Rougeau makes grade again

On every step of a journey that has been anything but easy, UNLV senior Rene Rougeau found strength in his support team. He did not have to walk alone.

"My family has definitely been by my side the whole time," he said.

Rougeau received his degree Tuesday, capping part of a dream he had in the summer of 2004, when many people doubted his ability to be a Division I basketball player.

He talked his way onto the Rebels' roster as a walk-on, paid his way through college, became a starter as a junior and finally earned a scholarship last summer.

"To have projected him 41/2 years ago to be doing what he's doing now probably would be stretching it a bit," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "It would be hard to say that anyone expected Rene to be doing today what he is doing, but it's great to see."

Not even Rougeau was daring enough to predict this could be his destination, that he would develop into arguably the Rebels' most valuable player the past two seasons.

"I had something to prove. No one knew who I was, and I wasn't highly recruited out of high school or anything like that," he said. "At first, I was just grateful to be here. I was just happy to be along for the ride. After that, you're here and you need to make things happen now.

"I definitely proved a lot of people wrong back home, and I think that's more satisfying than anything else."

Rougeau is averaging 10.1 points and 8.2 rebounds as UNLV (8-2) prepares to host Santa Clara (5-4) at 7:30 p.m. today at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Rougeau, a 6-foot-6-inch swingman, has started 38 consecutive games for the Rebels. But he was a0 long shot to play anywhere after graduating from Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., in 2004.

His stepmother, Marie Rougeau, got everything started by making a phone call to Mike Shepherd, UNLV's director of basketball operations. That resulted in a meeting with Kruger.

Marie Rougeau said UNLV's coaches were "very reluctant" to promise Rene anything but an opportunity to be on the team.

"His faith just brought him through," she said. "We were laughing about how it happened at Thanksgiving. It was quite odd. But to me, he's been the unsung hero."

Marie Rougeau raised Rene from the age of 6. "She's like Rene's agent," said Rougeau's father, Glenn.

Last summer, when Kruger was considering other options before putting Rougeau on scholarship, Rougeau's family was prepared to pay for his last year of school. Kruger's decision was a financial relief to the Rougeaus, who have six children.

The cost of out-of-state tuition to UNLV is about $25,000 per year. Rougeau said he received financial aid and loans, and Glenn Rougeau said he, Marie and Rene's mother, Debra, paid about $10,000 per year to assist Rene in affording school.

"We helped him out quite a bit," said Glenn Rougeau, a bus driver for the Los Angeles County Metro Transit Authority. "I worked a lot of overtime, and we did what we had to do to get him through."

Rougeau gets a monthly stipend check of about $1,000 for being on scholarship, easing the strain of paying the bills.

"My dad was working overtime and my mom put in overtime, and they both worked together. They helped pay my rent and bills several times," Rougeau said. "We found a way to survive.

"A scholarship is everyone's dream. Just getting that check every month helps you. Down the road I'll pay those loans back, but that's not a worry right now."

He said he did not resent it when other, less productive players were on scholarship.

"If you start thinking like that, it just hurts the program," Rougeau said. "I've never thought like that one time, and in the end it has come back to help me.

"I had to be patient, and that was a good virtue of mine. In the end, things worked out for the best."

• NOTES -- Kruger is seeking his 100th win as UNLV's coach. ... Santa Clara is led by one of the nation's top centers, 6-11 John Bryant, who averages 18.4 points and 12.0 rebounds per game.

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907.