| News | Roster | Stats | Schedule | Media Guide |
Lon Kruger |
Longtime collegiate and NBA basketball coach Lon Kruger finished his third year as the Runnin' Rebels' head coach in 2006-07, a season that put the program back in the national spotlight.
Hired at UNLV on March 15, 2004, as the 10th full-time head coach in UNLV men's basketball history, Kruger's first two Runnin' Rebel teams showed positive signs of progress under his leadership - progress that paid off in his third season in Las Vegas.
In March, Kruger and the Runnin' Rebels made the program's first NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance since 1991, becoming only the fifth team in UNLV men's basketball history to reach 30 wins in a season. The squad was ranked in both major polls for the first time since 1993 and won the Mountain West Conference Tournament championship for the first time since 2000.
Finishing the 2006-07 season with an overall record of 30-7 (UNLV's best since reaching the Final Four in 1991), the team was ranked 14th in the country in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll.
The 2007 NCAA Tournament marked UNLV's first since 2000, but the program had gone 15 years without a win in the Big Dance. That all changed this past March as UNLV, a seven-seed in the Midwest Region, marched past 10th-seeded Georgia Tech and second-seeded Wisconsin in Chicago.
Kruger became just the second coach in school history to win an NCAA Tournament game and in his 10th career trip to the Big Dance as a head coach, he became just the fifth man in college basketball history to take four different schools to the NCAA Tournament. He is just the fourth coach in NCAA Tournament history to take three different programs to the Sweet 16 since the field was expanded to 64 teams and is one of just three coaches to win at least one game in the tournament with four different schools.
UNLV finished tied for sixth in the country in total wins in 2006-07 and became the first team in the eight-year history of the Mountain West Conference to reach 30 victories in a season. The team also defeated four ranked teams, the program's most in a season in 16 years.
2006-07 also marked a return of dominance by UNLV at home as it recorded a 19-1 record at the Thomas & Mack Center, including wins in each of its last 17 games at home, which is tied for the 10th-longest active home-court win streak in the country.
During MWC action in 2007, UNLV finished second, just one game back in the standings with a 12-4 league mark, and recorded a perfect home mark (8-0) in conference play for the first time since the 1992-93 season. Additionally, the 12 conference wins for UNLV was the most in a season by the Runnin' Rebels in 14 years.
Click here for full bio
|
|
| News | Roster | Stats | Schedule | Media Guide |
Regina Miller |
UNLV head coach Regina Miller has accomplished what she was brought to Las Vegas to do in 1998 - resurrect and build the Lady Rebels back into one of the nation's premier programs.
Only the sixth head coach in the 32-year history of the Lady Rebel program, she currently has an overall record of 167-103 (.619) at UNLV. Miller reached the career 200-win plateau against Nevada, Reno on Dec. 10, 2005, and currently has a 227-203 overall mark in her 15-year coaching career. She also coached the Lady Rebels to the 600th victory in the program's history with a win over Colorado State on Feb. 18, 2006, as UNLV became just the 39th team in NCAA history to reach 600 total wins. Miller is responsible for over 25% of UNLV's total victories and her 167 wins ties her for second all-time at the school.
Last season the Lady Rebels had to deal with the graduation of five key seniors from the previous year, as well as a series of injuries during the season that helped contribute to the first losing record in Miller's tenure at UNLV (14-15). The team did finish the regular season at 14-14, thanks to an inspiring 4-0 finish to end the conference schedule which included upset victories over two NCAA tournament teams, BYU and New Mexico. UNLV also claimed another win over a NCAA team in December when it routed 19th-ranked DePaul 89-71, giving UNLV five wins over ranked teams under Miller, which are the only five such victories for the program in the past 13 seasons.
During the summer of 2007, Miller also received a prestigious award, as she was honored with the Sam Lacy Pioneer Award from the Sports Task Force for the National Association of Black Journalists at their 32nd annual convention. The Pioneer Awards honors black groundbreakers in the sports world and Miller was one of six to be honored, along with former Runnin' Rebels Reggie Theus and Greg Anthony.
In 2005-06 season, Miller coached the UNLV squad to an 18-12 mark and a 9-7 record in the Mountain West Conference in what was undoubtably the toughest and most competitive year the league has ever produced. UNLV became one of just two teams in the league to reach the MWC Tournament semifinals for the third-straight year after upsetting 21st-ranked New Mexico in the quarterfinals, and received a bid to the WNIT Tournament to extend its postseason appearance streak to six years, which was the longest in UNLV history.
The 2004-05 season was one of the more challenging years Miller experienced as a coach, as a series of injuries at one point left UNLV with just one healthy starter. However, Miller still guided the Lady Rebels to a 16-15 record and to a spot in the WNIT.
Click here for full bio
|
|