Las Vegas Sun

September 5, 2008

Just being a Rebel is enough

Walk-on does his part to prepare UNLV basketball team for big season

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Leila Navidi

Rob Ketchum doesn’t have a scholarship and might not even play in a game this season for the UNLV basketball team, but that doesn’t make the 6-foot-6, 215-pound senior swingman any less a Rebel.

By Rob Miech

Thu, Aug 7, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Rob Ketchum, UNLV swingman

  • Age: 22
  • Height: 6-foot-6
  • Weight: 215 pounds
  • Class: Fifth-year senior
  • Family: Mother, Kim Madden; sister, Mary Mitchell; brother, Danny
  • Hometown: Sacramento, Calif.
  • Major: Marketing and physical education
  • Career: After graduating from Sheldon High, he attended Tuskegee University, where he did not play, before transferring to Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif. His JC teammates include Matt Johnson (now at Northern Arizona), James Doran (Pacific), Eddie Reilly (St. Mary’s), Brad Langston (San Jose State) and Bryan Winkel (Colorado-Colorado Springs).

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He can set up a grill in 30 minutes and a bookcase in 20. If Lowe’s sells it, he can assemble it.

He’s also a wiz at Stratego and recently cracked the top 100 in an online version of the chess-like military strategy board game.

But Rob Ketchum gets most excited when he slips on his red No. 13 UNLV practice jersey and plays basketball for coach Lon Kruger.

Ketchum is UNLV’s most unheralded player, a walk-on with no scholarship.

Walk-ons have a thankless role — setting picks and taking charges in practice so other Rebels can get better. They rarely (sometimes never) play in games. They arrange class schedules around practice. They pay for their own tuition, books and living expenses.

Ketchum can’t pay his cell phone bill — rent and food are priorities — so calls zip directly to voice mail. He doesn’t have a car and chips in for gas with teammate and housemate Rene Rougeau.

Still, Ketchum, 22, can’t believe his good fortune.

“I’m so thankful to be here, in Las Vegas, playing basketball,” he says. “I’ll do everything I can this season. If I get in a game, I get in. If I don’t, I don’t. I can’t get selfish about it, seeing where I was a year ago.”

A year ago Ketchum had finished playing at Sierra College and was toiling at a Lowe’s home improvement store in Sacramento, saving every dollar to continue his schooling at UNLV. Maybe, just maybe, he’d get the nerve to walk onto a Rebels basketball team that had just gone to the Sweet 16.

He was encouraged by his former Sierra teammates Matt Johnson, Brad Langston, James Doran and Eddie Reilly, who had made the jump from community college to Division I programs.

“They’ve always felt that I should be at a D-I program,” Ketchum says. “They gave me confidence. That felt good, hearing how happy they were for me. It’s good to have friends like that.”

Sierra coach John Fusano cold-called UNLV assistant coach Greg Grensing on behalf of Ketchum.

The moment he saw him, Grensing was impressed with the size of the 6-foot-6, 215-pound swingman. But Ketchum didn’t immediately hear back from the UNLV assistant.

Maybe it’s time to call it quits, Ketchum thought. He got odd jobs through craigslist.org.

Three weeks later Ketchum returned to his Las Vegas apartment with his mother and older brother to hear a phone message from Grensing.

Want to come on out to practice?

Ketchum played it over and over.

“We were hysterical,” he says. “I was like a kid on Christmas.”

Danny Ketchum works in construction and helps his brother when he can. Danny didn’t pursue basketball out of high school, so Rob Ketchum feels he’s playing for both of them.

Mandi Denney, Ketchum’s girlfriend of three years, stays on him about his class work and grades, and she fills the fridge when she visits from Sacramento. That makes the Anthem home that Ketchum shares with Rougeau, UNLV power forward Matt Shaw and another student very happy.

At a summer prep tournament two weeks ago in Las Vegas, Ketchum and Rougeau worked 16-hour days recording statistics and entering them into a database for a recruiting service. That cell phone might work soon, too.

Grensing believes Ketchum could have played somewhere in Division I basketball.

“He kind of fell through the cracks,” Grensing says. “He has sacrificed and handled adversity well, and he has the respect of all his teammates. They consider him a peer.”

After graduating from Sheldon High in Sacramento, Ketchum went to Tuskegee University, a historically black college. But the South wasn’t for him. He transferred to Sierra, in Rocklin, Calif., and set his sights on UNLV.

He and his mom, Kim Madden, have taken out loans, which helped when Tuskegee wanted $1,300 in unpaid fees to release his transcripts to UNLV.

The delay with the NCAA Clearinghouse until after the fall semester, and breaking a bone in his left hand in February, limited Ketchum’s practice exposure with the Rebels last season.

Now the fifth-year senior is eligible, healthy and prepared to press the Rebels in practice from the start of the upcoming season to the finish.

During 10 days of official workouts before the Rebels went to Australia, Ketchum looked smooth and solid. He sliced in for transition layups, hit midrange jumpers, passed to open teammates and grabbed rebounds in traffic.

“I’m a competitor,” Ketchum says. “That’s why I’m here. They give it to me, so I give it back. I go hard every day, so it makes the games easier for them.”

The unknown Rebel also resembles one of the most recognizable figures on the planet. At the end of one of those June practices, a fan yelled “O-ba-ma!” at Ketchum. The physical similarities between Ketchum and the Democratic presidential candidate are uncanny. Teammates laughed. Ketchum just smiled and looked down.

He didn’t go to Australia because he had to take summer classes. He’s working toward a degree in marketing and physical education. He might be a sports agent.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime for me,” Ketchum says. “I’m thankful that coaches put up with me.”

Ketchum pinches himself when he runs through that tunnel at the Thomas & Mack Center and those fireworks explode. When the crowd roars during timeouts, he can’t believe he’s in the middle of it.

He grins about recent pickup games with newcomers Oscar Bellfield, Brice Massamba, DeShawn Mitchell and Darris Santee, and a promising season that will feature guard Wink Adams.

“A lot of people downplay UNLV,” Ketchum says. “I wouldn’t advise that this season. They learned their lesson last season.”

Asked what would constitute a perfect 2008-09 season for him, Ketchum doesn’t mention playing in a real game or sinking a jump shot.

A national championship, he says without hesitation. What could be more perfect?

“He’s ideal,” Grensing says. “He has no ego. His agenda is only to help the team. He gives us size, strength and athleticism you normally don’t get in walk-ons. We’re the beneficiaries of a selfless young man.”

Discussion: 9 comments so far…

  1. By Sufferin_Succotash
    8/7/08 at 5:03 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    National Championship? Only if you consider the NIT a National Championship.

    Kruger Ball. If we score 40 points in a game, you get free Cheeseburgers at Wendys!

    The Walking Rebels. Not selling tickets anywhere near you.

    UNLV fans and the lying UNLV Athletic Department like to claim that the city is so excited about Lon Kruger and that everyone is jumping on the Kruger bandwagon. Bull$%it.

    Attendance Numbers

    11,865 - 2007/08 Season (Kruger's 4th Year)

    11,598 - 2003/04 Season (Spoonhour's Final Year)

    11,829 - 1999/00 Season (Bayno's Final Full Year)

    Look at the great job that Lon Kruger has done in improving UNLV's attendance! The man deserves a raise and long term contract extension! The community is as excited as they have been in years! Just look at the numbers, they are WAY UP! Fans are coming out in record numbers!

    Bayno, Spoon and Kruger are identical in attendance numbers. Only the thick headed UNLV fans have been fooled. Those three lucky NCAA wins have made some of you delusional, most of you were already there.

    Nobody in town is excited. The numbers haven't improved. In fact, the numbers have been fudged by that crook Hamrick just to keep Kruger close to Spoon's and Bayno's attendance numbers.

    The Mack is empty. It will remain that way until UNLV hires the right coach. Kruger isn't the guy.

  2. By Sufferin_Succotash
    8/7/08 at 5:10 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    Want proof about Krugers true attendance and the excitement he has generated in Las Vegas?

    When UNLV played Fresno State last year at the Orleans arena IN LAS VEGAS the announced attendance for the game was 4,924. That is Four Thousand and Nine Hundred fans.

    That is how excited the Las Vegas community is to watch a Lon Kruger team that had just made the Sweet 16.

    Got to give it to Kruger. The man generates excitement in this town and knows how to sell tickets!

    Four thousand fans that night at the Orleans was a generous estimation. The true numbers at the MACK most nights is in the 7,000 range.

    Kruger ain't getting it done. Neither did Spoon and neither did Bayno.

    UNLV needs to go out and get the right guy.

  3. By true_rebel_fan
    8/7/08 at 7:50 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    hi sufferin, here we go again. :-)

    WE still LOVE THE REBELS no matter what crazy stat you pull out of your rear.
    R-E-B-E-L-S
    R-E-B-E-L-S

  4. By wrekz0r
    8/7/08 at 8:28 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    look at attendance numbers all you want but they are distorted by complete ignorant morons like you. If you dont think kruger is the right guy you have no business discussing sports ever again.

    DO YOU NOT REALIZE WE HADNT WON A NCAA GAME IN 16 YEARS UNTIL TWO YEARS AGO?!?!?!?!?!?!

    yah thats right your boy bayno and spoonour couldnt get it done. oh but they could get 11,000 showing up so theyre just as good as kruger. because all smart basketball fans know attendance is how you define a coach.

    you are so completely off base it seems like you wrote this comment 4 years ago.

    lets see the first two years kruger has his own players he wins 59 games and 3 NCAA games. Lucky NCAA wins...please. knocked off a 2 seed on their home floor in 07 and set an NCAA tourney record by allowing only 10 points in their first win only to lose to THE EVENTUAL NATIONAL CHAMP in 08.

    Please continue to not show up like the rest of the idiots in this town. maybe when we crack the top 10 this year sorry ass bandwagon haters like you will shut your mouths.

    You seriously have no clue if your talking about the NIT. this isnt the sorry mormons from BYU or the clowns from SDSU who will be enjoying the NIT. We will be in the sweet 16 guaranteed.

    Dont respond because you have nothing to say that makes any kind of an argument. You obviously dont watch basketball. You obviously havent seen a Rebel game in 3 years. And you obviously have no concept of good coaching/recruiting. Go cherry pick stats some more so you can sound informed and mask the fact that YOU HAVE NO CLUE

  5. By unlvblogrebel
    8/7/08 at 9:33 a.m.
    Suggest removal

    "Sufferin" - Your comments do nothing but waste time and space. You obviously know nothing about basketball, let alone Runnin' Rebel basketball. Let's take a look at what the press and peers had to say about Coach Kruger...I'm sorry - "the wrong guy" last season:

    *Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year

    *U.S. Basketball Writers Association District VIII Coach of the Year.

    *2008 Finalist for the Henry Iba Award (since you're unfamiliar with the sport, that's the award for the nation's top coach), where he was among names such as UCONN's Jim Calhoun, Drake's Keno Davis, and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski.

    The "wrong guy" does not receive those accolades.

    Are you a BYU fan?

  6. By TRUE_FAN
    8/7/08 at 4:15 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    It's very simple when it comes to sufferin' or rebel robert or whatever he wants to call himself today.

    It's like he bought stock in "anti-Kruger." Before coach ever stepped foot on campus, robert said he would never achieve any success nationally. He even made the firekruger website. It's a matter of public embarassment for him.

    He took such a strong stance initially, that now he can't back down and his only recourse is to try to convince everyone that all these "anti-kruger" shares are worth something.

    Be a man robert, and admit you were wrong. You know your predictions were wrong. Then after we went to the sweet 16 you ammended your predictions and those were wrong too. I guess calling it luck is easier than being a man and admitting you were wrong.

    And everyone keep in mind too that this guy dropped out of SDSU, dropped out of UNLV and was discharged from the military. He claims it was honorable, but the circustances surrounding his discharge were far from honorable.

    From his postings, you can get a sense of what type of man he is. A few more years in the Marines would have done him some good.

  7. By johnvegas
    8/7/08 at 11:36 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Robert used to own the domain name firekruger.com.

  8. By sufferins_a_schmuck
    8/8/08 at 12:35 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    Dude, enough of your ignorance and incessant whining. If you want to keep complaining, go to the BYU and/or Utah board.

  9. By Sufferin_Succotash
    8/8/08 at 7:41 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    I still own FireKruger.com

    It will open when I decide to open it again.

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