Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002 | 9:23 a.m.
Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
As we try to decide which is more distant, a time share on Neptune or the Rebels' football bowl hopes, here are this week's notes:
In this day and age of fiscal responsibility, what in the world is the UNLV men's tennis team doing playing at Dartmouth this week?
There has got to be somebody closer to home with whom the Rebels can make a racquet.
There should be a rule that the only Rebel teams that can travel east of the Mississippi prior to NCAA tournaments are football and men's basketball (and any other program that supports itself, were there any).
Not to be xenophobic, but here's another rule I would institute at UNLV: Limit the women's basketball program to recruiting in the USA.
The Lady Rebels have declared -- only because the NCAA probably would do it for them at some point -- Evelien Callens, a 6-foot-2 recruit for Belgium, ineligible because she has violated her amateur status.
It's the same situation that nearly spoiled UNLV's season last year when star player Linda Frohlich and 6-6 post Petra Glaser, both from Germany, were suspended during the stretch run.
Congrats (I think) to Las Vegan Alex Shelton, who once again is going to busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger at Beano Cook's house during the college football bowl season.
Shelton this year has landed radio play-by-play gigs for the following four bowls: Independence, Charlotte, Music City and Liberty.
His New Year's resolution is to stop speaking with a Southern drawl by mid-January.
Realty companies already are tacking up "For Sale" signs on the front lawns of Ron McBride at Utah and Vic Koenig at Wyoming. But if I were their athletic directors, each would get at least one more year.
Utah is just 11 months removed from its Las Vegas Bowl victory over Southern Cal in a game where the Utes physically manhandled the Trojans. This is also a team that lost just 10-7 at Michigan this year and might have had a little more say in the Mountain West Conference race, had star running back Marty Johnson not gone down with a season-ending knee injury in Utah's easy victory over Indiana.
Nobody wants to play Wyoming at this juncture of the season, because the Cowboys' offense has become more prolific than Larry Johnson at a singles bar. Wyoming is just 2-8, but has lost four conference games by a total of 17 points.
Add in that nobody really expected the Pokes to beat Washington and Tennessee, and their 2-8 record is not as bad as it looks.
Fire Koenig, and you've got to start from scratch. There just aren't enough football players hanging out in Yellowstone Park and its surrounding areas to turn it around overnight.
Question: Who's the only kicker in the Mountain West Conference who has made every one of his point-after-touchdown attempts this season?
Answer: Dillon Piffer, UNLV's bleach-blonde specialist who is 27-for-27.
After years of mediocrity, Barry Barto's once-proud UNLV soccer team is starting to thump its chest again.
The Rebels on Sunday stunned regular-season conference champion New Mexico 2-0 at Johann Field and will take a respectable 11-7 record into this week's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation postseason tournament in Albuquerque.
Psst! UTEP defense. Watch No. 80. I think they might throw him the ball.
No. 80 is Nevada-Reno wide receiver Nate Burleson, who set a school record with 19 catches (for 179 yards and a TD) in the Wolf Pack's 23-17 victory Saturday.
Thanks to the not-so-mindful Miners secondary, Burleson is likely to finish the season with more receptions than Elizabeth Taylor. With two games to go, he has 117 for 1,351 yards.
Ever wonder what one of those big-time race car drivers gets for an autograph session? Well, in the case of Las Vegas NASCAR whiz kid Kurt Busch, who was spotted at last week's Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association show at the Convention Center with a handful of Sharpies (one of his sponsors), it was $10,000 for two hours of penmanship.
And I'm told that's about a fifth of what a hotshot like Jeff Gordon gets for a similar appearance.
Here's the difference between major college and not-so-major college football.
At major colleges such as Florida State, Nebraska and Notre Dame, the athletic director has the phone number of Goal Posts Are Us in his Rolodex, because they get torn down so regularly after a big win.
Contrast that to UConn, a small (at least in football) Division I-A independent, where police hosed fans with pepper spray following a 63-21 victory over Kent State Saturday.
But that's nothing. The last frat boy at UConn who complained about the food in the cafeteria was nuked behind the student union building at lunchtime.
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