Comments (76) | Add a comment
Ed Graney
UNLV long overdue for new basketball digs
-
K.M. Cannon/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Basketball coach Lon Kruger's No. 1 wish will soon come to fruition as UNLV breaks ground on the three-level Mendenhall Center practice facility. » Buy this photo
Updated: Mar. 4, 2010 | 2:52 a.m.
The truth: To create a successful college basketball program, you build it not only by winning on the court but by the infrastructure that affects those involved.
In the arms race that has defined college athletics for some time, that in a large way means facilities.
UNLV basketball on Wednesday took a giant step forward in at least getting itself even with others on one significant level.
This is a good thing in difficult times. Ground will soon be broken on the three-level Mendenhall Center, a 38,000-square-foot practice facility attached to Cox Pavilion that will include two full courts for the men's team, a film room, locker rooms, an academic area, a weight room and athletic training and equipment areas.
It could open in late spring 2011 and will cost in the neighborhood of $12 million.
It won't cost the university a cent to build.
"The thing that sustains us in challenging times is the community once again rallying around UNLV and the Runnin' Rebels," university president Neal Smatresk said. "We will be given the key to a shiny, sparkling building that doesn't cost the university any money but yet delivers the promise of bringing the Runnin' Rebels to the next level."
Some won't want to hear it, not so soon after it was announced higher education funding will be cut by $64 million, after UNLV this week confirmed it will offer another round of buyouts and eliminate departments and jobs.
But this is a project that those who make up the foundation to build a practice facility have chosen to support, where Bob Mendenhall and Maury Gallagher and Bill Paulos and Bill Wortman and Hope Anstett want to spend their money.
It shouldn't surprise you that, when former athletic director Brad Rothermel first approached Lon Kruger following the team's Sweet 16 appearance in 2007 about what the program needed most to remain at such a lofty level and perhaps travel beyond it, UNLV's coach didn't pause when listing his No. 1 wish.
He will now have it.
Practice facilities don't guarantee conference titles or NCAA Tournament berths or Top 25 rankings. They don't ensure you a top-50 player will pick UNLV over Connecticut or Villanova or the like.
But they can keep you in the recruiting game until the end. Texas opened its practice facility in 2003, and if you know anything about the palatial digs in Austin that rival many NBA teams, you wonder how the Longhorns ever lose a recruit.
Bottom line: All great teams have a practice facility, and so do most of the good ones.
"It's difficult to measure how it (influences recruits)," Kruger said. "It might make all the difference in the world to one kid and have no impact on another. But now, if a kid visits our campus one day and an Arizona or Arizona State the next with their facilities, we're even, and we think ahead, given not many programs have the crowds we do now in the western part of the country and there is no city better than Vegas.
"Mostly, it's great for our players, something they take pride and ownership in. They're our best recruiters, so if they feel there is a commitment to making the program the best it can be, it's much easier for them to sell to others."
A basketball practice facility isn't getting UNLV into the Pacific-10 Conference or making the Rebels any better at the one sport (football) that must improve drastically for any Bowl Championship Series conference to take the university seriously when considering expansion.
But for the basketball program that today supports most of the school's athletic teams, it is a piece of the puzzle long overdue. Recruiting remains a relatively small financial item on most budgets, but you can't put a price on what might make the difference in the mind of a player who, well, could make the ultimate difference.
"I am an on-the-bus kind of guy," said athletic director Jim Livengood, whose department will finance the daily operations of the facility. "If someone drops off because they don't like something and later wants back on, come on back. Candidly, football is the key to our future, and we need to be good in it relatively soon.
"I know there will be some that think, 'Why didn't they spend the money elsewhere?' But this practice facility is about donors trying to acknowledge a need from our coach, about them doing all of it. Design. Build. Donate.
"It's a no-brainer."
It's a good thing in a difficult time.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618.
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Yes, a good thing in a difficult time but the timing is all wrong. Putting aside the very viable argument that there are greater needs than a place for 12 guys to shoot hoop, what's wrong with being gracious and asking the benefactors to consider the current state of the program?
The money should be placed in an endowment account and allowed to build surplus for the building. If the facility is built right away, it will be a white elephant and a burden on the university. It's like giving a gift without batteries; the kids are excited until they realize the lights won't turn on.
This facility will be expensive to operate with utility, repair and maintenance costs for not only the building, but the equipment and the personnel costs. They are cutting budgets, personnel, and programs, and current facilities are in need of help. Neither the university or the athletic department has money to support it anytime in the near future.
It's difficult for fans and donors to truly understand, because we only see the flash, lights and PR hype. And although we can all pray things will change, it would seem best to be prudent and plan more into the future and not just what immediate needs are. This line of thinking is how they (and the rest of the country) got in the predicament they're in now. The previous administration didn't pay attention, made poor decisions and allowed the department to run into the ground - by listening to those looking for the rainbow and saying that spending will "take the program to the next level". Well, the "next level" seems to be the level of repeating mistakes.
I would hope someone will man-up and not remain narrow-minded and self-centered. It's not too late to do it right.
Wow...you bring up facilities for Rebel basketball...and it's, "We need it to take the program to the next level."
Graney wrote above, "In the arms race that has defined college athletics for some time, that in a large way means facilities."
Yet, ex-football coach, now Louisville OC, Mike Sanford brings up pathetic, non-competitive facilities...and everybody laughs and says "Mike's passing the buck."
You can't have it both ways...
@bunch of crybabies
We most certainly ARE for making UNLV a better place!! However, that's not by funding a huge, even though popular, SPORTS franchise!!
U want to make UNLV a better place? Donate a million to the MATH department. Better sports does NOT make better students, particularly at a STATE funded school. DUH!!
Just to set the record straight. I am NOT against sports! I'm not some egghead spaz either. I played football in high school and have the bad knees to prove it.
What I am against is the love affair between sports and education. I believe they should be separated after 12th grade. I believe we as a country we spend too much money and time worshipping and funding college sports instead of academics. I believe other countries focus on academics instead and that is why we are falling behind!
We have no science heroes, just numbskull sports heroes like Mike Vick! I'm very much ok with pro sports, they pay their own way, and they are not institutions of higher learning.
I would be willing to bet all you UNLV sports fans can name star football and basketball players and their coaches, but have no clue who the Dean of the Biology department is, or who the top students are in any field at UNLV.
I'm sure my blogs sometimes appear cynical or like someone who is a sports hater, but that is not the case. As a taxpayer, I fully support academics. But I DO NOT like to subsidize college sports for you yahoos. Sorry about that. And I think it's a shame people make huge sports donations, but could care less about supporting science and math. Long term, you get what you pay for, which is a bunch of Rtards sitting around watching another bunch of Rtards play a game.
Meanwhile, in China, they are churning out scientists by the gross, while we churn out NBA and NFL players. Good long term strategy ya think?