Tuesday, March 14, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.
LITTLE ROOM AT THE TOP
For the first time in several years, there were empty seats for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. There were entire rows of vacant seats atop the grandstands in turns three and four and an overhead camera shot revealed additional bare aluminum on that side of the track. That doesn't mean those seats weren't sold, as LVMS announced a "virtual" sellout on Friday. But it also may mean that LVMS can probably stop erecting new grandstands for a while. Sunday's crowd was estimated at 154,000. Or in math terms, a lot to the third power.
BUSH LEAGUE
Las Vegas NASCAR Nextel Cup racer Kurt Busch supposedly has changed his image since last year's celebrated run-in with a sheriff's deputy in Phoenix led to his suspension from his race team. But he was sounding a lot like his former self over the weekend. First, during a chance meeting with a Sun staffer, Busch made a curt - or was it Kurt? - remark about "being hosed" by the local media. Then during the opening laps of Sunday's UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, he was literally screaming on his in-car radio about a slower driver getting in his way. Oh well, you can't be on your best behavior all the time. Especially when the TV cameras aren't rolling.
FORCE (IN THE) FIELD
Air Force was thought to be so far out of NCAA tournament contention that first-year coach Jeff Bzdelik didn't even set up a meeting with his players to watch the NCAA selection show. But the Falcons of the Mountain West somehow managed to sneak in as an at-large team, a development that Dick Vitale and the other so-called experts compared to the sinking of the Lusitania. Air Force doesn't need to apologize. It beefed up its non-conference schedule by playing Washington of the Pac-10 and Atlantic Coast Conference members Miami and Georgia Tech, both of which it beat. What else can teams from mid-major conferences do? Unlike the power conferences, once their league schedules begin there are few opportunities for the mid-majors to pad their Ratings Percentage Index against top-flight (no pun intended) opponents. Besides, when was the last time you saw a 6-foot-11 pilot strolling through the airport? Any team that goes 24-6 with a bunch of 6-foot-4 ! guys who spent their freshman seasons shining the shoes of upperclassmen deserves to be in.
WOOLY BULLY SMACKS SMETS
Five-time world champion bullfighter Rob Smets announced a few weeks ago that he would retire following the Professional Bull Riders World Finals in Las Vegas in November. A bull at the Reno-Tahoe Invitational had other ideas. Smets was sent flying and landed on his head, fracturing the C7 vertebra in his neck, causing nerve compression, shoulder pain and numbness and weakness in his right hand. Smets underwent surgery and is expected to recover. It was the third broken neck of Smets' 27-year career as a bullfighter. No word yet on when Smets plans to return. But given he drove himself to the hospital, I don't think it will be too long before he's back.
100 percent
The graduation rate of the Bucknell basketball team, the only school in this year's NCAA tournament with a perfect mark.
500-1
Bucknell's odds of winning the NCAA basketball tournament.
CLEANING HOUSE
I heard from a couple of readers who said Cox cable terminated coverage of the Tennis Channel Open final to air shows on abandoned animals and costume jewelry, a la the infamous "Heidi" football game of the 1960s. While technically true, Cox's tennis programming on Channel 96 was intended only as "bonus" coverage augmenting The Tennis Channel's (Cox cable channel 333) uninterrupted coverage of the event. ... Remember those Cubs-Padres tickets that went on sale at Cashman Field about 10 days ago? Dozens are listed on eBay, with a high opening bid of $395 for two seats behind the Chicago dugout that cost $40 each.
4
The NCAA doubles ranking of the Thompson Twins, former Bishop Gorman standouts Catrina and Christian, for the second-ranked Notre Dame women's tennis team.
Clark County School District President Ruth Johnson:
"It's amazing how emotional people get over sports. I wish they got that way over student achievement." On the Southern Nevada 4A public high schools' attempt to create a level playing field with private school rival Bishop Gorman.
REG-GIE! REG-GIE!
OK, so he got his degree from one of those schools that would have you draw the parrot on the matchbook cover. But that didn't stop New Mexico State from giving former UNLV great Reggie Theus the chance to do what his (almost) alma mater wouldn't: Coach basketball. A year after inheriting a 6-24 program, Theus is the toast of Las Cruces (which is slightly better than being toast in Las Cruces) upon guiding the Aggies to a 16-14 record in his first season as a head coach. (That is, unless you count his three seasons portraying coach Bill Fuller in the kids' TV series "Hang Time.") NMSU responded by agreeing to redo Theus' contract - provided he returns. Missouri is said to be among the schools with a head coaching vacancy looking at Theus.
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