Wednesday, March 26, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Dick Vitale never made it. Clark Kellogg never made it. George Raveling never made it.
Glen Gondrezick did.
Gondrezick, who recently completed his fifth season as color commentator for UNLV basketball radio and TV broadcasts, has experienced the very subject all those college hoop analysts will be pouring over ad nauseam this week: the Final Four.
He was an honorable mention All-American for the 1976-77 UNLV squad that reached the national semifinals before losing by one point to North Carolina, which in turn lost to Marquette in the final.
In this year's Final Four, Gondrezick sees a similar road for the Tar Heels. He predicts they will beat Arizona, but lose to Kentucky in the title game.
"It's Kentucky all the way," Gondrezick said.
In fact, Gondrezick claims Kentucky's semifinal foe, Minnesota, will be a higher hurdle. He says the Golden Gophers possess the bench to withstand the Wildcats' run-and-gun style.
"That's going to be a great game," he said. "I think the winner of the Minnesota-Kentucky game is the winner of the whole thing.
"Minnesota, with their depth, will be a very big test. Kentucky only dresses eight players. The way the game unfolds, depth could be a problem if Kentucky's key players get in foul trouble."
In the other semifinal, Gondrezick has no trouble choosing North Carolina. He does, however, note Arizona is playing without expectations.
"Arizona won't worry about the pressure," he said. "They're going to go out there, have fun and come in way loose."
But don't place wagers based on Gondrezick's advice. He admits his original favorite was Kansas, but he switched to Kentucky after watching the tourney's first two rounds. His darkhorse was UCLA.
"I don't anticipate any more surprises," he said. "Everybody has had a chance to see everybody play. They know the strengths and the weaknesses, and the teams are going to go with what brought them there."
Which is a philosophy Gondrezick, 41, uses to guide his broadcasting career. He already has turned down offers from regional TV networks to call other college games because he won't slight UNLV.
"I'm a Rebel, and I always will be," he said.
Static
* FINAL FOUR COVERAGE: Saturday's Final Four on CBS (KLAS Channel 8) opens with North Carolina and Arizona at 2:42 p.m. and closes with Minnesota and Kentucky 35 minutes following the conclusion. The winners meet Monday at 6:18 p.m. for the national championship. ... CBS' Final Four preview special begins Saturday at 1 p.m. It's 1 1/2-hour championship preview airs Sunday at 1 p.m. ... ESPN (Prime Cable Channel 19) will roll out the analysts for its coverage, which begins tonight at 5:30 and runs well after Monday's final. Adding commentary are Isiah Thomas, Utah coach Rick Majerus, Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins, Cal coach Ben Braun and the usual crew of Dick Vitale, Digger Phelps and Clark Kellogg. ... Fox Sports News (Prime Cable Channel 17) broadcasts from the RCA Dome, the site of the Final Four, starting Thursday. Host Dwayne Ballen is joined by former UCLA head coach Jim Harrick.
* BORN TO BE BAD: It's KORK no more. Early Tuesday morning, 920-AM finally dropped its big band format and became KBAD, the valley's second all-sports, all-the-time radio station. KBAD, which features a more caustic approach to sports talk, joins sister station KENO 1460-AM as the only area stations with such a format. Both are owned by Lotus Broadcasting. Rumors still circulate, however, that American Radio Systems station KXNO 1140-AM, currently operating a 24-hour tourist information format, may transform into the third all-sports entity.
* HE'S EVERYWHERE: Las Vegas Thunder fans watching Monday's loss to the Utah Grizzlies on Prime Cable Channels 1 and 48 saw why Howard Stern calls himself the "King of All Media." Proving that minor-league hockey isn't too small for his presence, Stern invaded the Thunder telecast throughout the third period due to the unusually high satellite activity caused by the Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Because of the traffic, Stern's show on the E! Network leaked into the Thunder's signal. "The explanation I got was the large number of Oscars uplink trucks sending signals to various countries all over the world threw a glitch into our reception here," said Bob Blum, whose production company handles all Thunder and Las Vegas Stars broadcasts. "The signal going up to the satellite was clear; it was a clean signal. But coming down, the linkup here was overridden by the trucks in L.A. It was a freak thing from what I've been able to understand."
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