. “It’s a good mix of strong programs from bigger conferences along with competitive programs from smaller conferences. We’ll be tested at home, on the road and at neutral sites.”

Here’s the entire non-conference schedule. The Mountain West Conference usually doesn’t release it’s part of the schedule until July.

Day Date Opponent Location
Tues. Nov. 10 Washburn (exhibition) Las Vegas
Sat. Nov. 14 Pittsburg State Las Vegas
Wed. Nov. 18 Nevada, Reno Las Vegas
Sat. Nov. 21 Southern Illinois Las Vegas
Wed. Nov. 25 Holy Cross Las Vegas
Sat. Nov. 28 Louisville Las Vegas
Wed. Dec. 2 at Arizona Tucson, Ariz.
Sat. Dec. 5 at Santa Clara Santa Clara, Calif.
Sat. Dec. 12 vs. Kansas State (at Orleans Arena) Las Vegas
Tues. Dec. 15 at Southern Utah Cedar City, Utah
Thurs. Dec. 17 Weber State Las Vegas
Sat. Dec. 19 South Carolina-Upstate Las Vegas
Tues. Dec. 22 Diamond Head Classic * Honolulu, Hawaii
Wed. Dec. 23 Diamond Head Classic * Honolulu, Hawaii
Fri. Dec. 25 Diamond Head Classic * Honolulu, Hawaii

* Eight-team tournament run by ESPN Regional Television, Inc., a subsidiary of ESPN. Participants include: host Hawaii, UNLV, USC, SMU, College of Charleston, Saint Mary’s and Western Michigan. The eighth team is yet to be determined.

BULLETIN: UNLV signed 6-10 center Henry Buckley of Houston Wheatley to a national letter of intent today. Buckley will attend prep school next fall, however, and not enroll at UNLV until the fall semester in 2010.

UNLV hosted 6-foot-10 “sleeper” center prospect Henry Buckley of Wheatley High in Houston this past weekend.

Buckley, a slender (200 pounds) long-armed shot blocker who is expected to attend prep school at The Patterson School in Lenoir, N.C., next fall, was a first team all-District 22-4A selection as a senior when he averaged 6.9 blocks and 7.3 rebounds per game. One Texas scouting service ranked him as the No. 17 senior in the greater Houston area this year just ahead of 6-8 New Mexico-bound Matt Staff of Houston Memorial.

Buckley’s stock shot up during the recent spring “Ice Breaker” Tourney in Houston. Eteamz.com called Buckley “the state’s best kept defensive weapon.”

ESPN.com’s Insider gave the following evaluation of Buckley last October:

“October, 2008: Buckley is an extra long and thin athlete. He has good bounce, runs the floor with ease and changes shots with his length on the defense end of the floor. He finishes over defenders by extending over them with good touch and body control around the basket. He is active and a good rebounder on both ends. In the post he showed a right hand jump hook over his left shoulder. Buckley has good upside but must add strength to raise his level of recruiting. Overall a very intriguing prospect.”

If Buckley does enroll in prep school as expected, he would have to sign a letter of intent with the Rebels either during the early signing period in November or next April. …

Although all indications are that 6-foot-8 power forward Quintrell Thomas will eventually transfer from Kansas to UNLV, the former Top 100 recruit from St. Patrick High School in Elizabeth, New Jersey added a recruiting trip to Iona today.

Thomas has also visited UNLV, St. Joseph’s and Siena and is reportedly interested in St. Bonaventure as well. The New York Daily News reported that Iona currently does not have a scholarship available to give if Thomas did decide to transfer there.

Stay tuned. …

Look for UNLV to release its 2009-10 basketball schedule early next week.

Last time we checked in on Lon Kruger’s squad they still had two home games to fill. Once of those went to Big Sky power Weber State. The other, as we speculated here earlier, will be a rematch with defending Big East champion Louisville on Thanksgiving weekend.

Wonder if Rick Pitino will stick around to shake hands with Kruger after this one? He didn’t when the teams last met on New Year’s Eve in Freedom Hall after the Rebels pulled a stunning 56-55 upset.

It will be a busy Saturday for Rebel fans. Mike Sanford’s football squad hosts San Diego State that night in its regular season finale.

The Runnin’ Rebels will also play Kansas State in neutral court game at the Orleans Arena during their rodeo break from the Thomas & Mack Center. Road games include Arizona, Santa Clara, Southern Utah and the made-for-ESPN Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu on Dec. 22-25. USC, Saint Mary’s, SMU, Hawaii, College of Charleston, Western Michigan and a team to be determined make up the rest of that field. …

Still no official word on the transfer of 6-foot-8 Kansas forward Quintrell Thomas to UNLV but all signs point to Thomas eventually wearing Rebel red. Rumor has it St. Bonaventure may also be in the picture. He also visited Siena and St. Joseph’s. …

Former Rebel 7-foot center Beas Hamga, a 5-star recruit by rivals.com who transferred to Valparaiso in January, is on the move again, this time to junior college. “He thinks there’s a better fit some other place,” Valpo head coach Homer Drew told the Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune. “We were expecting a lot out of him. He’s a 7-footer who can shoot the basketball and we thought it was a good fit from the standpoint that we could help him get better and he could help us get better.”

Kind of get the feeling that Beas is getting some poor advice from his inner-circle? From UNLV to Valpo to junior college in the span of five months is what most would classify as a downward spiral. …

UNLV announced this afternoon that a memorial service for former Runnin’ Rebel basketball star Glen Gondrezick will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. inside the Thomas & Mack Center.

The public is invited to the service which will be the only public celebration for Gondrezick.  Details of a family funeral are still being finalized.

The graduate of Boulder (Colo.) High School was one of Jerry Tarkanian’s first recruits at UNLV and lettered from 1973-74 through the 1976-77 season. Gondrezick went on to finish as the 16th-leading scorer in UNLV basketball history with 1,311 points and played a major role in the Runnin’ Rebels advancing to their first NCAA Final Four in 1977.

UNLV retired Gondo’s No. 25 jersey on Dec. 27, 1997. He was also inducted in the school’s Hall of Fame in 1987.

UNLV is still putting the finishing touches on next season’s Runnin Rebels non-conference basketball schedule with two more home games to be filled.

One of those will likely be filled by a Division II opponent so as to not hurt the team’s all important RPI (D-II games don’t count against the RPI). The other is expected to be against a marquee opponent. And UNLV head coach Lon Kruger said Tuesday that he is “hopeful” that marquee opponent could be Louisville.

Think that game would create a little bit of a buzz?

Louisville head coach Rick Pitino once showed strong interest in the Runnin’ Rebel head coaching position before taking the Cardinals’ job instead. And of course there’s the matter of UNLV’s 56-55 upset of the then No. 18-rated Cardinals last New Year’s Eve at historic Freedom Hall, one of the biggest wins of the Kruger Era of UNLV hoops.

Pitino left the court swiftly after that one without shaking Kruger’s hand, an incident the UNLV coach quickly downplayed.

Lets hope the two schools can shake hands soon on a rematch for this year at the Thomas & Mack.

High-flying swingman DeShawn Mitchell, a fan favorite for his highlight-reel dunks and shot blocks, was granted his release by UNLV head basketball coach Lon Kruger this morning.

“I really enjoyed my year at UNLV and wish the coaches and players nothing but success in the future,” Mitchell said in a prepared release from UNLV. “It is important for me to look for a situation that will provide me with a more significant role and more playing time.”

The 6-foot-4 Mitchell, who played in 21 games this past season, played an average of 5.4 minutes per game. He averaged 1.6 points and 0.8 rebounds per contest, while shooting 50 percent from the field (14-for-28). However, he struggled shooting from the perimeter and connected on just 46.4 percent (6-of-13) of his free throws.

“We really appreciate DeShawn’s effort this past year,” Kruger said. “We hope he finds a place that is a good fit for him so he can play a bigger role in the future.”

The departure of Mitchell gives UNLV two open scholarships for 2009 to go along with one in 2010. Kruger could use those two for unsigned prep or junior college recruits, transfers or hold onto them for 2010 to help balance out his classes.

Former Findlay Prep basketball star Victor Rudd, once a key recruiting target for UNLV, has decided to sign with Arizona State according to Scout.com.

“It just came down to what was right for me,”  Rudd told Scout.com’s DevilsDigest site. “It was between Arizona State and Arizona and I believe that it (ASU) is the right place for me. I think I can rally help them up front.”

UNLV, Gonzaga and Marquette were among the other early suitors for the 6-foot-8 Rudd, who attended a Runnin’ Rebel practice in February. However, he was booted off the eventual national high school championship Findlay Prep a few weeks later following an altercation with another Pilot player.

Rudd was suspended from the team and was told he would have to apologize to his teammates before he would be reinstated. However, he left school and returned to his home in California instead.

A number of schools backed off Rudd after the incident. Academics were also reportedly a question mark for Rudd.

UNLV still has one scholarship to give but UNLV head coach Lon Kruger hinted that could eventually go to a transfer.

Good news on the UNLV basketball recruiting front. Mojave High School guard Anthony Marshall, rated one of the nation’s top 75 prospects by Rebel Nation recruiting guru Bob Gibbons of Lenoir, N.C., today was named the Nevada state player of the year by Gatorade.

Since 1985, The Gatorade Company has recognized high school athletes in various sports, based on athletic and academic achievements. On Tuesday, the Boy’s Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year awards were announced.

The National Gatorade Player of the Year has yet to be announced.

Marshall signed a national letter of intent with UNLV during the early signing period in November and is expected to battle for immediate playing time on Lon Kruger’s squad next fall.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It was a fitting ending to a season of “almosts.”
The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (21-11), who almost made it three trips to the NCAA Tournament only to come up short because of a late season slide fueled by poor shooting, almost rallied from a 20-point second half deficit before eventually falling 70-60 to the Kentucky Wildcats in their first round National Invitation Tournament game on Tuesday night at famed Memorial Coliseum.
UNLV, behind some inspired bench play by senior Mo Rutledge (10 points, 5 rebounds) and Kendall Wallace (6 points), put together a 19-4 run midway through the second half to cut Kentucky’s lead to just three points, 60-57, with 4:02 remaining.
But thanks to some sloppy ball handling and poor shooting, the Rebels were outscored 10-0 down the stretch before senior guard Rene Rougeau ended the game — and UNLV’s season — with a meaningless 3-pointer with just 16 seconds to go.
Still, considering how badly things were going after 30 minutes, the fact the Rebels didn’t toss in the towel and had the sellout crowd of 8,327 squirming in their seats at the end could at least go down in the category of moral victories for Lon Kruger’s squad.
“It was an opportunity to make one of two choices, and our guys fought like crazy,” Kruger said.
“Give credit to Mo Rutledge and Kendall Wallace,” Rougeau said. “They really came off the bench and gave everyone some fire. Everyone was hustling and getting on the boards. That is how we should have been playing.”
Future NBA guard Jodie Meeks scored six of his game-high 19 points to key the late Kentucky spurt while all-SEC sophomore forward Patrick Patterson added a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
“We cut the lead down to three but we never quite got over the hump,” Kruger said. “We didn’t get the looks we wanted to and they did a good job of converting their free throws like good teams do. Meeks and Patterson are really good players. The more you watch them on film the more you grow to appreciate how hard they work and how tough they are.”
In what became an all-too-familiar pattern during the final two months of the season, UNLV once again dug itself too big of a hole to climb out of thanks to poor markmenship.
The Rebels shot below 40-percent (21-of-54, 38.9 percent) from the floor for the sixth time in seven games and were especially inept en route to a 36-24 halftime deficit.
UNLV, which actually jumped out to an early 9-2 lead, shot just 33.3 percent (10-of-30) from the floor and connected on just 3-of-17 3-pointers (17.6 percent) in the first half. Even worse, the Rebels were a dreadful 1-of-6 (16.7 percent) at the free throw line. UNLV also missed 11 straight treys after Joe Darger connected from behind the arc to give UNLV a 3-2 lead with 17:47 to go.
The Rebels bounced back to sink 7-of-8 foul shots in the second half but finished at just 57.1 percent (8-of-14) for the game.
“The whole season has been up and down,” senior guard Wink Adams, who led the Rebels with 14 points, said. “We have been struggling shooting the ball.”
Still Adams, who finished his career No. 6 on the all-time UNLV career scoring list with 1,875 points, was happy his team scrapped till the bitter end in his final game as a Rebel.
“I’m proud of my team for the way we fought,” Adams said. “We did all we could do to try to win the game. It always feels bad to lose, but at least you know in your heart that you played 100 percent.”

LEXINGTON — It would have been quite easy for UNLV to toss in the towel on its season early in the second half here after Kentucky took a 20-point lead, 50-30, on back-by-back dunks by Perry Stevenson and Patrick Patterson with 16:00 left.

But the Runnin’ Rebels, behind a pair of 3-pointers by both Wink Adams and Mo Rutledge, have rallied to cut the Wildcat lead to six points, 60-54, with 7:03 left, thanks to an 18-4 run.

Adams (14 points) and Rutledge (10 points), who missed Sunday’s team banquet because he was sick, have led the Rebel comeback before a noisy sellout crowd of 8,327 at Memorial Coliseum.

LEXINGTON — UNLV’s shooting woes, a major reason for the team’s late-season slide, have continued in the first half of tonight’s first round NIT game with Kentucky here at Memorial Coliseum.

The Rebels trail the Wildcats at halftime, 36-24.

UNLV has played well defensively for most of the game holding Kentucky’s two all-SEC performers, guard Jodie Meeks and forward Patrick Patterson, to seven and six points respectively. And they did it without first team all-MWC defender Rene Rougeau for most of the half after Rougeau picked up his second foul at the 13:30 mark.

But the Runnin’ Rebels, who jumped out to an early 9-2 lead, shot just 33.3 percent (10-of-30) from the floor and connected on just 3-of-17 3-pointers (17.6 percent).

Even worse, the Rebels were a dreadful 1-of-6 (16.7 percent) at the free throw line.

The Rebels missed 11 straight treys after Joe Darger connected from behind the arc to give UNLV a 3-2 lead with 17:47 to go.

Kentucky ended the half with a 17-6 run over the final 7:05 with UNLV’s only points coming on a pair of treys by Kendall Wallace and Darger.

Darger has 8 points to lead the Rebels.

LEXINGTON — If Kentucky head coach Billy Gillespie is to be believed, the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels can expect a “great” effort from the Wildcats in their first round NIT game at Memorial Coliseum here tonight.

That even though many Kentucky faithful were none too happy with how the season ended for their beloved Wildcats, who lost nine of their last 13 games and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991.

“Exiled to the Elba of college basketball,” is how Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald-Leader put it.

But Gillespie said that he believes his team “not very far away from being a great team, a special team. I wouldn’t doubt that it’ll happen in this tournament.”

Gillespie didn’t identify which game in the NIT but its win or go home tonight.

Speculation is that Gillespie, brought in to beef up the talent after the school forced out Tubby Smith, could be on the hot seat after just two years.

The fans are fired up for tonight’s game, the first played in 7,800 seat Memorial Coliseum since the team moved into Rupp Arena after the 1976 season. Rupp is hosting the state high school tournament this week and was unavailable. But the game sold out quickly despite the fact many people had to line up in the rain on Monday morning to get tickets.

These fans come early, too. The parking lot was filled about 75 minutes before tipoff. So expect a wild and crazy atmosphere tonight.

The fact that UNLV, one of the top seven or eight teams not to make the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, got only a No. 5 seed in the Creighton Bracket of the NIT later that day was a big surprise for many around the Thomas & Mack Center who were hoping to host a game Tuesday night.

The top four seeds in each region get to host a first round game. The Rebels? They have to fly all the way to Lexington, Ky., to play Tuesday night against perennial SEC heavyweight Kentucky. The game will start at 6:30 PST and be televised by ESPN.

But some Rebels, including team MVP Rene Rougeau, knew before the bracket was announced they would be headed east.

“It’s funny,” Rougeau said Sunday night. “I was with Chace (Stanback) and Matt (Shaw) got a text from Derrick saying that we were playing at Kentucky. And this was before the TV show had even started.”

Derrick is guard Derrick Jasper, a two-year starter for Kentucky who sat out this season at UNLV after deciding to transfer closer to his Paso Robles, Calif., home.

Obviously Jasper still has some pretty good sources back in the Bluegrass State.

“He’s going to be our best scouting report,” Rougeau said.

The Rebels, who will barely have time to get in a morning practice on Monday before making the long flight over three time zones to Kentucky, will face a Wildcats team that has two first team all-Southeastern Conference players in guard Jodie Meeks and 6-foot-8 forward Patrick Patterson.

“Meeks is a big-time scorer,” UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. “And Patrick Patterson is a tough inside player. They’re very long and athletic and they obviously have a lot of other very good players.”

Meeks ranks fifth in the nation with a 24.7 average and made national headlines when he scored 54 points in a January game at Tennessee, breaking Dan Issel’s 29-year-old school record in the process.

Patterson, one of the nation’s top 10 prep prospects two years ago who turned down schools like Duke, Florida and UConn to sign with the Wildcats, was the only player in the SEC to rank in the top five in both scoring (18.4 ppg) and rebounding (9.2 rpg). So it will be a tough matchup for UNLV, especially with little practice time and a lot of travel.

“We’re definitely glad to get the chance to play again,” Rougeau said.

Sunday afternoon began nicely enough for UNLV guard Rene Rougeau when he nudged out good friend Wink Adams for team MVP honors during the team’s awards banquet at Cox Pavilion.

“For sure I was surprised,” the 6-foot-6 senior, a member of the Mountain West Conference all-defensive team as well as a third team all-MWC pick, said of the honor voted on my his teammates. “Wink is my MVP without a doubt. But he was very happy for me.”

Then Rougeau and his teammates settled in to watch the NCAA Tournament Selection show. And even most in the crowd of about 1,000 knew it was a real longshot that the Rebels might land at-large berth, hopes rose a little when Louisville, which lost at home on New Year’s Eve to UNLV, was named the No. 1 overall seed for the tourney and MWC tri-champ Utah landed a little better than expected No. 5 seed.

But in the end, the Mountain West Conference landed only two teams in the Field of 65. BYU, a team the Runnin’ Rebels swept during the regular season, was a No. 8 seed in the West Regional.

“I can’t lie, I did,” Rougeau said of holding out hope until the last team, Temple, was revealed. “I was hoping that maybe the last bracket would come down to it. But that is how it goes sometimes. I even thought that San Diego State had a good shot. All we can do is cheer on Utah and BYU. Hopefully they can make a real good run for our conference and show people that our conference is really underrated.”

Now Rougeau and his teammates are waiting until the NIT bracket is announced at 6 p.m. on ESPNU.

“I’d love to see us, New Mexico and San Diego State all do a lot of damage in the NIT,” Rougeau said.

UPDATE: UNLV plays at Kentucky in the first round on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m on ESPN. The Rebels were the No. 5 seed in the Creighton bracket. The winner of the UNLV-Kentucky game will play the winner of Creighton-Bowling Green.