Columnist Tim Graham: Even Vitale sees Rebels' glass as half-empty

No matter how Dick Vitale looks at it, this season has been a major disappointment for the UNLV men's basketball program.

The boisterous college basketball analyst was high on the Rebels before the season started. Now he feels otherwise, especially after getting a courtside view calling Monday night's loss to Texas Christian on ESPN.

"People thought they would be better off at this moment," Vitale said. "Based on the arrival of (junior college transfer) Shawn Marion and all the hopes and anticipation from winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament last year, there was a lot of optimism.

"Their back's against the wall. They're in a position where they have to win the tournament to get an NCAA bid."

UNLV is 15-10 overall and 8-4 in the WAC. It is clinging to a one-game lead over three teams -- Tulsa, Rice, Southern Methodist -- in the Mountain Division standings. UNLV is two games ahead of Colorado State and Wyoming and plays each one on the road Thursday and Saturday, respectively.

Vitale admits the loss of Kaspars Kambala was devastating. But Vitale adds UNLV wouldn't be in such a precarious position if it hadn't lost six of eight games early in the campaign -- when Kambala was healthy.

"They had a really rough start and that set them back," he said. "But they did make a recovery and you gotta give them credit for that."

The most devastating losses, however, have come recently. UNLV dropped games it should have won against SMU and TCU at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"You gotta win on your home turf," Vitale said. "You can't lose at home. Losing to SMU is a bad loss. Any way you cut it, that's not a loss you like, especially in a situation where you're trying to make some noise."

When analyzing the performance of Bill Bayno, Vitale stops just short of knocking the fourth-year head coach.

"What happens with Billy Bayno," Vitale said, "is his recruiting and his salesmanship and his way of communicating offsets anything he does on the sideline. So everybody says 'Oh, wow! He can recruit.' But can he coach?

"I feel any coach who gets to this level, you gotta know your X's and O's. To me, that's the easiest thing to learn. What I don't think you can learn is the ability to to communicate, the ability to motivate, the ability to inspire. That's gotta come from within.

"I think it's too early to judge Billy as a big success or a big failure. People have to understand in the growing process it takes time."

Nationally, Vitale calls Duke "head and shoulders" the favorite to win the NCAA tournament. His top regional seeds, if decided today, would be Duke in the East, Auburn in the South, Michigan State in the Midwest and Connecticut in the West.

On Tuesday's "SportsCenter" Vitale revealed his pick for player of the year: Utah guard Andre Miller.

"Take Andre Miller out of the Utah lineup and ... they might not qualify for the NIT," Vitale said. "You look at what he's done all year, he's literally carried that club."

Vitale expects to take some heat for not backing Duke center Elton Brand. He will face the fire immediately when he calls Duke at DePaul tonight.

"They're going to be throwing things at me," Vitale said.

* EARLY MARCH MADNESS: ESPN's college basketball "Championship Week" starts Saturday and runs through March 7.

ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to show 61 men's and women's games in those nine days. From March 4-7, a total of 14 straight hours of basketball will be televised each day.

Of the 28 conferences that hold tournaments, 25 title games will be aired. The top conferences will receive added coverage. The entire Big East tourney, seven of the eight Atlantic Coast games and six more from the Big Ten will be shown.

Bob Carpenter and Jimmy Dykes will call three Western Athletic Conference games from the Thomas & Mack Center: a quarterfinal March 4 at 9 p.m., a semifinal March 5 at 9 p.m. and the championship March 6 at 7 p.m.

* BIRTH OF A RIVALRY: It could be the single most significant game in basketball history. Twenty years later it remains the highest-rated college game of all-time, and it spawned one of the greatest rivalries in all of sport.

Fox Sports Net will air "Magic vs. Bird," a documentary that focuses on the epic 1979 NCAA title game, in which Johnson's Michigan State squad beat Bird's No. 1-ranked and undefeated Indiana State team.

It will debut March 28, the eve of this year's NCAA final, at 9 p.m. on Fox Sports West.

"Magic vs. Bird" will feature interviews with players, coaches and journalists from the game, which drew a 24.1 rating. It also will examine the hoop legends as they continued their rivalry in the NBA.

* STATIC: When UNLV pitcher Nate Yeskie retires from baseball, he easily could find work as a color commentator. Young Yeskie is adding an encyclopedic knowledge to Rebel broadcasts on KSFN 1140-AM through Sunday, right before he leaves for spring training with the Minnesota Twins. ... KVBC Channel 3 weekend sports anchor Brian Lippai announced "former Georgetown basketball coach John Robinson" was in attendance at last weekend's Southern Zone high school basketball tournament. ... HBO has secured the worldwide rights for pompous, undefeated boxer Naseem Hamed. ... "Fox Sports News Tonight," seen locally on Fox Sports West, will move back a half-hour to 6 p.m. starting March 1. "The Last Word" with Jim Rome will move to 6:30 p.m., except on nights when a live event is scheduled; then it will air at 5:30 p.m. ... ESPN's 10th season of Major League Baseball will begin April 4 with the Colorado Rockies-San Diego Padres game from Monterrey, Mexico. The network then will broadcast a triple-header starting at 1 p.

m. on April 5, the first full day of games. ... ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to air at least 32 regular-season Major League Soccer games, starting March 20. Big Brother ABC will offer the MLS All-Star Game July 17 and the MLS Cup in November.

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