UNLV senior guard Kevin Kruger, shown against Norfolk State on Dec. 18, has averaged 13.6 points per game while helping the Rebels to a 13-2 record in nonconference play. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

Even the man in the middle of it all, UNLV's Lon Kruger, is surprised. He has seen just about everything in 21 years as a college head coach, too.

Kruger figured he had a good basketball team with a lot of potential. With five seniors to lean on, he expected to win a lot of games.

"You never know for sure," Kruger said Tuesday after practice at the Thomas & Mack Center, where the Rebels play Utah at 8 p.m. today to open Mountain West Conference play.

UNLV is 13-2 and riding a nine-game winning streak, but that is not a shock to Kruger. The manner in which it has happened is not exactly what he expected.

"We felt like it would be a club that would naturally shoot it well, but we wondered about our physical nature and level of toughness and all that," Kruger said. "Eventually, we have played with a good physical nature and been tough, but we haven't shot it well.

"It's kind of a different route to getting where we hoped to be."

The Rebels are on their way to reserving a spot in the NCAA Tournament in March. They remain unranked in the polls, but are No. 9 in the nation in the Ratings Percentage Index on collegerpi.com.

Air Force (13-1) remains the consensus favorite to win the Mountain West, with UNLV probably a close second ahead of San Diego State (11-3).

"We had goals to win our conference and make noise nationally, and so far we've won games and we're starting to earn a little bit of a reputation," senior guard Kevin Kruger said.

"Anytime you've won 13 out of 15, your confidence is going to be good. If we were 2-13, it probably wouldn't be very realistic to say we're going to win the conference and we wouldn't be a very confident group."

Lon Kruger is not into looking too far ahead, but he's not discouraging talk about winning the conference.

"I think having that as a long-term goal is fine as long as you maintain that short-term perspective of working hard each day, and this group has done that," the coach said.

Utah (5-8) is another surprising team because it was expected to be much better. The Utes own quality wins against Virginia and Washington State, but they also lost close games to Albany and Southern Utah and took a 33-point beating from Northwestern.

Luke Nevill, a 7-foot-1-inch sophomore, leads Utah in scoring at 18.6 points per game. Shaun Green is shooting 61 percent (33 of 54) from 3-point range.

UNLV started to make major strides after an 89-75 loss at Arizona on Nov. 28. Lon Kruger inserted 6-8 senior Gaston Essengue as the starting center, and the team's defensive intensity improved.

Through the first six games, the Rebels were shaky defensively, allowing 79 or more points to four opponents. In nine games since, they have allowed an average of 57.5 points.

Wink Adams and Kevin Kruger are both shooting inconsistently, making about 30 percent of their 3-point attempts. But sophomore Curtis Terry has emerged as a clutch shooter, making 44 percent of his 3-pointers.

Terry played a key role in a 58-49 victory at UNR on Dec. 9, and he made 7 of 8 3-pointers in last week's road victories over Texas Tech and Houston. That was enough to impress his girlfriend of three years.

"Everybody is starting to follow us a little bit more. Everybody is just getting more interested in what we're doing, and that's a good thing," Terry said.

"My girlfriend watched the Texas Tech game on TV, and when I came home she was telling me about what was going on in the game. She was more into it. She's jumping on the bandwagon. She said, 'You guys are real good now.' She's talking about us being in the rankings."

The difference in UNLV's turnaround is mostly about defense. When the shots are not falling, the defense has been dependable, and Lon Kruger said his players are taking more pride in that aspect of their play.

"As with anything, it's just a lot easier when you're winning games," Kruger said. "The most difficult thing to do is establish that when you're not winning games."