Ron Kantowski has had some comments come back to bite him, but none like these guys’

By Ron Kantowski

Friday, April 18, 2008 | 2 a.m.

They say people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. But I gotta tell ya, I kinda dig the sound it makes.

One time, I let it slip at a frat party that not only did I own a Barry Manilow album (the double-live one, where he’s wearing sequins on front) but that “Weekend in New England” had artistic merit. Bad move. I felt like Flounder pledging Delta House.

There even may have been one or two things I have said in this space that, upon further review, I have come to regret. Like when I said having the NBA All-Star Game here was a good thing.

At least I admit it.

But what about Mike Hamrick’s saying he expects his coaches to compete for conference championships and NCAA bids? Or else.

That’s what the UNLV athletic director, who, based on the volume of phone calls I’ve been getting, is now slightly less popular than an ingrown toenail, said about women’s basketball coach Regina Miller before he ran her off. That, in fact, he expected all of his coaches to compete for conference championships and NCAA bids. The last two years she didn’t, so that must have sounded like a good reason to get rid of a coach who inherited a mess and posted eight straight winning campaigns — with little or no help from him, I might add.

So far this year, the Mountain West has crowned 17 regular-season or tournament champions. UNLV has won four, second to BYU’s eight. That’s pretty good. But the Rebels, to use Hamrick’s word, haven’t “competed” for all of the other nine, so it can be assumed that he is sharpening his ax as you read this.

I’m sure he regrets making that statement. Just as I’m sure Mayor Oscar Goodman regrets saying, “We will have an arena by the end of my term.”

If his term runs through 2525 — and he’s so popular, it just might — he could turn out to be a prophet. The problem with that sound bite is that Goodman said it in November 2001, about the first of these downtown arena plans that keep landing on his desk like paper airplanes but never get off the ground.

“Goodman says arena deal could come next week,” said the headline of a Sun story dated Nov. 9, 2001.

One of these days, a boy is going to cry wolf, and that wolf is going to put a shovel in the ground, and three or four years after that, the Las Vegas Oscars are going to be turning the ball over against the Lakers or giving up short-handed goals against the Red Wings.

Forty-six deadline extensions later, we’re still waiting.

But every now and then, somebody in my business says the right thing.

“The exposure this agreement affords our conference is tremendous, and we are very excited to forge this partnership with a worldwide sports leader like ESPN. From immediate name recognition to all aspects of recruiting, this relationship with ESPN will be vital in the development of the Mountain West Conference.”

Guess who said that? Craig Thompson. The Mountain West Conference commissioner.

He said that in 1999. And he was absolutely right. But a few years later, his bosses, the Mountain West presidents, said ESPN wasn’t paying enough. And they didn’t like midweek football games. And inconvenient tip-off times in basketball. Then Thompson said ESPN was the worst deal since Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio.

The Mountain West signed a new TV deal, for more money, with a bunch of obscure networks that aren’t worldwide sports leaders.

“The true die-hard Mountain West Conference fans are going to see us more often over more vehicles than ever before,” Thompson said.

For satellite viewers, those vehicles were cars. Driving to the games was about the only way you could see them if you owned a dish. That will change next year when, three years after the launching of The Mtn., it finally will be available on DirecTV. If there’s nothing on ESPN, somebody back east might even tune in to watch the cameras bounce on top of the press box.

True, the Mountain West isn’t playing basketball games at 10 o’clock on Monday night anymore. Now it’s playing at 3 o’clock on Saturday afternoon — during NASCAR weekend. And it’s got six weekday football games on the schedule next year.

I was privy to a conversation between a fan and a UNLV athletic administrator after this year’s Colorado State game. The fan said he loved the 3 p.m. starts, because it gave him an excuse to start drinking earlier. The administrator said he hated the 3 p.m. starts, because the crowd was way down.

And if you can’t guess who the UNLV athletic administrator was, he’ll probably try to fire you for not being competitive.