UNLV hoops prepares for Oct. 17 start of practice

By Rob Miech

Monday, Sept. 8, 2008 | 1:57 p.m.

UNLV’s basketball team today began its second week of individual workouts, which have consisted of basic shooting fundamentals.

“Footwork and mechanics,” Rebels coach Lon Kruger said of the sessions. “Good fundamentals are all related to shooting.”

Team workouts start Sept. 15, and practice officially begins Oct. 17 with a 9 p.m. session at the Thomas & Mack Center. Cheerleaders will perform and admission is free.

Kruger spent part of last week talking shop with his peers at a coaches’ retreat in North Carolina and said it would be premature to gauge anything about the team for the upcoming season based on these individual workouts.

“It’s way too early to have any idea,” he said. “You hear comments from different players, on different days, about who has been stepping out and stepping up in pick-up games.

“But, from that, you don’t know who’s going to do something to support you in the long run.”

When the team phases being next week, Kruger said, more will be added to the regimen, like fastbreak schemes and transition strategies

Kruger also said senior guard Wink Adams hasn’t been affected by a finger injury from last season.

In February, Adams feared he had broken the index finger on his right hand. He taped it the rest of the way and said he’d have it checked out in the offseason.

X-rays of the finger were negative.

“He’s been shooting well,” Kruger said, “and he appears not to be bothered by it.”