Top 57 Greatest UNLV Runnin Rebels of All Time: Part 3
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Franchise Sports Media’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels Basketball insider Jeff Waddilove ranked the Top 57 players in UNLV basketball history. This is the second installment of our FSM UNLV basketball series commemorating the 30 year anniversay of the Runnin’ Rebels’ NCAA Championship.
30. Kaspars Kambala (1997-2001)- Kambala was the man in the middle for Bill Bayno for four years. Kambala was an old school big who probably would have felt right at home playing for the Bad Boy Pistons. Rough and rumble, Kambala averaged 15 points, eight rebounds, and shot 55% from the field for his career at UNLV.
30. Jarvis Basnight (1985-88)- Before Vince Carter did it in the Olympics, Jarvis Basnight was literally jumping over guys at the T&M to dunk on them. Besides being a freak-of-nature athlete, Basnight was also an efficient scorer. He hit 61% of his field-goal attempts as a Rebel. By the time he was a senior, Basnight had averaged 14 points and seven rebounds.
32. Kevin Kruger (2006-07)- Kruger was the first player in history to take advantage of the grad transfer rule. If he doesn’t come over from Arizona State to play for his dad, the Rebels never make the Sweet 16 that season. Kruger was a sniper of a shooter who was Lon’s extension on the floor. In his lone season as a Rebel, Kruger averaged 13.5 points and five assists.
33. George Ackles (1988-91)- Lost in the history of the 1990 championship team was that Ackles missed the game against Duke with a broken wrist. Beyond that, Ackles was an omnipresent figure and focal point of the 1991 team that went 34-1. For his career, the big man averaged 7 points, five rebounds, and blocked 141 shots.
34. Mark Wade (1985-87)- Wade started his career at Oklahoma but transferred to UNLV after barely seeing the court for the Sooners. He might have stood only 5’11, but Wade put up huge assist numbers at point guard for the Rebels. His senior year, Wade averaged almost 11 assists per game and had an astounding 5 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.
35. Evric Gray (1990-93)- Gray was a 6’7 small forward who played on the 1990-91 team as a reserve, meaning he played for the best team in the world never to win a championship. In 1992-93 Gray scored 16.2 points per game. Gray is also a part of the coveted 1,000 point club at UNLV.
36. Tyrone Nesby (1996-98)- It didn’t take Nesby long to score over 1,000 points at UNLV. He was a silky smooth scorer at 6’6 but also had a very competitive side to him. Nesby was the best player for a Rebel team that got back into the NCAA Tournament for the first time without Jerry Tarkanian as head coach.
37. Joel Anthony (2004-07)- Lon Kruger decided to redshirt Anthony in 2005-06, and that’s what catapulted the Canadian center. Anthony went on to have a nice, long NBA career where he won a championship with the Miami Heat, but before that, he blocked everything in sight at UNLV. He once blocked 13 shots in a single game and totaled 157 blocks for his collegiate career.
38. Michael “Spiderman” Burns (1978-82)-A local product, Burns, played his high school ball at Chaparral. He was a wild man who could jump out of the gym. He didn’t earn the nickname due to any similarities to Peter Parker, but because the guard had a long, lanky frame.
39. Anthony Bennett (2012-13)- Unfortunately, Bennett will go down as one of the biggest busts in NBA history, but that can’t take away the fact that he was the number one overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Bennett was a McDonald’s All-American out of Findlay Prep, and easily one of the most highly touted recruits in school history. At UNLV, he was a human highlight reel. Bennett hit a lot of big three’s and threw down a ton of huge dunks. As a Rebel, he averaged 16 points and eight rebounds a game.
Tomorrow on Franchise Sports Media, Jeff will release his top UNLV Runnin’ Rebels #29-20 in the third installment of our series. Please feel free to leave a comment in our comment section and let Jeff know your thoughts!
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-Jeff Waddilove – Franchise Sports Media
