Rebels give fans FirstLook in style

By Ryan Greene

Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008 | 3:28 a.m.

While lounging in the UNLV basketball locker room Friday night a few minutes before the start of FirstLook 2008, it all started to set in for Chace Stanback.

The 6-foot-8 UCLA transfer and some teammates were huddled around a TV screen watching ESPN's coverage of kickoff events from around the country on the official first day of the college basketball season.

They saw crazy atmospheres at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., and the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., among others.

"We saw all the other teams having Midnight Madness, so I kind of got a picture of what was going to happen, so I got even more excited," Stanback said. "I didn't know what to expect, because I've never experienced anything like this before."

A year ago on the first day the NCAA allowed teams to practice, the Rebels sophomore was a Bruin. That meant the beginning of the season was rung in with a buttoned-down, closed-door practice at 10 p.m. on Friday night.

This time around, it was completely different.

He ran out to the floor of the Thomas & Mack Center on an unfurled red carpet to the sound of 4,000 hoop-craving fans. He went through the most anticipated set of layup lines he's ever taken part in. He watched as ESPN's Kenny Mayne, a former UNLV quarterback, emceed the event via video from Bristol, Conn., drawing laughs from fans with his signature dry wit. He heard his name called over the P.A. system for the first time. And he capped it all off by scoring 10 points, skying for a handful of rebounds and helping to erase a 15-8 deficit for his team during a light 15-minute scrimmage broken into three five-minute periods.

The most memorable part for Stanback?

"Them calling out everybody's name, calling my name, and just realizing I'm a Runnin' Rebel now," he said.

In fact, the event brought new meaning to being a Rebel for all 18 players who made their first appearance of the season in front of fans.

These are the type of season-starting shindigs major programs put on. And UNLV took another step toward joining those ranks Friday night.

"From my freshman year, there were people coming, but it wasn't anything like this," senior guard Wink Adams said. "You can see the intensity getting better and better.

"I wish I had a couple years left. I expect to come back, and these guys are going to take it to another level."

While this is the last go-round for Adams, some potential future Rebels also took in the festivities. All three verbally committed members of UNLV's 2009 recruiting class -- Findlay Prep forward Carlos Lopez, Mojave guard Anthony Marshall and Woodland Hills (Calif.) Taft High guard Justin Hawkins -- showed up early, and stuck around late to mingle with fans. Others on-hand included several of Lopez's Findlay teammates considered to be Division-I prospects, sophomore standout Jabari Brown out of Richmond, Calif., and highly touted Palo Verde junior Moses Morgan.

They watched as Adams and his fellow returning lettermen received their 2008 Mountain West Tournament championship rings, given to them by former Rebels great Sidney Green and a host of other UNLV hoops alums.

For a first-time show, both the turnout and execution were pretty nice. It's a quantum leap from when coach Lon Kruger first began having smaller events when he arrived at UNLV.

First, it was an open-to-the-public Saturday morning practice that also served as a meet-and-greet for those fans loyal enough to show. Kruger had pizza brought in for those who came, and by the end, students were taking boxes of leftovers home with them.

A year later, if you were a fan who showed up and got two slices, it was considered a success.

And now this.

"We didn't expect that many people to come," Adams said. "It was fun, they made it fun. And I think our freshmen played pretty good. To play in front of a crowd like that, I thought they did pretty well."

The newbies did their part to impress during the scrimmage, which served as the night's signature event.

For example ...

-- Point guard Oscar Bellfield, who ran the show for the second-teamers, tallied 10 points, including a pair of smooth three-pointers. His handles were steady, and he was far from sloppy in a scrimmage in which he said the pace of play was at about 60 to 70 percent.

-- Forward DeShawn Mitchell warmed up the crowd better than anyone with a few thunderous throwdowns before the scrimmage in layup lines. Then, after poor timing on the first attempt, he finished an alley-oop lob from Bellfield in transition that drew several "oohs" and "aahs." His lofty vertical leap, which was well known coming in, was on full display.

-- Center Brice Massamba showed nice control with his 240-pound body in scoring six points, capped by a turnaround baseline jumper from 12 feet out.

A couple more notable performances came from junior college transfer Darris Santee, who brandished some powerful rebounding tactics while running with the starting five, and senior defensive stalwart René Rougeau, who scored a fair amount of his 12 points based on hustle and looked to be treating the workout as if it were a conference game in mid-February.

But Stanback's performance may have been the most symbolic of the event.

Fans realized that the smooth, lanky forward in the No. 11 jersey who created a slight buzz won't be suiting up until after he's sat out this season, per NCAA transfer rules.

In essence, he left them wanting more.

That was part of the whole point.