Leaders haven’t emerged for UNLV

You can find their names and statistics inside the UNLV basketball media guide, but numbers aren’t what set them apart. An edge did. A rare quality.

A trait not discovered in a box score.

UNLV advanced to the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons, and each run was defined by a senior who was unafraid to speak and always willing to act.

Kevin Kruger and Curtis Terry led. It’s what they did.

The UNLV team that hosts Wyoming tonight finds itself in a position it neither expected nor desired, one that no longer suggests the Rebels are anywhere near the best team in a Mountain West Conference that they were predicted to win.

If that condition is to change before or when seeds are assigned for the conference tournament here in March, issues need to be addressed on a more consistent basis. Defense. Rebounding. Toughness. Fewer turnovers.

UNLV can be far better at all of it.

It also wouldn’t hurt to have someone show a little of that edge once in a while.

“Absolutely,” senior Joe Darger said. “We need to find someone on the court that can take control and calm things down. Kevin and Curtis did that for us. Sometimes, people are born leaders. But I also think it’s something you can learn.”

Kruger and Terry were point guards who led UNLV deep into March, but not in a similar manner. Kruger was a terrific all-around college player, a coach’s son, a kid who probably directed others from the first time his kindergarten teacher told the class to line up for recess.

Terry could be as exasperating as he was exhilarating, because you never knew what he might do next or from which half of the court he might shoot.

But like Kruger, he had a confidence that relaxed others in stressful times. He always wanted to take the most important shots and would even if he shouldn’t.

There’s a lot to be said for that in a bizarre sort of way.

“You can’t change personalities even if you would want to,” UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. “It’s not realistic. What Kevin and Curtis did came naturally to them. They kind of took the burden off everyone else. They gave all the direction and did all the talking and initiating.

“I’m not sure we have someone who does those things naturally.”

Oscar Bellfield is a point guard and freshman, which means he’s playing the most critical spot with the least college experience. He has a chance to be good, but it took Terry all of four seasons to assert himself.

Tre’Von Willis is a sophomore playing some point, but he’s not a natural fit at the position. He has spurts of good play and others when he seems a singular part of the equation and drifts from a team concept.

What must happen: At least one of the three senior starters needs to make a bigger difference when it comes to determining this team’s attitude. It might be unfair to expect someone such as Darger to adjust his personality overnight, to suddenly become a more boisterous and outspoken voice, but if not him, then Wink Adams. If not Adams, then Rene Rougeau.

It’s easy to lead when you are posing for media guide covers and earning countless preseason honors and being told you are the best team in your coach’s five-year tenure. Anyone can talk the part when they’re constantly being patted on the back.

It’s different when you have lost two straight, including one to a team — Colorado State — that might not win two or three more games the remainder of league play, when your Mountain West record is 1-2 and you have yet to play the Brigham Youngs and San Diego States and Utahs of this conference.

“You find out about character and personality when the chips are down a little,” Lon Kruger said. “That’s the way it is in the real world. It’s easy when you’re going along and have won eight straight and everyone is saying nice things about you.

“But when people are questioning you and doubting you, how you respond is the real test.”

It’s not the most pressing issue for UNLV. The Rebels could get by with the same level of leadership and play much better if they took care of the ball and slowed people off the dribble outside so they have some semblance of a chance to stop them inside.

But over 33 games or so, it becomes more and more important. That edge. That rare quality.

The Rebels need more of it today, and it must come from within, because Kevin Kruger is long gone and Curtis Terry never again will launch a 35-footer early in the shot clock for UNLV.

Not that those babies weren’t fun to watch.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.