Seeking Promotion : Cvijanovich Is a Conformist Among Rebels at UNLV

Stacey Cvijanovich was well aware that a basketball career could be full of ups and downs, but as he flew through the air of the Cal State Fullerton gymnasium in January, he found himself in the unusual position of going both ways at once.

His feet were going up. The rest of his body was going down.

Less than a minute earlier, Jerry Tarkanian, coach of Nevada Las Vegas, had summoned the former Santa Clara High standout off the bench and already he was leading a fast break, on his way to a layup and perhaps a little more playing time when his body parts were sent flying in every which direction.

As he had gone up for the shot, an opponent had taken his legs out from under him.

“I reached down to break my fall,” Cvijanovich said. “My feet were above my head so I really didn’t have much choice.”

Cvijanovich succeeded in breaking the fall, but in the process broke his right thumb, thereby shattering his chances to break into the Rebels’ rotation of regular players for another year.

And just when he was beginning to get more playing time.

They say peoples’ lives can flash before their eyes in times of duress. Cvijanovich witnessed his life and career--which at times has seemed one in the same--all in the time it took him to hit the floor with his thumb as the landing gear.

His first thought: “Jammed thumb. No biggie. I gotta shoot my free throws.”

Then he looked at his hand.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Cvijanovich said. “There was a big old bubble on my thumb and it was black and blue. I knew something was wrong because I couldn’t spread my thumb out.”

He walked to the free-throw line anyway.

“Everyone was lined up and I was still looking at my thumb,” Cvijanovich said. “I finally asked the referee for the ball to see if I could grab it. I think he and I were the only ones who knew there was something wrong. I was thinking about shooting it with my left hand so I could continue to play, but I probably would have bricked it pretty bad and air-balled it.”

Instead, he took himself out of the game. He didn’t play again for more than a month.

“It was a long season,” he said.

It has been a long 2 seasons for Cvijanovich, a junior. UNLV has won 65 of 73 games since Cvijanovich joined the team, an only slightly better percentage than the 96-19 mark of his teams at Santa Clara.

There is a major difference, however. For the Rebels, Cvijanovich averages as many minutes of playing time a game as he sat out in high school.

That’s not very many. In his collegiate career, he has played in only 39 games and averaged 1.1 points.

There was reason for optimism at the end of last season, however. Two guards who played ahead of Cvijanovich completed their eligibility.

If only recruiting wasn’t Tarkanian’s forte.

Joining the squad this season is Greg Anthony, former West Coast Athletic Assn. freshman of the year, and Anderson Hunt, a former Detroit City Player of the Year who was academically ineligible last season.

So guess who got buried on the depth chart again?

“It’s hard,” said Cvijanovich, who has played a total of 14 minutes in exhibition games this year against Athletes in Action and the Soviet Union. “Personally, I think I’m good enough to start.”

Making it doubly tough is the fact the Cvijanovich was not a run-of-the-mill high school phenom who scored 20-plus points a game. In 4 years playing for his father and resident Ventura County coaching legend, Lou, Stacey helped--carried?--Santa Clara to 4 Frontier League titles. He played point guard, shooting guard, power forward, small forward and center.

“From playing 32 minutes a game to maybe 3 minutes a game, you definitely have to adjust,” Cvijanovich said. “A lot of people make mistakes when they make big decisions. Maybe this was one. If I’m in the NBA I probably would ask to be traded, but since I’m in college I can’t leave. I’ve put too much work into our program and school.”

If anything, the lack of playing time has forced him to concentrate on other facets of his life.

“In high school, basketball was everything,” said Cvijanovich, a hotel management major. “Then, when I first came to college basketball, it was still everything to me but I wasn’t playing. I had to find something else. I finally realized there is more to life than just basketball. And that’s hitting the books, getting a degree and spending time with friends.”

Cvijanovich considered transferring, but never that seriously.

“He made his choice and he’ll live with it,” Lou Cvijanovich said. “He’s getting a fine education. Things like that happen. If you took a consensus of all the kids who play college basketball, a lot would be in the same bracket. You’re never going to satisfy everybody.”

Still, UNLV appeared to be a curious choice to begin with.

Santa Clara is painfully structured on offense and defense. You’ve heard of children being told to chew 32 times before swallowing? Santa Clara sometimes passed that often before shooting.

The Saints, it seems, made more passes on a possession than the Rebels do in a half.

“We played a set offense,” Stacey said of his days playing for his father. “This? This is free-lance. It’s just up and down the floor.”

That style of game does not particularly suit the 6-foot-3 Cvijanovich, who says he is “probably the worst athlete on this team in terms of natural ability.”

“It’s true that he is out of his element matched against great, great athletes,” said Howie Landa, a Rebel assistant. “But he is not out of his element as part of a great team because of his great heart and knowledge of the game.”

Despite his limited playing time so far this season, Cvijanovich seems to have found a niche, albeit a narrow one.

In both exhibitions he has been called in to rein in the Runnin’ Rebels. “He’s very smart and there will be opportunities when we need someone to go in, take charge, and run an offense,” Landa said. “He’s done exactly that in the first two games.”

Cvijanovich seems resigned to the role--for now.

“I prepare myself as much as possible so when I do play I’m ready,” he said. “I’m in the same position I was as a freshman in high school and I was on the varsity but not starting.”

His tenacity is appreciated by the Rebel coaching staff. “He accepts his role, but it’s hard for him because he’s a great competitor,” Landa said. “I’d rather have him be a pain in the butt because he wants to play so badly than have somebody who is sitting there and doesn’t care whether he plays.”

Cvijanovich is in a similar situation this season as he was a year ago. Gradually, his playing time increased as the season progressed. He is hopeful that the same will happen this time around.

“Right now I’m a backup,” Cvijanovich said. “But we play 30 games this season. Anything can happen. If I don’t prepare myself and I look bad, then I will never get that opportunity again. If I perform well, then maybe more playing time will come. That’s why I have to be ready.”