After years away, he’s game to play

By Rob Miech

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 | 2 a.m.

UNLV basketball player Mareceo Rutledge’s route to college started seven years ago during an improbable meeting at an Applebee’s in Sacramento.

Rutledge had stopped in to order a chicken entree. There he met bartender Doug Cornelius, who, as luck would have it, was about to quit to become head coach at a nearby junior college.

Cornelius recognized Rutledge as a skilled player whose poor academic history kept him from playing his senior season at nearby Natomas High School. If he could get his grades in order, Cornelius thought, Rutledge could be the centerpiece of the new coach’s 2001-02 Yuba College team.

But Rutledge was nonchalant. He hated school. Soon he and his girlfriend, Darnisha, moved to Atlanta, where he worked the loading dock at Rhodes Furniture and toiled at painting houses and other odd jobs.

Cornelius, however, didn’t give up on Rutledge. He called once a year.

“The first year out of high school, he was making $8.50, $9 an hour,” Cornelius said. “And he thought he was a millionaire.”

A year later Rutledge told Cornelius he wasn’t ready. He said the same thing the following year.

OK, Cornelius said. You’ll be ready one day. You’ll miss the game.

In 2005, Rutledge decided he was tired of clearing about $400 every two weeks. “He finally figured out what he wanted to do,” Cornelius said. “He was worth the wait.”

Rutledge enrolled at Yuba College and, after two years as a star, accepted a scholarship from UNLV.

Without Cornelius’ persistence, Rutledge, who will turn 25 in May, might still be pushing heavy furniture around a warehouse and into tractor-trailers.

He wouldn’t be on track to become the first in his family to earn a college diploma, and he wouldn’t be setting himself up to help others who might stray, just as he had.

Rutledge is changing his major to business, with an emphasis in recreational management. He wants to own and operate youth rec centers in Sacramento.

UNLV assistant coach Greg Grensing, who recruited Rutledge, noted how rare it is for someone who had such a sour taste for school, with such a long layoff, to comfortably settle into an academic environment.

“And he’ll finish it off,” Grensing said. “He’ll do it in a way that impacts not only his life, but his community, too. That’s part of his drive. “There are a lot of things that distract kids. ‘Mo’ can show them and tell them, having lived it, if you really want something, you can make it happen.”

Rutledge sits on a dark couch in the red-carpeted lobby of the Thomas & Mack Center and never breaks eye contact with an interviewer.

“I believe the sky’s the limit for me,” Rutledge says. “It’s like a second chance, a door of opportunity. I definitely cherish it.”

When Rutledge visited Las Vegas eight years ago for a tournament with Natomas, whose players called him “El-Rudd,” he told older brother Jamie he’d play for the Rebels. But he was just messing around. He never thought it would be reality.

Since his freshman year in high school, he had messed around in the classroom. By his senior year, he was academically ineligible.

“He didn’t do well in the classroom and tried to play it off as one of those cool-guy things,” Cornelius said. “He thought they’d get him eligible because he was ‘the man.’

“Didn’t work out that way. He probably thought that his career was over.”

In Atlanta, Rutledge continued working out and playing basketball. Just in case, he said.

Finally, living paycheck to paycheck wore him down. He broke up with Darnisha and accepted Cornelius’ offer to play at Yuba.

The 49ers called him “King Mo,” which the powerful left-handed, 6-foot-3, 225-pound swingman earned by averaging 24 points on sheer strength — he can do more 225-pound bench presses than any other Rebel — and by instinct.

He knew little of the offense, but Cornelius couldn’t take him out — he was too dominant.

As a sophomore, his scoring average dropped but his assists and rebounds spiked. Cornelius complemented him with better players and Rutledge began to grasp strategy, such as using screens to get wide-open shots.

Yuba went 27-8, the best record in the program’s history. The best statistic for Rutledge? He had a 3.2 grade-point average.

UNLV has been like a graduate course in hoops for him. Lately, he’s been thinking less.

“You don’t play as well if you have to think about what you’re doing,” Grensing said. “I think he’s about to turn a corner, and jump up and make some noise.”

That has been evident in practice. Last week Rutledge pump-faked a defender from 20 feet, drove by him and another foe and slipped by 7-foot center Beas Hamga for a reverse layup.

UNLV coach Lon Kruger would be pleased to see those moves in games, because Rutledge figures to get more minutes after Marcus Lawrence’s dismissal from the team Monday.

Freshman Kendall Wallace will likely spell senior Curtis Terry at the point, so Rutledge might get more time at shooting guard.

Cornelius believes Rutledge will have a big senior season and could make a nice living playing overseas.

“Kudos to him,” the junior college coach said.

To Cornelius, too, for believing in that rudderless kid who walked into that Applebee’s so long ago.