UNLV long overdue for new basketball digs

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.