Rebels dealing with another injury after Lopez-Sosa goes down in practice

By Taylor Bern

Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 | 10:22 a.m.

UNLV basketball practices have been especially competitive this preseason, and with that extra effort and speed in practice comes a greater chance of injury.

On Tuesday, Mike Moser returned to the court after sitting out a few days with a nagging left groin injury. Then, about an hour into practice, Carlos Lopez-Sosa hobbled off the court after a collision under the basket. Lopez-Sosa returned with an ice bag wrapped around his left shoulder and watched the remainder of practice next to Bryce Dejean-Jones, who’s still recovering from two broken bones in his left hand.

“We’ll know a lot more (about Lopez-Sosa) probably in the next day or so,” UNLV coach Dave Rice said.

Lopez-Sosa probably could have continued practicing, but Rice said trainer Dave Tomchek wanted to give the injury some time to heal and assess any possible damage beyond soreness. Lopez-Sosa dealt with several injuries last year, something that frustrated the big man from Findlay Prep, as he was rarely able to contribute at full strength.

With the regular season still more than a week away, Rice is hoping Lopez-Sosa doesn’t get off on the wrong foot again.

“Carlos has been playing extremely well, and I predict he’s going to have a breakout year and be a big part of what we do,” Rice said. “I’ll continue to stand by that.”

Now headlining on the Strip… Demetris Morant

UNLV freshman big man Demetris Morant had never been to a show on the Strip before last Saturday night. He’s not likely to forget his first time.

Morant and a couple of friends went to Zumanity, a cabaret-style Cirque du Soleil show at New York-New York. During one part of the show the performers went into the crowd to pull up two members of the crowd, one male and one female. After two guys declined to go up, the male performer reached Morant’s aisle.

“The guy looked towards me and I looked away from him,” Morant said. “I tried not to make any eye contact, but he tapped my shoulder.”

Morant and the other audience member, a woman in her 30s or 40s, danced on stage. Then things got weird.

“They made both of us get in a bed together and we had to do some positions,” Morant said while laughing. “It wasn’t fun at all.”

His friends said Morant did a good job, and other people leaving the theater recognized him.

“A lot of people after the show said, ‘Oh, that’s the guy who was on stage,’ and they came up to me and took pictures with me,” Morant said.

That will be a familiar situation for Morant over the next few years at UNLV, though it will usually come as a result of what he does on the court.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.