THE CANADIAN PRESS
LAS VEGAS — The 19-year-old whose Twitter name is "MTL’sGift" might become one of the biggest presents the University of Nevada-Las Vegas has unwrapped since Larry Johnson led the Runnin’ Rebels to an NCAA championship in 1990.
Speaking to media members Tuesday for the first time since arriving in Las Vegas over the weekend, Montreal native Khem Birch talked about his newfound excitement for the school located minutes off the famed Las Vegas Strip, why things didn’t work out at Pittsburgh and what fans can expect from him a year from now.
"This is the perfect program. Dave Rice is a good coach, it’s a nice system, nice campus, nice weather, nice city — everything is just perfect. I love UNLV," said the soft-spoken Birch, a former McDonald’s All-American from Boston’s Notre Dame Prep who announced he was transferring from Pitt in early December.
He will be able to play for the Rebels as a redshirt sophomore during the second semester of next season.
Birch, a six-foot-nine forward, has been physically cleared to practise with the team and is expected to go through drills this week, but official paperwork enrolling him in school had yet to be finalized.
Nonetheless, Birch — who was decked out in street clothes, but clearly stood out amongst the small crowd who had come to get their first look at the tall kid with the gold-streak down the centre of his hair — said he was excited to get back on the court after his second round of recruitment.
"I feel happy, because this is my decision. I felt like when I was in high school, going to Pitt was 50-50," said Birch, who chose the fast-paced Rebels over another up-tempo program in Florida.
"But this one was 100 per cent my decision, so if I mess up, it’s all me."
Despite living in the desert for just a few days, Birch says he’s already felt a sense of "belonging" that didn’t exist in his semester stay in Pennsylvania.
"I didn’t gel with my teammates, and the system wasn’t right for me," said Birch, who averaged 4.4 points and five rebounds per game in 10 games at Pitt, including six starts.
"It wasn’t a run-and-gun system. It was a slowed-down pace system. They told me during recruiting that with their athletes, we’d be a fast-paced offence. In practice, we’d run all the time, don’t get me wrong, but during the games, it was just slow-paced."
UNLV is anything but slow as the 14th-ranked Rebels (16-3 record) are 12th in the NCAA in scoring at 80.5 points per game.
It was UNLV’s upset of top-ranked North Carolina, 90-80, in the Las Vegas Invitational finale in November that first caught Birch’s attention.
"When I opened my recruitment, I wanted to go to a fast-paced team," Birch said. "Right away UNLV came to mind because I saw that game and how they ran."
Such sentiment is exactly what Rice, a first-year UNLV coach and a reserve on the school’s 1990 title team, had hoped to bring back to a city that despite its many world-class entertainment options strongly supports its college basketball team in much the same way it did during the heyday of legendary coach Jerry Tarkanian.
"It’s an exciting deal when Khem Birch watched our North Carolina game and envisioned that he would like to play in our system," Rice said. "So much of that credit goes to our current players buying into how we want to play."
One of those Rebels is sophomore forward Mike Moser, who hosted Birch on his recruiting visit. Moser, who like Birch, and a handful of other players, ended up at UNLV via a transfer.
"He’s a good kid, I feel he was in a tough situation at Pitt, but I feel this is going to be a great place for him," said Moser, who in his first year after transferring from UCLA, is averaging 13.9 points and 11.2 rebounds.
"I wouldn’t say it’s easy (to transfer), but this team with our players and coaches will make it easier. We’ll do everything we can to make sure you fit into the system and with the guys. Make sure there are no issues. Being that a lot of us came from the same situation, we can all relate. So I think it’ll definitely be a good fit."
One that could possibly involve another Canadian is Birch’s good friend and former AAU teammate Anthony Bennett. The highly decorated senior from Brampton, Ont., attends Findlay Prep (located in the nearby suburb of Henderson, Nev.) and is considering signing with the Rebels.
"I’ve talked to him a hundred million times about UNLV, but it’s up to him," Birch said. "But it would be amazing."
.Also in UNLV’s sights is the top-ranked player in the class of 2012, Shabazz Muhammad, who plays for Rice’s brother at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas.
With the core of UNLV’s current squad returning next season and the addition of highly-rated guards Byrce Jones, who transferred from the University of Southern California, and incoming freshman Katin Reinhardt, the Rebels could be as talented as the teams from the early 1990s — which just happened to contain the school’s last McDonald’s All-American in Johnson, or Birch’s dad’s favourite player Stacey Augmon, now and assistant coach at UNLV.
Birch said while he misses his mother, he won’t miss Canadian winters or the chilly confines of the East Coast. He said growing up in a city like Montreal will make Sin City’s nightlife a non-issue, although the "oversized" burgers from California’s famed In-N-Out Burger franchise could be another matter entirely.
But with a whole off-season to tighten up his waistline from the burgers Birch has already raved about on Twitter, and more importantly, a full season to expand varying aspects of his game, Rice sees unlimited potential in his latest transfer.
"From our conversations with people who know him well, he’s willing to put the time in to become a player. He’s athletic. He can run the floor, so he fits perfectly into our system," Rice said.
"He’s already a dominant defender in terms of his ability to block shots and rebound. And the fact that he’ll put the time into to become a more versatile offensive player, could really make him really special."