Rutledge’s unsinkable determination proving invaluable

The competitive games were late at night, sometimes not until 1 or 2 a.m., when the older guys showed. The older, bigger, stronger, more athletic guys.

That was fine with Mareceo Rutledge. Sleep was overrated, anyway.

Run N Shoot is a 24-hour health club in Atlanta and where some of that city’s best pickup basketball games are found. It’s also where Rutledge would go after his shift driving a forklift at a furniture warehouse, where he would try to stay in somewhat decent shape while speculating what his future held.

Where he would go against those older, bigger, stronger, more athletic guys and wonder if he ever would have the kind of game he did Saturday.

UNLV rallied for another Mountain West Conference victory, and within its 75-65 win over Utah at the Thomas & Mack Center shone this truth: Teams that dream of memorable seasons and championship runs and NCAA Tournament berths need at times those not expected to make a big difference to produce one.

Rutledge is not the player opposing coaches prepare to stop. He is not the first or second or sixth concern when diagramming a game plan to beat UNLV. He is the lone senior who doesn’t start, a guard on the front of the team media guide not for his career accomplishments but rather his class standing.

Today, he also is the thorn that most stings in Utah’s side.

He had season highs in points (nine) and rebounds (seven), making a 3 that tied the score at 48, then pushing UNLV ahead 53-50 with another 3 in a game it trailed by 11 early in the second half. He was active and aggressive and everything the Utes couldn’t have expected. He was the push the Rebels needed after climbing all the way back.

Do you know the best part about college basketball? A player like Rutledge. Not for the name of the school that is stripped across his jersey. He could play for UNLV or Utah or Cal or Georgia or whoever. It doesn’t matter.

It is for the spirit and determination under the uniform, for reminding us that when people lose all perspective and take outcomes far more seriously than they should and someone like Utah coach Jim Boylen acts like a nut and spends entire afternoons arguing calls and jumping on the court higher than any player, there still remains those who get it.

There still exists someone like Rutledge.

“Mo is a great kid, not a good kid, a great one,” UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. “He works every day. It’s great to see good things happen for people like that in a crucial time for us with some big plays.

“I don’t think he ever says, ‘I should be playing more.’ I think he says, ‘I should be doing more to earn time.’ He has the right perspective.”

It is one formed through this journey: Graduate high school in California eight years ago, spend the next 21/2 years with a girlfriend in Atlanta and driving a forklift, wave goodbye to the girlfriend and job, return home to Sacramento, attend Yuba Community College, break single-season school records for 3-pointers and scoring as a freshman, average 19 points the following year, sign with UNLV, hope and dream and expect to play major minutes, don’t play major minutes, sometimes don’t play any minutes, average 11.2 last season and 12.1 so far this one.

And never, not once, complain or second-guess or pout or vent.

Fact: Anyone who reaches this level on scholarship has a profound competitive streak, or he survives about as long as Boylen does between his last and next whine to officials. Discovering perspective and adapting to a much lesser role than you envisioned can be harder for some players than admitting, shock of all shocks, there is a remote chance they won’t make the NBA.

Do you know the best part about college basketball? The one who does adapt, who gets it, who earns all-conference academic honors as a junior and is on track to graduate this spring, who treats each second of time on the court as if he is fortunate to have it instead of entitled.

That’s Rutledge.

“I’ve never felt lost in the shuffle,” he said. “I never think about it, to be honest. I don’t care about things like being in a spotlight. I care that we have a pretty nice record going and are winning games.

“Sure, I came here thinking I would play a ton after the things I did in junior college. But my role changed. I have a whole different mindset now.

“This is a gift. It’s a privilege to play here. Do my work in the classroom. Get good grades. Cherish every minute of playing time.”

Talent can make a team great.

You need a kid like this to be considered special.

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