Fixed-game drama uses Rebels clip

By Ron Kantowski

Thursday, May 1, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Here’s a new basketball play UNLV might consider: Filing a lawsuit against NBC and the NCAA for implying in a fictional TV show that the university’s team was involved in a game rigged by a referee.

Last week’s episode of “Law & Order” made just such a connection. The show, whose story line centered on the referee, included a five-second clip of the Rebels’ 1990 NCAA Final Four game against Georgia Tech.

A Henderson businessman whose company sells sports clips for use in TV shows and commercials suggests the schools should file a lawsuit over the incident.

“If I was Georgia Tech or UNLV I’d sue ‘Law & Order,’ NBC and the NCAA,” said Tom Ficara of Margate Entertainment LLC, which charges $2,000 for a minute of “no-name” sports footage.

“In ‘The Sopranos,’ where Tony’s sister kills her husband and he’s watching boxing on TV, that’s no-name boxing. It’s real generic. Nobody knows who the (fighters) are.”

Even though UNLV and Georgia Tech are not mentioned by name in the ‘Law & Order’ clip — the schools are referred to as “E-State” and Saint Anselm (a small Catholic school in Manchester, N.H.) — almost any Rebel or Yellow Jacket fan could immediately identify the teams.

“That footage should never have been licensed as ‘no-name’ footage,” Ficara said.

Ficara said had the network contacted him, he probably would have offered footage of a defunct Southeast Conference all-star game in which the players wore generic uniforms labeled “East” and “West” or perhaps a small-college game in which the teams cannot be identified.

UNLV officials, who were only made aware of the clip on Wednesday, have not decided what, if any, action they will pursue.

“We’re looking into it,” said Dave Tonelli, the university’s public information officer.

The clip shows Georgia Tech missing a shot and UNLV’s Moses Scurry pulling down the rebound as Stacey Augmon turns and begins to run up the court. Scurry, David Butler and Anderson Hunt, who all played on the Rebels’ 1990 National Championship team, later were photographed drinking beer in a hot tub with Richie “The Fixer” Perry in the infamous photo that led to the ouster of UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian.

Nobody on that or any other UNLV team has ever been charged or implicated in shaving points or fixing games.

“Somebody probably thought they were being cute,” Ficara said. “What a terrible thing to do.”

What’s not clear is how the clip wound up on “Law & Order.”

Amber James, a publicist for the show, wrote in an e-mail that she would have to ask the show’s producers. Erik Christianson, the NCAA’s director of public and media relations, said he would look into the matter. Both were contacted Monday.

So what started as a police drama appears to have become a mystery.

Quick, somebody call CSI.