UNLV coach Lon Kruger directs the Rebels during their NCAA Tournament practice Thursday at the United Center in Chicago. Photos by The Associated Press Towel-biting Jerry Tarkanian was the architect of the UNLV program that had basketball fans buzzing in the early 1990s. UNLV senior guard Kevin Kruger races down the court during his team's practice at the United Center in Chicago on Thursday. Kruger and his Rebels teammates will play Georgia Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's Midwest Regional at 9:25 a.m. PDT today.

CHICAGO

History was a popular topic here Thursday. The kind about those UNLV Rebels. About the past, that segment of time that, as Nathaniel Hawthorne once wrote, lies upon the present like a giant's dead body.

Funny. That massive weight once threatened to suffocate UNLV basketball, but now it seems as though the program has unearthed an air pocket or two. It's a beginning. It's just not nearly enough yet.

UNLV is back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven seasons, and yet it won't be for a year or two or perhaps longer before we know whether this particular appearance is more about one special group or an actual starting point to something much larger.

Individual teams hope to make the tournament each year. Really good programs expect to. UNLV is still a member of the former group, a fact that could begin changing today.

In and around discussing their first-round Midwest Region game against Georgia Tech at the United Center, the Rebels were reminded often of those dominant UNLV teams of the early 1990s, reminded that it has been 16 years since the program won an NCAA game, reminded again and again of Jerry Tarkanian and Larry Johnson and Greg Anthony and so on. You half expected those asking questions to do so while chewing on a towel.

"Being in the tournament is an honor itself," Rebels point guard Kevin Kruger said. "We don't really pay attention to how long it has been. As a group, this is our first year together, so we don't really pay a lot of attention to the history of UNLV in that sense. We embrace the tradition that has been established by the school. We just want to pick it back up, and hopefully this starts a few NCAA Tournament runs."

It needs to start with a win.

The Rebels last played an NCAA game in 2000, when Tulsa ridiculously outcoached and soundly outclassed UNLV in a first-round matchup that was over by halftime. It was as if UNLV wanted to set some sort of all-time tournament record for arriving at the woodshed at the earliest possible minute.

Nothing of the sort can occur today (and unquestionably won't given Lon Kruger's somewhat enormous coaching edge over Bill Bayno) if the Rebels are to truly begin creating something of substance.

The Yellow Jackets are bigger, quicker and more explosive. They are a lower seed and still favored to win, a team with two starters capable of becoming NBA lottery picks. UNLV has an entire roster capable of watching the NBA lottery, and still it must find a way to advance if it intends on taking the next logical step in again becoming a program that matters.

The longer you live in March, the more attention you receive, the better chance recruiting can make a noticeable jump in stature. This is especially true for those teams from non-BCS conferences. Mountain West Conference teams such as UNLV will begin reaping the benefits of NCAA bids when they begin sticking around more than a few days.

"We think (making this NCAA run) will help get a lot of good players to come to Las Vegas," Rebels senior Wendell White said.

That's the idea. Lon Kruger has recruited to places such as Manhattan, Kan., and Gainesville, Fla., and Champaign, Ill., to spots on the country's map that might as well be identified by the local college mascot than any specific landmark. That's not the case in Las Vegas, where Kruger often spends much of an official visit disputing to a recruit's family those renowned warnings about the evils of the Strip. His sales pitch would be that much stronger if it included a paragraph or two on the kind of NCAA success you don't need a book to recall.

"I don't know what went on (with the few NCAA appearances) all those years before I arrived," Lon Kruger said. "I do know I like this group. I like how they have progressed. I like what they represent. I like the fact they respect we have a very tough first-round opponent in Georgia Tech.

"Now it's time to line up, swing away and enjoy the experience."

The history so many asked about Thursday will live forever and should never be reduced in importance. But the years pass and the memories tend to fade a little and new ones are begging to be formed.

It has to start somewhere.

You can't expect to climb out from under the giant if you never begin the process with a win. It's the next obvious step.

It's the only one worth mentioning.

Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.