Rookies finding their groove with UNLV basketball team

By Rob Miech

Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Twice late Saturday morning, Brice Massamba executed deft touch passes to Carlos Lopez for inside baskets. In 3-on-2 drills, Lopez returned the favor with a slick zip to Massamba for an easy bucket.

No wonder UNLV coach Lon Kruger played those two together Friday night in a FirstLook scrimmage before fans at the Thomas & Mack Center. They’re often on the same side in practice, too.

Their chemistry is obvious, since Lopez and Massamba played together for two seasons, through 2007-08, at Findlay College Prep in the Henderson foothills.

For Lopez, that has eased the freshman center’s transition, on and off the court, to big-time college basketball.

“We have that feeling for each other,” Lopez said. “I know where he’ll be and what kind of move he’ll make, whether he’ll shoot … but I, maybe, just want to keep it low.”

Kruger’s other two first-year players, Anthony Marshall and Justin Hawkins, have also sort of experienced what they expected in their first two elite Division-I practices and Friday’s scrimmage.

Then again, you try guarding Derrick Jasper, the 6-foot-6 fourth-year junior point guard who transferred to UNLV from Kentucky, at the start of your collegiate career.

That was Hawkins’s assignment Saturday.

“It’s crazy,” Hawkins said. “He can go either way, right or left. Try to force him one way, he’ll beat you the other way. Try to force him the other way, he’ll go back the way he wants to go. It’s just hard to guard him.

“It’s not impossible. You have to be three, four steps ahead of him. But he’s always five, six steps ahead of you.”

A 6-3, 190-pound guard from Los Angeles, Hawkins frequently ran the point in drills Saturday. Friday night, he scored two points, on free throws, in the scrimmage.

“That was real fun,” he said. “As a recruit last year, I saw the electricity in the building. Last night, playing, I felt it on the floor. My teammates and I had fun entertaining the crowd as much as we could.

“Hopefully, they’ll be seeing a lot more of that this season.”

Marshall, a 6-3, 200-pound guard from Mojave High in Las Vegas, sat out of Saturday’s practice with a tender right hamstring that had been bothering him for about 10 days.

The lefty didn’t score in his brief amount of time on the court Friday night.

He, too, remembered the FirstLook event from 2008.

“It was one of the best things I’ve ever been to,” Marshall said. “I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. I couldn’t wait to get on the court. It was just a great feeling to be here in my hometown.”

He participated in his first collegiate practice Friday morning.

“I felt like a freshman in high school again, not knowing what to expect,” Marshall said. “But once I got on the court, it felt pretty good … like I belonged.”

There’s a good reason why Lopez feels like he belongs. The Puerto Rico native spent three years at Findlay, and he and Massamba helped the Pilots go 32-1 two seasons ago.

They lost in the National Prep Championship in the Bronx, N.Y., to Hargrave Military Academy.

Lopez and the Pilots went 33-0 last season, which they capped with an ESPN National High School Invitational championship, defeating the vaunted Oak Hill Academy in the finale, in Maryland.

Findlay coach Mike Peck, a former UNLV video coordinator, runs much the same strategies and practice schemes as Kruger.

“Coach Peck has helped me out with the toughness, just being tough all the time,” Lopez said. “Get there. Run. Don’t be lazy. Hustle. That has helped me a lot with coach Kruger’s philosophy.”

When Lopez left the Mack court after Saturday’s practice, Kruger implored him, “Eat! Eat!”

Lopez, a 6-11 center, lost 30 pounds this summer when, with the Puerto Rico junior national squad, he caught a stomach virus at an Under-20 global tournament in France.

Locals might look twice when they see him, since his national team made him cut his flowing locks before that tournament. He’ll keep the clean look, he said. It’s college.

But he’s also down to 210 pounds. Thus, Kruger’s request.

“I have to eat,” Lopez said. “I’m eating well now. I got used to it and I eat a lot. I’m hungry all the time. Coach Kruger helps me with that, as does (trainer) Dave Tomchek, teammates and coaches. They all encourage me to eat more.”

Appropriately, the toughest class Lopez is taking is nutrition.

He had a tough transition to Findlay, especially learning English, and nearly bolted back to Puerto Rico. He became a pillar at the Henderson International School, with which Findlay is affiliated, his final two seasons.

He has found college life difficult, too, but he likes the challenge.

“It takes more time,” Lopez said. “You have to watch video and do a lot more stuff. You have to know how to manage your time. Practices go three hours, school, homework …

“The first two months, I’m adjusting. Hopefully, after that, I’ll be OK.”

Free Throws

North Hollywood (Calif.) Harvard-Westlake forward Erik Swoope visited UNLV this weekend and attended practice Saturday morning. A 6-6, 225-pound senior, Swoope is known for his dunking prowess. “He simply assaults the rim,” noted one recruiting service. However, services don’t rank him. Over the summer, one considered him Big West material … Findlay guard Cory Joseph, a top-10 national figure in the Class of 2010, was absent from Friday night’s scrimmage but he had a good reason -- Joseph was scheduled to visit Connecticut. He has UNLV on his final list of colleges. Senior power forward Godwin Okonji and freshman guard Nigel Williams-Goss were Pilots who did attend the practice … Kruger said the FirstLook scrimmage went well. “I thought it was great,” he said. “The fans had great energy. If fans have a good time and players get experience playing in front of people, and no one gets hurt, it’s a good night.” … Derrick Jasper took a spill under the rim Saturday, but he quickly popped back up. Matt Shaw has also fallen a few times in the first two practices. Jasper (microfracture knee surgery) and Shaw (anterior cruciate ligament surgery) both spent last season rehabbing their knees. “Oh, you notice it,” Kruger said of the spills. “When anyone coming off knee surgery falls, you see how he reacts to getting up.” Both have looked solid. Kruger said it’s most important that Jasper, the floor general, feels good at this early stage. “He has no effects from last season's rehab,” Kruger said. “That’s most important. As far as basketball goes, he knows how to play. He’s explosive.”