Jan. 30, 2006

LAS VEGAS - UNLV men's basketball junior Michael Umeh will have surgery on Monday, February 6 to remove a bone chip from his patella, head coach Lon Kruger announced Monday.

The 6-2 guard from Houston, Texas, is second on the Runnin' Rebels in scoring average with 11.0 ppg. He has played in 16 games, started 12, and has shot 41.6 percent (62-of-149) from the field and 39.0 percent (30-of-77) from 3-point range. He is third on the team in both assists and steals with 40 and 17, respectively.

"Michael's first interest is his teammates and what he can do to help the team," Kruger said. "We really appreciate that, but most important is his long term health," Kruger said. "With that in mind, the decision to have surgery was made and now we will focus on getting him back to 100 percent healthy."

"I really tried to help the team on the court the last few weeks, but it was frustrating to not be able to play at 100 percent," Umeh said. "It was difficult to gain the stability in my knee that I needed to have, so I have decided to have the surgery and will work on my rehab and help the team from the sidelines."