The Elevator

By Ron Kantowski

Saturday, Feb. 23, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Who’s going to the penthouse in local sports — and who’s getting the shaft.

GOING UP

Mountain West hoops: BYU hasn’t lost since it left Las Vegas. Neither has New Mexico, which even has won two in a row on the road, where it never wins. Utah also seems to have finally adjusted to its retro-looking uniforms and the fact that it has a 12-foot-2 post player (Luke Nevill) capable of challenging Godzilla and the Smog Monster in the low post. Good thing for the Rebels they don’t play the conference tournament in Denver anymore.

USS Lake Erie: At 8:26 p.m. Wednesday, the USS Lake Erie trained an SM-3 missile on a defective spy satellite and blew it to smithereens. At a few minutes past 8 Thursday morning, 200 free tickets to the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway were gone, too, proving that while the marketing staff at the speedway may not be rocket scientists, they at least know how to benefit from Uncle Sam’s. The speedway had announced that if the missile shot were successful, the first 100 fans who called to say “Go Navy, go Sam’s Town” when the ticket office opened Thursday would receive two tickets to the race.

Hairy ordeals: Nine Las Vegas Wranglers — Jason Dest, Aaron Power, Daniel Manzato, Sean Owens, Adam Cracknell, Jason Jozsa, Brad Cole, Bruce Mulherin and Ryan Donally — will shave their heads at McMullan’s Irish Pub after the team’s game against the Phoenix Roadrunners on March 8 to raise money for children’s cancer research. Fans who would like to sponsor one of the players are advised to visit www.stbaldricks.org — and keep a hand over their Guinness when the clippers begin to hum.

GOING DOWN

No. 15 with a bullet (serve): Fernando Gonzalez of Chile (No. 15), defending champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia (No. 19) and Marcos Baghdatis (No. 21) of Cyprus are the only three players ranked in the Top 30 who will attempt to knock the fuzz off the ball in the Tennis Channel Open on March 3-8 at the Darling Memorial Tennis Center. This just in: Andy Roddick’s still not playing. And this year, neither is James Blake, the 2006 Las Vegas winner.

Who fine da Chiefs?: The ECHL has fined the Johnstown Chiefs an undisclosed amount as a result of an incident against Dayton on Feb. 16 following ECHL Game No. 620 — which must have looked a lot like ECHL Game No. 619 or No. 618, or why else would the league feel compelled to number them? The Johnstown Chiefs are the reincarnation of the Johnstown Jets, the basis for the brawling Charlestown Chiefs in the hockey cult classic “Slapshot.” So I wonder if said incident had anything to do with Ned Braden and the Hanson Brothers.

NASCAR penalties: On the opening weekend of the stock car racing season, eight Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series drivers were docked championship points and seven crew chiefs were suspended as NASCAR penalized 10 teams in its top three divisions. Even the UNLV football team was impressed.