Deep Vegas roots might give UNLV assistant Slocum edge in recruiting

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Monday, April 29, 2019 | 2 a.m.

Shortly after it was announced that DeMarlo Slocum had accepted an assistant coaching position at UNLV, the Las Vegas native checked his phone and counted more than 80 text messages from well-wishers in the 702 area code.

And those were just the numbers Slocum didn’t recognize.

“The day I took the job I counted 84 messages from 702 numbers that I didn’t have programmed in my phone,” Slocum said. “The amount of love from across the city over the last [two weeks], it’s very humbling.”

It’s also a great example of what makes Slocum such an important addition to T.J. Otzelberger’s first coaching staff at UNLV. The 40-year-old Slocum is connected in Las Vegas, and to such depths that it should have a tangible impact on the Rebels’ ability to attract top local recruits.

If there’s anyone with a finger on the pulse of Las Vegas’ youth basketball scene, it should be Slocum. After graduating from Eldorado in 1996, he played basketball at Dixie State and Georgia Southern, then returned to his hometown to found the Las Vegas Prospects, which would eventually become one of the most prominent AAU organizations on the West Coast.

Slocum said the proliferation of talent in the city made an AAU team necessary, and that in turn the Prospects (and other AAU organizations) have helped cultivate more highly skilled players in the area.

“When I was playing, I was the Nevada Gatorade Player of the Year and I was not recruited,” Slocum said. “We had no access to travel ball or club teams. That’s one of the reasons I came back and started the Prospects. And the talent has just exploded here in Las Vegas over the last 20 years. Now there’s eight to 10 Division-I players who leave the city every year, and we’re talking about McDonald’s All-Americans and top-100 players.”

After five years of running the Prospects organization, Slocum moved on to the college level, spending two years as an assistant at Georgia State and a year at Dixie State before being hired as the director of basketball operations at USC. He logged one year at Southern Cal, then moved to Idaho for one season as an assistant. Slocum then served as an assistant at Colorado State for four years, which led to an eight-year stint at Utah — and eventually back home to Las Vegas as part of Otzelberger’s staff.

Slocum actually would have ended up at UNLV sooner if fate hadn’t intervened. After Chris Beard was hired to be UNLV’s head coach in 2016, he reached out to Slocum with an offer to be an assistant; Slocum accepted, but before the hiring could be announced Beard left for Texas Tech. Slocum remained at Utah.

In the three years since that near-miss, a lot of local talent has escaped Las Vegas. Trey Woodbury has been the only scholarship player from the city to commit to UNLV during that time, while top recruits like Troy Brown, Charles O’Bannon Jr., Jamal Bey, Jalen Hill and Julian Strawther have been plucked by out-of-state schools.

Slocum said he is already engaging in dialogue with local high-school and AAU coaches about changing the way UNLV recruits within the city.

“All I hear is that UNLV has never been in our gym, UNLV doesn’t recruit our kids,” Slocum said. “I’ve heard that several times. And so I think that’s what I’m most excited about. Once I took the job I immediately got texts from 10-plus coaches across the city saying, ‘Man, I’m glad you’re home,’ because I think they already know that I didn’t come home to go recruit around the world. I’m going to make Las Vegas kids a priority.”

With Slocum and fellow assistant Kevin Kruger working their connections throughout the valley, the hope is that UNLV can make itself a viable destination for the best local players.

“We’ve got to get out and get in their gyms and get in their homes,” Slocum said. “We’ve got to build relationships with their high school coaches, build relationships with their AAU coaches. At the end of the day it’s all about relationships and getting them to understand we have a pride and a passion about UNLV. Then when those coaches who mentor these young men get comfortable with us, then they’ll get comfortable with guiding their kids to come and play at a program like UNLV.”

Someone who has been in contact with Slocum recently is Desert Pines coach Mike Uzan, and you can be sure Slocum has that number saved in his contacts. They were teammates at Eldorado back in the day, and they’ve stayed friends going on two decades now. Uzan has Desert Pines positioned as one of the best programs in Las Vegas, and his son Milos Uzan is a 6-foot-1 guard who averaged 13.4 points and 4.8 assists per game last season as a freshman.

Slocum is walking into his job at UNLV with relationships like that already in place all across the city, and it makes a difference to coaches like Uzan.

“He’s the best,” Uzan said of Slocum. “He’s a great guy. DeMarlo can have a major influence [at UNLV]. He has been doing this for years, and he knows basketball. He can be good for Vegas. He can keep big-time talent here, and I think he’s got a good idea of what it’s going to take to revive the program.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.